Tuesday, May 8, 2012

It's an electronic whiteboard not an interactive whiteboard




I often hear teachers saying that interactive whiteboards make lessons more interactive. But research actually suggests that IWBs make the lessons less interactive with students sat in their chairs and teachers stood at the board. Even when students do use the board only one can use it at a time.
The interactive in interactive whiteboard refers to the fact you can interact with the computer from the whiteboard not that there will somehow magically be a lot of class interaction.
Of course you can make it interactive if you want to but I prefer to think of mine as a display tool, something to help me to save time in the classroom and with preparation, and meaning that I can be monitoring my students and helping them rather than writing something on the board.

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