NECC 2007- Interactive Whiteboards
Interactive Whiteboards were everywhere at NECC: in the exhibit hall, the presenter rooms, the cafes, the model classrooms, etc. While the brand being used was one of a few that are out there, it is safe to say that Interactive WhiteBoard Technology has arrived as an important part of the classroom. WHOHOO! I can only image how reasonably well I might have done in science and math if these hugely visual, and sometimes, kinesthetic, tools were available when I was in school.
Well, our kids have the advantage now…and it’s up to us to use this technology (no matter what brand) to turn up learner engagement a few notches.
Last year my two schools installed mounted projectors, and document cameras, all run through a computer that worked as a teaching station in every classroom. Immediately tech integration exploded.
I was wonderfuly, and busily, engaged with numerous teachers planning and co teaching lessons using interactive web sites, interactive powerpoints, making movies, Google Earth, and more.
As last year was the year of the projector and doc camera, this coming year will be, I predict, the year of the Airliner. We are adopting interactive whiteboard technology in the form of Airliner Wireless Slates. We like the size, mobility, cost, and the way they interface with the Senteo, handheld response devices. That’s not to say that any of the others out there are inferior, the Smart Technologies System is just a fit for our needs.
Over the summer, Lorrie Salome, Valley View’s Teacher of the Year, and I trained about 50 teachers, grades K-12, in hands-on sessions with Airliners. The numerous “OOOHHH_AAAHHH” moments made this so much fun! The java features (dice, etc), and video capture got rave reviews. They also loved the galleries of templates and the collections of interactive lessons(which all of the interactive whiteboard systems pretty much have). The infinite clone feature was, I think, one of the hits of the day. Teachers are already thinking about creating, saving, and sharing lessons among schools across the district. Each of these teachers will have an Airliner in their hands when school starts in August, if they don’t already have one.
This will have a huge impact on student and teacher engagement, in several ways. The teachers are able to move around the room while they teach. The Airliners can be used by a student. They can open any thing that they have on their computers, plus the interactive whiteboard lessons and capabilities that were so prevalent at NECC. The flash lessons provide interactive activities that teachers can customize for their specific lessons and save. There is a feature in which students can interact with the software on their computers, enabling them to create, organize and share information.
We were excited to discover the video and audio capabilities of this technology. Anything that is being written or displayed on the Airliner can be saved as an .avi file, including the sound. Lorrie has posted a sample Airliner video on her website. This was fun for the workshop participants, because we all kind of discovered it together one afternoon while gathering resources.
The handheld student response devices interface with the rest of the technology, enabling teachers to easily bring in documents and slide shows for student response. The responses can be in a variety of multiple choice or open ended responses. It seems that the price is finally coming down a bit on these systems, which is welcome news for teachers.
Interactive whiteboard technology is a fun and important part of daily instruction, and I am looking forward to blogging about the changes in learning and classroom experiences that will be happening with wikis, blogs, airliners, podcasts, etc in the coming year.
There were several sessions, Model Lessons, and Poster sessions in Interactive Whiteboard technology. I was able to attend one model lesson and got a flier from a poster session. I have done a search on the NECC site for any other handouts or links for the other sessions, but have not yet been able to pull up anything. If anybody out there finds NECC resources on Interactive Whiteboards, please post them.
Here are a few things I found:
Open source whiteboard: skrbl http://www.skrbl.com/
Sandy Miller, from Branson, Mo. had a poster session on SmartBoards with a brochure of links. I emailed her at: millers@branson.k12.mo.us for an electronic copy of this. It looked very useful.
Jimmy Bostock, from the Georgia Department of Education, presented a model lesson with Activstudio and Promethian boards. Here is a link to his resources on his site:
http://www.ettcnsc.org/Instructional_resources/other/interactive_whiteboard_links.htm
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