Interactive Whiteboards in the Classroom: A Primary Teacher’s

Perspective

Dughall McCormick

Primary ICT Consultant,

Kirklees Local Education Authority, UK

Interactive Whiteboards in the UK

• 2004 - IWBs accounted for a fifth of the total UK budget for ICT in Primary and Secondary schools.

• 2005 - Pledge by Secretary of State for Education: ‘One whiteboard per school’

• 2007- 200,000 IWBs in UK schools (7.5/school)

• 1 in 9 Classrooms to have a board by 2010

Foundation Stage (Age 3-5 years)

Key Features

• Continuous provision.• Girls and boys. • Inherent ICT skills.• Novelty• Collaboration,

negotiation, turn-taking.

• Access issues.

Key Stage One (Age 6-8years)

• Greater emphasis on teacher-led interactive activities.

• Use of visualiser.

• Increased use of classroom response system.

• Wireless slate introduced.

Key Stage Two (Age 8-11 years)

• Children have increased ownership of the technology.

• Children prepare and deliver presentations and learning materials on a peer-tutor model.

Key Features of IWB Technology

• A high degree of interaction and collaboration.

• Children have a highly participatory role in their learning.

• Children acquire generic ICT skills through interacting with the technology

• It enables quick, easy display and annotation of text, pictures, artefacts, children’s work etc.

Problems with the Technology

• Practitioners relinquishing control.

• Training and support for practitioners.

• Technical issues.

• Availability of software.

• Limited collaboration.

• ‘Touch sensitive’ surfaces.

• Failure to exploit the potential.

The Future

• Bottom-up product development.

• Building Schools for the Future.

• Multiple input solutions. Greater collaboration, remote and distance learning.Use of PDAs, EDAs, UMPCs etc.