My Exploration of Interactive Whiteboards Systems

In order to learn about interactive whiteboard systems, I read the first chapter of the iBook, Engaging Learners with Interactive Whiteboards. First, I learned that interactive whiteboards are also known by the abbreviation IWB, which makes them seem much less intimidating. I have seen interactive whiteboards in classrooms over the years, but I had no clue how teachers could use them or what purpose they served in classrooms. Now that I know more about them, I think they are a great classroom tool.
The overall purpose of interactive whiteboards is to get students to interact with the material and content you are teaching. Teachers can create components to use on IWBs or get them from websites, like Promethean Planet. As a future teacher, it really struck me that I need to remember the importance of providing good instruction along with the use of interactive whiteboards in order to make their use in the classroom valuable to the students' learning.
Before reading this book, I did not know there are so many different ways that you can make interactive components used on interactive whiteboards interesting, like by adding pictures or video, touch-activated feedback, or even highlighting certain things on the screen. These all seem like really great ways to get students interested in what they are learning.
This reading also brought it to my attention that some research about interactive whiteboards has been done. In the education field, it is always nice to know what research indicates about specific instructional strategies before they are implemented in the classroom. Apparently across the span of research on this topic, there are some conflicting results. Some studies found that interactive whiteboards did not raise students achievement. However, other studies found that they did, specifically when they were used correctly. I will definitely keep this in mind when I use interactive whiteboards in the future.

Midpoint Check-In

So far in this course, I feel like I have learned so much about technology. I really considered myself to be knowledgeable. However, there are so many things I did not know. I enjoyed learning about wikis. Aside from Wikipedia, I had no knowledge of how to create wikis or use them. Now, I feel very familiar with them. My favorite activity was creating an inquiry-based assignment. It enabled me to become familiar with a website called Storyline Online. I think it is a wonderful resource, and I will definitely be using it in my future classroom. Creating the activity to go along with it really helped me understand how to use online content for educating very young children.
In the next portion of this class, I look forward to learning more about interactive whiteboards. In the classroom where I intern, which is a preschool, there are interactive whiteboards. I found this to be shocking. However, the children really seem to enjoy working with them, and I think they can be valuable resources in the classroom. Overall, this class has really pushed me to further my technological knowledge.