I’m back from a year away with no plans to change back the name of my blog. I’ve decided that I like the idea of keeping it as a Time Out space, a chance to step away and review what is happening around me as I head back into the classroom. I’ve had a three and a half year hiatus, a chance to learned so much about technology, learning, teaching and myself. I’ve been traveling extensively, volunteering abroad, learning a new language and just prior to that, working in the teacher education arena for three years. My goal now is to really put what I’ve been learning and “preaching” into practice, particularly the reflective practice part here on this Time Out blog. I’m truly pumped about the chance to gently remodel my own teaching in ways that I’ve watched so many brilliant, fascinating, energetic teachers do over the past few years.
From Kathy Cassidy at http://bit.ly/aaW4qk
To start, I’ve accepted a position in a classroom with a mounted Smartboard. Today I received an email from one of my former adult students about his upcoming research into the pedagogy behind the use of such technology. He wonders if they all about bells and whistles or is there really a benefit to pedagogic practice? From my conversation with him I’ve taken on a challenge to myself: How can I effectively use the Smartboard in a way that is learner-centered, in a manner that isn’t simply about the teacher transmitting information?
Personally I believe that there is a huge value to the use of the interactive white board. Initially the motivation and engagement of the students alone is worthwhile, but clearly the novelty wears off quickly, particularly if students are simply watching the teacher “play” with the “toy.” To be useful over any length of time, the tool needs to be a tool for the students to use. To this point, working always with adult learners, I’ve almost never touched the Smartboard myself. When I would visit classrooms where I offered to demonstrate the IWB’s use for the teacher, I always attempted to do the whole lesson without ever touching the board myself. Usually, other than sorting out initial glitches in the connection I could manage. However, on one-off situations such as that, always a novelty, my hand’s off approach was easy to do. So the question will be, can I really teach with a Smartboard as a tool for the students over the course of the school year?
I’ll keep you posted.
Betty, it is good to hear that you are back and looking forward to the new school year! I haven’t used an IWB myself (not really needed in a distributed learning school), but there definitely seems to be a strong core of teachers who couldn’t live without them! I’ll be curious to see what your experience is. All the best 🙂
Hi Betty,
Nice to have you back from your travels and to see you are back in a classroom again! 🙂
I too have challenged myself with using technology as a tool and not using the same chalk & talk methodologies with it. I just finished a digital storytelling project in June where I kept a very low profile being the guide-on-the-side, letting the students take control of their work. It was the most fun I’ve had teaching in 14 years and the things I learned where amazing.
Like Claire, I also know teachers who cannot live without their Smartboards, but I just wonder how exactly they are teaching with them. Much of the research I read this past year discussed how teachers using technology need to change how they teach when using it. Chalk & talk is not an effective teaching method mixed with technology use apparently. It seems to be a possible reason why educators aren’t seeing the improvement in student learning they expected or hoped to see when technology use was added.
Good luck to you in this up-coming school year and I am looking forward to reading your posts as you progress through the year.
Cindy and Claire, Good to hear from you both. Thanks for the comments. The class I’ll be teaching is a special district class for highly-gifted students, a group that often makes good use of available technology. That will skew what is happening with the technology use somewhat, but all the same I do want to make sure that the tech adds to the learning environment.
Betty, that sounds like an exciting and challenging position! I don’t know if you are familiar with Bryan Jackson (http://twitter.com/bryanjack), but he’s a BC educator who uses a lot of web 2.0 tools with his gifted students. All the best!