Interactive whiteboard

I have to admit I have yet to have the privilege of having an Interactive Whiteboard in any of my classrooms. However, I discovered just last week that my school has one in their library that can be used by anyone. We have a unit on Australian Animals coming up and I think it would be a great tool to use in the classroom. I think the tools such as google earth would be a great way to engage the students. For example while reading the book Possum Magic you would able to bring up the actual places on the whiteboard. I think it would also be useful phonemes as well. You ask the students to drag images, add letters sounds or fill in the gap. It would be a far more engaging tool than the Isle with butchers paper that I have been using. I have also found some great activities and resources on the Internet but have been unable to bring them into the class. Interactive whiteboards are a very effective instructional strategy for students who benefit from repetition or who need to see the material presented again (U.S Education, 2008). According to the Constructivism theory learning should personalised as no two learners learn the same, have the same experiences or the same mental processing in their brains (Jonasson, 1991). Interactive whiteboards allow teachers to incorporate a range of different learning tasks and activities within their classrooms. With the right training and used within the right context learners will ultimately benefit from this educational tool as it more suits the learning style of most students in the current day and age.

References:

U.S. Department of Education PT3 grant (U.S. Education). (2008). Interactive Whiteboards in the classroom. Retrieved August 17th, 2009 http://www.fsdb.k12.fl.us/rmc/tutorials/whiteboards.html

Jonasson. 1991. Constructivism. Retrieved August 17, 2009, from CQUniversity e-courses, FAHE11001 Managing E-leanring.