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May 31
Smartboard education, Good use No Comments
So being on the wonderful Twitter today @Showmyhomework posed the question: How many times have you seen an IWB being used only as a projector and what is the point………?
The man has a huge point.
In my current school we have 8 Smartboard’s in various classes out of 10. People fight to get into a class that has one, when given class choices people say things like ‘I don’t care as long as there is a Smartboard.’ We often go in and out of others classes to peer observe each other. Often we have to look at ICT use and what do the people with Smartboard’s do? Yup you have guessed it – get something up and show a picture of something or a website. In their minds that is ICT covered the box has been ticked and nothing else is used for the rest of the lesson except maybe the computers as a fast finisher task.
Now please don’t get me wrong I realise that people are at different stages of ICT use, I understand that for some turning on and using a Smartboard is a huge achievement BUT if you are in a class and have fought to get one that has this wonderful tool on the wall then why not spend sometime getting to know what it does? If I go in at the start of the year and see you put a picture up as it’s use then that is fine but when I go back I would like to see a little more development. This overwhelming point seems to be missed by some in ‘my’ staff and it is difficult to broach as not being on the SLT/ SMT means that when we go on these visits they are for encouragement and really it is not my place to talk about development. (I am not even co-ordinator as we don’t tend to have these roles within Scotland).
Now perhaps being a Smartboard trainer I know a lot more things however when I got my Smartboard I played with it a lot. I have it on my own laptop at home and can often be found having a play within it. <—– to this statement I do admit I am a bit of a Geek.
The other thing that stops use, other than that of a projector, is that people appear to be scared of letting their children touch it without adult supervision. My children touch it all the time – they don’t touch it when not allowed but in my class the children often have tasks to do and due to the number of things to do they can check their own work. It also depends on position in the classroom – if I sit in the correct place I can still work with a group while keeping an eye on their work.
I have given people training on it – shown them the simple ideas to start but still on the whole the Smartboard is used as an expensive projector.
What does your school do with your IWB’s? How do you make sure they are not used as expensive projectors? How do you get the most out of them? Yes lots of questions but with sharing can come a list and with that list can come help and ideas for others.
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