What does it mean to really use a SMART Board?

Posted on May 20, 2008
Filed under Interactive Whiteboards, SMART Boards

A few weeks ago I went to a local SMART Board ‘Support Group’ meeting in Warrnambool to learn more about how to use my SMART Board effectively. I went to the session on taking it a bit further and ended up showing teachers how to use SMART Recorder very quickly. Other teachers offered things they were using the SMART Board for and much of the discussion revolved around all the great interactive websites they use. My question is this:

If you are simply using a fun website on your SMART Board, is that really using the board?

The way these teachers were talking was as though that is what they mainly use their boards for – making cool websites even cooler by providing a big interactive surface for them. I am not saying that this is the wrong thing to do. There are many great websites out there that are greatly enhanced by being shown and used on an interactive whiteboard. I just don’t think that can be classed as ‘using’ an interactive whiteboard.

For me, ‘using’ a SMART Board means getting students to create something using Notebook software. It could be getting students to interact with resources that you have created in Notebook software or to use tools like the Recorder and Video player to add another dimension to your classroom activities. It means using things like the screen capture tool to take note of students work or the place mark they have left in Google Earth for example. Or you could be reading and highlighting a website and use the screen capture tool to send it to a Notebook file.

I don’t think you can consider yourself to be an effective interactive whiteboard user if all you are doing is showing and using different websites. For me, there has to be another layer to it. Use the screen capture tool to record what the students have done on the websites. Highlight the website and annotate it. Record the students navigating their way through the website and speaking about what they are doing. Play it back for them using SMART Video player and annotate improvements they could make for next time.

But then, if you are using SMART Notebook on a PC, then there is nothing you can’t do with it that you can do with the interactive surface of the board. Everything is enhanced greatly by the interactive surface though, there is no doubt about that.

What do you think? Have I missed the point? What does ‘effectively using’ an interactive whiteboard mean to you?

Ideas for Using SMART Board from Grade 6

Weekly Whiteboard Workout 4 & 5

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8 Responses to “What does it mean to really use a SMART Board?”

Lisa Thumann on May 20th, 2008 9:42 am

I don’t think that you’ve missed the point, but I also think there are different levels of users.

I teach how to integrate and use IWBs across all subject levels and the fact remains that I still get teachers that think they are intermediate SMARTBoard users that don’t know how to use the Notebook software. Can you believe that? They consider themselves intermediate users.

One of the things that I talk about in my workshops is how to go about getting students to the board. Before we can get into the skills of the software, we need to get the teachers away from the “dog and pony” show they sometimes get in the habit of displaying once they get the board mounted in the front of the room.

If we can work on getting the students to the board, then we can work on introducing new IWBing skills into the classroom.

But, it’s just my opinion.
Lisa
Penny on May 20th, 2008 10:06 am

There’s also a lot of things you can do with a wireless keyboard and mouse being passed around the room that will do a lot of what people do with an interactive whiteboard (or who even needs a computer anymore? Hook your Nokia N90 to the video-in of the projector!).

I don’t think you’re off the mark at all, but I also agree with Lisa – there’s certainly different levels of use! But isn’t that the same as a normal whiteboard? If you do the “fly swat” activity, blackboard races, get students to write on it, etc… isn’t that more interactive than chalk’n'talk?

I really like using Inspiration with the interactive whiteboard, though… in conjunction with the wireless keyboard… lots of my students didn’t like going up to the board (the whole socio-affective barrier happening in yr9) but loved using the keyboard when it came to them, and then a couple of kids would come up and arrange and link the ideas on the board… I guess you could extend it by hyperlinking those ideas to captured screenshots and other things you’ve done too!
Adam on May 20th, 2008 10:10 am

Hi!

I think how the Smartboard is really a reflection of a bigger issue: teaching philosophy. For teachers working with a more traditional philosophy, the types of uses you describe will be pretty typical. But I’m with you on the usage-we need to get more out of tools (or pretty soon school districts won’t pay for them-just having a big-screen TV in the room isn’t the investment most were expecting). In order to see real change in the usage of boards and other ICT we need to show teachers the value of getting the students involved and helping them see how giving up some control can lead to even deeper learning experiences.

Adam
Isabelle Jones on May 22nd, 2008 6:58 am

Thanks for this great post, Jess. I agree this is OK to use websites on the IWB-the same goes with commercially produced software. Variety of input is also key. However, whatever the activity, the question we need to ask is: Is te activity really inclusive? Are all the students engaged/ being challenged? What am I doing to ensure they are all actively participating in the activity?
We only started using Smartboards in February and the majority of our languages faculty are now designing/ willing to get more ideas to design materials with Notebook 10. 3 out 5 teachers are over 50, so it certainly is not an age-related thing. I think Adam has hit the nail on head as regards the way the IWB is used by some teachers. We need to let go, and this is a huge leap of faith for some of us. However, if we don’t, the IWB could make lessons very didactic and passive-even if they provide fantastic visual support to our teaching content…

Isabelle
http://isabellejones.blogspot.com
Chris Betcher on May 23rd, 2008 12:06 am

Great post Jess. You speak a lot of sense, and I’m sure that’s why your IWB work is so good. Thanks for sharing. Can i quote some of this post in the book?
Smart interactive whiteboards fan on May 23rd, 2008 8:54 pm

thanks for sharing your work. I like your blog and would like to invite you, to join http://teachersplanet.ning.com

It is an online community for teachers of all levels and curriculum areas.Your visit to the network will provide an opportunity for you to share your expertise with our teachers.At teachers planet you can start your own groups, start/participate in a discussion/ forum, add videos, music, RSS feeds, start blogs and do many more things.

Thank you for your time and consideration
Seth Dickens on May 30th, 2008 3:20 am

Hiya Jess and hiya all,

I really agree with you in theory here. Someone who is only using the IWB as a giant tv is certainly not an intermediate user, but I think that (at least in my case) really these labels are not relevant, although I totally agree with your point Lisa!

What is relevant is the quality of the lesson taught in the IWB equipped class and as Isabelle mentioned above, are the students motivated included, interested and engaged with what is going on with the IWB.

In the type of teaching that I’m involved in at the moment (mainly for language teachers in private language schools) it would not be a good use of our students’ time to learn how to use the notebook software in order to present a topic to the rest of the class, even if this would be a great thing to do with them pedagogically speaking. They just want to get in there, study their 1.5 – 2 hours of English and go.

I was discussing something similar in my my ict for language teachers blog last week. I think it’s really important when teaching (adult) language learners that we concentrate on using the “C” part of I.C.T. not the “T” part. By this I mean lets go full steam ahead and embrace web 2.0 technology that helps students to have meaningful, authentic communication, but lets not allow the technology cloud our teaching and more importantly our students’ language acquisition.

I do however spend a couple of hours going through the basics of the Smart Notebook when training teachers to use the IWB. I do it as I think it’s an essential part of becoming an “Intermediate” user. However part of my approach to getting completely new users (both “old” and “young”) to feel comfortable with the IWB is to tell them (and demonstrate to them) over and over that it’s just a big computer screen and there’s nothing to be worried about. This means that, at first, a lot of internet-based material is going to be used in our lessons, but that’s no bad thing. After all the internet is surely one of the biggest sources of authentic, relevant material we have available as language teachers?

Anyhow, these really are interesting points and I look forward to reading how this discussion continues. Thanks for starting this point off Jess!
jessmcculloch on June 2nd, 2008 10:48 am

Thanks Lisa, Penny, Isabelle, Adam , Chris and Seth for contributing to the discussion here. You’ve all got such good points and I’ve learned a lot about thinking about SMART Board use from all of you. It seems that it comes down to getting students involved in using the board that makes it an effective tool. Lisa, you make a great point about there being different levels of use and I think that’s an important thing for me to remember when I’m trying to encourage other teachers to give it a go. If for them showing a website or two is how they can start off using this sort of technology, then it is not a bad place to start. Just as long as they don’t stay they don’t stay there!

I think you make a great point, Seth, about focusing on the ‘C’ in ICT. Communication between students and teachers will change as teaching practice changes to include students in a more interactive way. Teachers changing the way they run their classes because of something like an interactive whiteboard will lead to change in the way that teacher communicates with his or her class. This communication – which will hopefully be for the better insofar as students having more input into classes – will then have been brought about by new technology, which is great.

So, if teachers are changing the way they do things and involving students more because of their use of the IWB, then even if they are starting out by simply showing websites, or getting students to use different interactive websites, then that’s fine as it will hopefully lead to bigger and better things. It’s all about how we think about the way we teach and what we change, and we all have to start somewhere.