POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS OF INTERACTIVE As teachers or trainees you will be interested in ideas for using interactive whiteboards in class. This page suggests some applications for this technology and points you in the direction of websites that will suggest more ideas. Becta’s publication entitled What the research says about interactive whiteboards lists several potential applications:
Most whiteboards are linked to a computer with an internet connection. This means that the teacher has access to a wealth of multimedia material that can be shown on the large screen rather than on a small screen which is totally inadequate for whole-class teaching. Much of that material is of the interactive variety involving Java or Flash movies. Teachers can now take advantage of all this. See the Resources section of this website to see what is out there in cyberspace.
Video clips to help explain a variety of concept in numerous subjects and topics can be shown on the large screen. No more trooping off to the hall to watch the TV. Often there is a video player or DVD player (or both) attached to the interactive whiteboard. This is a great boon to teachers. However, these days computers will play CD-ROMs and DVDs with video stored on them and be played at the touch of a button or click of a mouse. The internet also gives you access to video clips which will run very well over a broadband connection.
Demonstrating software to children can be quite a chore, especially where it has to be explained several times to a number of small groups. By demonstrating to the whole class the process is made far less painful and time-consuming. If you need to recap later then that too is made easier. This applies whether you are using a whiteboard in the computer suite or in your own classroom with perhaps one or two computers available.
Children love to share their work with the rest of the class. In the past this has perhaps been done with the aid of ICT in the form of an overhead projector. Whiteboards make this so much easier if the work has been produced in a digital format. Any computer work could be retrieved and displayed quite easily from a floppy disk, CDR, USB flash drive or, ideally, the school network. Plenary sessions could really be brought to life!
The software that comes with the whiteboard will have the ability to create digital flipcharts. These can be composed of one page or several rather like a slideshow. These can be added to, edited, annotated and saved. The floating toolbar of ACTIVstudio, for example, allows teachers to create high quality flipcharts for any subject they wish. The resources part of the program allows other content to be brought on to the flipchart page (e.g. clipart, photographs, backgrounds etc.) and content can also be imported from other programs or the Web.
The interactive whiteboard is excellent for manipulating text when whole-class teaching. This is particularly useful in literacy lessons. A piece of text can be put on screen and can be edited and redrafted by the class. Perhaps the punctuation needs attention or the grammar needs improvement. Perhaps some interesting adjectives need adding to bring the text to life. Whatever aspect of writing is being focussed on the whiteboard can be an excellent teaching tool. Young children who need to practise letter formation and develop their handwriting skills can do so on a large scale by using the whiteboard. This is one instance where a computer really can help with handwriting development.
Notes written onto the whiteboard can be saved for future use. These notes can be added to flipcharts and resaved. If important points come up during the delivery of a lesson these can be jotted down so that next time the flipchart is used they will be included automatically.
If revision is necessary this is quickly and easily retrieved from the school network or hard disk. At the click of a mouse button work can be reloaded from earlier lessons, perhaps from previous terms or years. Alternatively, revision can be accessed on the internet, for example, at the BBC Revision Guide.
IDEAS FOR USING WHITEBOARDS IN THE CLASSROOM
- Take some text from the internet or a CD-ROM (or enter it into a word processor). Ask pupils to highlight the nouns in one colour and the adjectives in another. Perhaps they could pick out the verbs and adverbs too.
- Use the program called FUNCTION MACHINE(from the DfES CD-ROM Using ICT in mathematics in primary schools) for the mental warm up part of the numeracy hour.
- Show how The Water Cycle works by running the animation at the BBC Schools website.
- Draw a map of Britain using the map tool (or import one from resources or clipart) and ask the class to draw on certain features such as borders, rivers and cities. They could label them too.
- Use Quick map or google earth to show the school and the surrounding area use tools to tracae routes to schools
- Use a PowerPoint slideshow to tell the story of a particular character in history. Include text, clipart, photographs, sound files and animations. Finish the slideshow with an interactive multiple-choice quiz where children choose answers by clicking action buttons.
- Download a piece of art work from the Web Museum Artist Index and discuss it with the class. Use the drawing tools to produce a picture in the same style as the artist. Demonstrate how this could be done using a painting program such as MS PAINT.
- If you have a class of young children try using the Tweenies Song Time web pages. The children can hear the song, see the words and sing along. If you have the space they can sing along and move to action songs such “Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes”.
- Visit the Abbey of St. Edmund at Bury St. Edmunds without leaving the classroom. Go on a virtual tour of the abbey visiting the exterior and interior of this ancient religious building.
- Record the performance of your pupils on the athletics field with a digital video camera. Play the video back on your interactive whiteboard, analyse the performances and make annotations.