Last article that I am going to blog about for my research paper is “Reviewing the Literature on Interactive Whiteboards” by Steve Higgins, Gary Beauchamp, and Dave Miller. I found this article to be extremely helpful because it looks at the tremendous amount literature that already exist on IWBs and summarizes a lot of the key issues. This article gave me a firm foundation in understanding the role, questions, and benefits of using IWBs in the classroom. More importantly, the structure is perfectly designed to aid in my research topic because it looks adoption of the technology first, pedagogical impact second, and empirical evidence lastly.
One advantage that was found when using IWBs is that allows teachers to incorporate written text, video files, sounds, etc. into one presentation file. Therefore the teacher can open a single notebook file and simply use that one fill to access anything that is needed to make the presentation meet the content of that lesson. It also makes it much easier for the teacher to reach the different learners that fill up each classroom. As evident in other sources, these researchers found that successful integration of IWBs into the classroom have to be used with structured lesson plans, instead of simply being used as the new teaching fad. Thus, just like using any teaching tool, a teacher must first create a lesson plan of the content for the lesson AND THEN find the best tools to make that lesson engaging and educational.
"One advantage that was found when using IWBs is that allows teachers to incorporate written text, video files, sounds, etc. into one presentation file. Therefore the teacher can open a single notebook file and simply use that one fill to access anything that is needed to make the presentation meet the content of that lesson." If teachers just used the SB software for this purpose (which is a great utilization of the software) do you think it has an effect on learning and/or is it enough to justify the purchase of the boards for every teacher?
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