During my guided placement I have used an interactive whiteboard a lot during my classes and the accompanying software that the school had downloaded- Smart Notebook. I have come to realise that there are important advantages and disadvantages of both which I will explore here.
Advantages One of the main advantages of using interactive whiteboards was that they were very visual. I was able to hook the students in straight away by showing them a picture or a video. The students seemed to be naturally engaged when I was using the interactive whiteboard and because it was touch sensitive they were able to come up and use it too. I found the Smart Notebook software invaluable. There were so many more options and ways of manipulating the text than I had ever found with Powerpoint. For example, you could take photos of your screen and hide pieces of text and have different pieces of text and pictures formatted in completely different ways together on the same page. I have never found this many options in Powerpoint. A real advantage of using the software with an interactive whiteboard, as opposed to just a whiteboard that it had been projected on to, was that I could manipulate the slides whilst standing up and I didn’t have to go back to my computer. In the past when I have had to go back to the computer to change slides or open browsers my lessons have not been as smooth and at times students have lost focus. Using an interactive whiteboard meant this did not happen. Disadvantages A weakness I found in using the interactive whiteboard was that it frequently stopped working. I often had to close the programme and restart it which DID make my lessons disjointed. I also found it difficult writing with the interactive pens on the board and my writing was not as clear as it usually is. Another issue was that I found using the interactive whiteboard often excluded students. For example, if I was playing an interactive game, only one student at a time could actually come up and use the whiteboard. The students that were not directly involved in the white board activities often got distracted and lost interest. Finally, the interactive whiteboard is clearly mainly focused around visual learners and I noticed that the kinaesthetic learners in my class, especially, were not as engaged when I was using it. Conclusion Although it has its strengths and weaknesses, my overall impression of using the interactive whiteboard and Smart Notebook was largely positive.
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Paul LArchives
January 2016
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