The Battle for the Interactive White Board: The Kids Surrender

Thanks to Adriano Zanni on Flickr.

Interactive White Boards are here, whether we like them or not. Golly, if your classroom doesn't have one by now, I'd be real surprised.  And while tech educators often rail against them (because teachers hog them), I've decided to throw up the white flag of surrender- for the kids.  It would seem teachers aren't going to give these things up and let the kids use them. Ever.

So we can either keep on fighting, or we can go with this, and just call this a "teacher" tool. If you're lucky enough to have a laptop cart for the students to use while you're on the IWB- then what is the difference?

Think of it: how often did teachers let students actually write on the chalk board? The overhead projector? The fact is, there's only one Interactive White Board per classroom, and there may be 25 or more students. There is never going to be enough time in one class period to let everyone have-at-it on the white board. Nobody ever heard of a 1-1 white board environment. That would be awfully expensive. Maybe we're going about this all wrong.

If you're still hogging it- and let's pretend for a second that you do- can we just accept that, and make it a useful classroom tool anyway?  I think we can. I've been on a mission to make better use out of them, and I've discovered: they're not as bad as I thought they were.

What is the one of the biggest hindrances to learning when a teacher uses an IWB? Well, yes, they may hog it, but the bigger problem is that they're standing in front of it! Well, the solution to that is- screencasting.

Record your lesson using Jing, upload to a proprietary YouTube channel, like this Mathademics Channel,  and your IWB has now become the absolute BEST screencasting tool out there.

When a teacher makes a screencast using an IWB, they know that their students will be able to see everything, so this gives them the opportunity to be:

1. More descriptive (you're recording this for an "at-home" audience, not in in-class one)
2. More colorful in their approach to the IWB tools (it's like you're John Madden on Monday Nights!)
3. More economical in their language. Make the limit 5 minutes, and you have to get to the point.

Take a look at this example:



The 6th grade teacher seems very comfortable to me. I think this is for a couple of reasons. First, she's not teaching to a traditional class, where she would be projecting her voice a lot more.  Second, she's not worried about blocking the workspace. Third, she's also using a headset mic, so the learning is very intimate- it's as though the students can hear her thoughts. They're hearing the think-aloud- how powerful a tool when you can stop, pause, and rewind what the teacher is thinking!

The teacher in this example knows this is a screencast, and this gives her the freedom to point things out, highlight a little bit more, maybe draw an arrow or a circle to point something out. She has to do this because the mode of delivery is different than if students were in a classroom. It reads differently at home or on a laptop. I think it frees her up.

It's also visually interesting. It's a really great math lesson.

Here's another example:


This 3rd grade teacher makes use of all of the IWB board tools, making a visually interesting lesson. Now, he involves the students, but they don't actually write on the board. Are we okay with that?

He's engaged them in different ways. Well, first just listen to them- do they sound engaged? If he uploads quickly, the students can access the video almost immediately at the Mathademics Channel, and he can go around the classroom while they are working. He can be in 25 places at one time.  Also since he's made it a screencast, they can access the recording at home later when they're doing homework. They can pause the video, rewind, and play it over and over again. This is engagement of a totally different kind, but it does something extremely important. It makes the IWB useful, just not in the way that we've been reaching these past few years.

The chalkboard has always been the teacher's "palette" so to speak. I'm okay with the IWB being the teacher's interactive palette, as long as they:

1. Make their lessons visually interesting.
2. Make them accessible online for students to see and learn outside of the classroom.

I believe that every lesson can be an artifact for student learning, if the teacher approaches their process as such. They can look at lessons as "episodes" or Acts of a large play. Shouldn't students should be able to access those episodes whenever they want to?

Heck, if I can subscribe to all four seasons of Alfred Hitchcock Presents on Hulu, then I think my teacher owes it to me, the student, to make their learning accessible online.

Do it with an Interactive White Board!

This post is cross-posted at the Tech Learning Advisors Blog. 

Ten Interactive White Board Web 2.0 Tools

Image from Wikimedia Commons

I own a Promethean Board, but I've never been too attached to the software. I'm also surprised at how little the Promethean software has actually changed in the past 4 years since I started using mine. The ActivInspire software that I currently tried out with my Mac left me wanting. Since the Web seems to inspire so many intuitive and interesting tools, I often go to the Web and just use the layover tool to save what I'm doing on my board. When I'm doing something on the IWB, I want to be able to have students participate from their seat as well as the board. I'm also dismayed that there are so few ways for students to create products with an IWB.  The Web has come to our rescue for creating content with IWB. Here's 10 Web 2.0 tools that work handily with IWBs.

1. Sketchcast.com
With the layover tool, you can record mathcasts, drawings, and other creations. You can hook up your microphone and record your voice, which can be really good for having kids practice for extended response math problems. I can also see vocalizing tool be used well for kids to think-aloud during an art exercise. Here's my non-voiced example:




2. Dabbleboard.com 
I've talked about Dabbleboard before. The reason I tend to get frustrated with the concept of IWBs is because teachers tend to hog them. With a tool like Dabbleboard, you can send out the URL to a class so that they can interact from their seat, or get up and write on the board. Plus, with a saved link, you always have an easy artifact not attached to Activ or SMART software. Also embeds.

3. Jeopardy Labs
Everyone wants to make Jeopardy games or Wheel of Fortune in their IWB software. Well, here's an easy cloud tool that works great when used with a smart board. Of course, use it as a pre-test, a formative assessment, or for just plain fun. But again, with a save-able URL, I feel better organized having my tools on the Web. Kids can easily make their own version, share it with the class to play Alex Trebec.

4. Scriblink.com
Scriblink is another tool similar to Dabbleboard, which can allow you to collaborate on the white board in real time, create graphic organizers, and save the URL. Check out a special message I made here.

5. Flockdraw.com
Here's a simple site, mainly for drawing and artistry, but, like Dabbleboard, you can embed the picture into your site. I like embeds because I believe they can enhance the online learning environment by putting all of your tools in one place.

6.  This is Sand at http://thisissand.com/
Wow- what a unique tool for creation and exploration. I have to thank Kevin Jarrett for sharing this tool with me. It's reminiscent of those bottles were you fill with different colors of sand and layer them and then design them by sticking pencils in them. You get the idea. Fun tool.

7. Imagination Cubed at http://www.imaginationcubed.com/
While this tool doesn't give you URL or embeds, it's super easy to use, which can engage younger students very quickly. I always tell people to go the Web first and show off some of these web white board tools to teachers to hook them. Much of the software in Promethean and SMART can be overwhelming to teachers who fear technology. Engage them first with this tool.

8. Little Animation for Kids http://www.littleanimation4kids.com/
I think the most important thing you can do for the little ones is to get them engaged in technology as soon as possible. With the IWB, Little Animation for Kids, has nice interactives and games suited nicely for the IWB. 

9. Spell a Picture
This simple site is a nice IWB online activity where students can choose letters to spell different words based on objects that they see. I really wish I could embed it, perhaps into an interactive lesson plan, but the little kids K-2, will like it.

10. Skribl
Skribl is another online sharable whiteboard. I'm happy- because they recently added an embed widget for sharing and collaborating. The user interface is kind of home-grown, but it's functional. With a login, you can save your boards for later use. It's not the prettiest UI, but saving is key. 

This is just an overview of many tools out there, and the list continues to grow. Soon, I hope there will be some more comprehensive IWB Web Apps, that run on Flash or now HTML5. My kids found that even taking the Brain Pop quizzes on the IWB made reviewing for tests more fun. Engaging with technology does have its benefits, but can we start creating with this tool, instead of just "interacting" with it?