Interactive Whiteboards in Today's Classroom

In my SEDU class we have been recently discussing interactive white boards in the classroom. I think the interactive white boards can be used as a great tool in the classroom, if used properly. It provides an alternative way for the teacher to teach in their classroom and also helps the kids in the classroom get involved with the lesson. I do think that any teacher who uses an interactive white board in their classroom should receive some sort of certification before using the board to teach the students because I know some teachers are not comfortable with technology. When teachers use the interactive white boards, they still need to teach the students and not just put something up on the board while the students copy down the information. That is not what the interactive white boards are supposed to be used for. I don't think interactive white boards will ever go away completely especially because the schools want to use as much technology as possible.

In middle school I first started to notice the interactive white boards in my classrooms. I was very interested in them and they kept my attention, mainly because it was something new. When I entered high school, I began to notice that not a lot of teachers knew how to use the interactive white boards properly, especially the older teachers. Also, a lot of my teacher would just put the notes up for us to copy down and briefly talk about them. From my experience with interactive white boards I think they are most useful in an elementary or middle school classroom because they can really keep the students focus and attention by having different activities and games being used to help teach the lesson. It also allows the students to experience the lesson hands on to help them understand it. During my senior year, we entered a brand new high school with net books and smart boards in every classroom and TVs on every corner. They tried to make the high school a paperless one and we had no choice but to use technology since we were only allowed to print or copy the very important things. People always say that the interactive white boards are most useless in math but in my stats class my senior year, we always used the interactive white boards to review for every test and complete group work and I probably would of failed the class if it wasn't for the interactive white boards. In my English class, we got to create our own flip charts using the active inspire software and we even used the clickers to review for tests which went along with the flip chart software. According to the Washington Post "There is hardly any research that will show clearly that any of these machines will improve academic achievement," I can agree with because I think that over 50% of the teachers that use interactive white boards in their classrooms, just aren't educated enough on how to use the board.

The interactive white boards can be used as a way to differentiate the lesson that the teacher may be teaching to their classroom. They provide ways to learn for multiple learning styles. Auditory learners can listen to videos or even readings, kinesthetic learners can use the board to play games or complete activities, and visual learners can view the board as a full learning experience. I think that having kids in the classroom learn hands on also provides a better way for them to understand things especially at the elementary level. I think teachers should have multiple ways that they teach their lessons to help every student learn as much as they possibly can. For tests, teachers can use different things in the Active Inspire software to review for tests and quizzes including the clickers to play review games. Interactive white boards can be useful and also keep the students attention if used properly.