I posted this piece back in May, and I’m posting it again here because I presented the idea to the salespeople who were in yesterday to present to us the latest and greatest. They kind of just stared at me. You may do the same, but there may be someone out there that might be able to run with it!
So here’s a way that I think the use of Interactive Whiteboards could transform the dynamic of your classroom. It’s not really about the new technology; instead, it’s about the technology that your new IWB is replacing.
You walk in on Monday morning to discover that the tech department in your district has finally made it to your school to install the new IWB that was ordered sometime last year. They arrive after you have left for the day on Friday, so it’s a surprise to return after the weekend to find that something new has been added to the landscape of your classroom. Lots of questions are probably circulating in your mind, including, “How do I turn this thing on?” and “What happened to the science lesson that I written out before I left on Friday?
But here’s the question that I would be asking. “What did they do with the old technology?” Yup. The old technology. What did the installers do with the old dry erase whiteboard that has graced the front of your classroom for the past five years? My best guess would be that it’s sitting in the maintenance room, or out by the school dumpster. And chances are there are a couple of others hanging out there as well.
So here’s the idea. Instead of throwing out the dry erase boards that the new technology is replacing, why not convert them to student work tables. Turn them over, add some braces, a few legs and, lo and behold, you have a multi-touch, multi-user, interactive white space all ready for student use!
Imagine having a large table space around which 4-6 students could gather to solve math problems, create individual and group thinking maps, take notes, or just doodle.
Imagine installing a hinge on the legs so that it’s possible to flip the tables to create a mini-presentation space. Imagine putting wheels on the tables so that they are easily moved to different combinations.
Flexible. Convertible. Interactive.
And if you act now, you could probably gather enough of these devices to re-create your entire classroom space, and your entire classroom dynamic.
So, bring on the Interactive White Board revolution. And then let me create one of my own!
GREAT idea — but……….
I have never been in a school that had whiteboards in the classroom.
Never.
That’s getting on 15 schools in 3 different boards, most of them large schools (K-8).
We have chalkboards, and converting them to worktables would be a tougher sell.
Of course, I haven’t been in a school with more than 3 interactive whiteboards in the school, either — usually one in the computer lab, and one or two for classroom use, rotated around.
Meanwhile in a span of 12 years – chalkboards – the hideous green kind – all were replaced by white boards by the end of 2007. By 2012, whiteboards are still up along with a smart board in each class in both the elementary and the high school. Bonus, the elementary school had touch screens computers installed in the summer of 2008. The high school is lagging behind, but they do have the top of the line security system, compliments of a couple of bomb threats on the anniversary of the fire that burned down half the high school in the 1980s. School was rebuild, but as was reported the sightings of the ghost, for who the school has been named after, haunting the hallways as it did prior to the fire, after the fire and even now, when the long dead doctor, is upset with the administrators of the school. The original fire, although officially blamed on faulty wiring, it was the long dead good doctor, who did not like the design of the school.
Unbelievable, all the money being spent, there is schools still dealing with chalkboards in the year 2012. Stephen, even the technology, building and maintenance wonks would look at you funny, in suggesting anything that speak about retooling old things, for new uses. “Instead of throwing out the dry erase boards that the new technology is replacing, why not convert them to student work tables. Turn them over, add some braces, a few legs and, lo and behold, you have a multi-touch, multi-user, interactive white space all ready for student use! ” Great idea in my eyes, and more importantly the cognitive science is behind it, in the research. I used the portable white boards at home for my youngest child in tutoring math. I bumped into the research one day, why LD students have difficulties in learning new knowledge and the practicing of the new knowledge using paper. Why LD students write big, over the lines and other characteristics that won’t be found on a public education web site, let alone in an education faculty. I took it to heart, instead of using paper, because at the time I was going through a massive amount of paper, I decided I will used the portable white boards. Depending on what was being done at home, the portable white boards became important into learning new math knowledge, the algorithm steps and to put her workings on the white board. Than write the answer on the paper, with the set of problems. As she became more skillful, the white board was dropped and paper was used in the workings. Mastery of the material was easily observable when her workings on paper was of the proper size, between the lines, and moving from one line to the next in order of the problems that I set out for her. My 17 year old still uses white boards from time to time, in learning difficult math knowledge, of the physics kind. She can explored her calculations on the white board, and determined if it is the correct equations to solve the physics problem. If not, the whole thing can be erase, and she can start afresh. I no longer see the stack of paper workings in her room of math calculations and if anything she came a very long way from the old days in the primary grades, and being admonish for writing big.
A white board desk would be perfect for the children who have learning difficulties. Besides that, the top achievers would be really jealous, and the students with the learning difficulties, can turned around, and say, ‘ I am special ‘ and go back to their drawing, that really is an exercise in learning how to close loops, make perfect circles to improve the handwriting. Win win for all, and the savings that accumulate under paper, now can go to other activities in the classroom that requires paper.