i-whiteboards - the benefits are clear?
Following outstanding claims for the effectiveness of interactive whiteboards in a recent Becta research report and highlighted by my colleagues on their Blog, I read the full report. Its very thorough, and offers some interesting conclusions if you read between the lines.
It takes between 18 months and 2 years for a teacher to become a competent i-whiteboard user!
"...when teachers have had sustained experience (around two years) of using an interactive whiteboard, they are able to change their teaching practices to make best use of facilities."
"... Eighteen months after installation of their interactive whiteboard, the majority of teachers in the case study schools had become highly competent users of the interactive whiteboard as a basic resource, and many were beginning to experiment with using it for a wider range of purposes."
" ...By the Autumn of 2006, the pool of expertise in interactive whiteboard use resided in the schools where teachers had been using them on a daily basis for more than two years."
The consistency of this figure throughout the report is notable. Does this offer a reliable benchmark for managing change when introducing a new technology?
Emphasis on whole class teaching
"... This appears to be because it is a resource which is immediately useful to teachers in conducting whole-class teaching, which is a requirement of the primary strategies."
"The interactive whiteboard is an ideal resource to support whole-class teaching. It acts as a focus for pupils’ attention and increases their engagement in whole-class teaching. Teachers tend to spend more time on whole-class teaching when they have an interactive whiteboard (Higgins et al., 2005), but if whole-class teaching is more interactive as a result of the interactive whiteboard, any negative effects from reduced group work may be negligible."
" ... serious consideration also needs to be given to developing strategies other than whole-class-teaching for using interactive whiteboards to support pupils of lower ability."
" ... These effects are greatest when they have the opportunity, individually or in small groups, for extended use of the interactive whiteboard rather than as part of whole-class teaching."
Teaching Assistants
" ... There has been no training for teaching assistants (TAs) ... and this has been noted at both school and local authority level as an unfortunate gap in provision"
" ...Where teachers had been teaching with an interactive whiteboard for two years and there was evidence that all children, including those with SEN, had made exceptional progress in attainment in national tests, ... This was often done by teaching assistants who had been trained to teach numeracy and literacy."