Transcript

We are now in the 21st century and in order for our urban students to stay competitive with other school districts, it is necessary for us as leaders to provide them with the right technology tools in the classroom.

The technology tool that I want to talk about today is the interactive whiteboard. We use the interactive whiteboard during our monthly meetings and it has been effective in getting our points across during each presentation.

Now, imagine how effective the interactive whiteboard can be if teachers are given the opportunity to use this technology tool in the classroom.

I know, your first question is why do need to spend thousands of dollars to implement this innovation into the classroom.

Well looking at the first slide, there are 3 things that come to mind: First if implemented, it can help to raise the level of achievement of student engagement in the classroom.

Second: it will increase the motivation of level of students learning in the classroom while promoting enthusiasm.

Third: the interactive whiteboard will appeal to many different learning styles of our students. For example: The interactive whiteboard has programs that can help those students with hearing and visual impairments.

Now let’s take a look at some of the research that has been conducted on the advantages of interactive whiteboard use in the classroom:

• Notes taken on interactive whiteboards can play a pivotal role in student review processes.

• The interactive whiteboard has led to increase in student attendance because it offers so many touchscreen and interactive features compared to that of the regular chalkboard.

• Educators can design their lessons around interactive whiteboards.

• Interactive whiteboards can increase overall productivity.

We will now look at the developmental aspect of the interactive whiteboard:

• Two-thirds of teachers believe that the interactive whiteboard offers strategies for teachers to develop interactive teaching.

• One-third of pupils from all ability groups are now more willing to take part in lessons.

• Teaching is more visual and learning more interactive. This encourages greater participation, improvement in motivation and concentration.

How popular is the interactive whiteboard? Well let’s look at this innovation in terms of commercialization.

• The interactive whiteboard has become a must have technology tool in the classroom.

• Companies such as Smart-Technology and Promethean are in competition with one another to provide boards, software and online resources that will meet the need of lessons taught in all discipline areas.

So when did the interactive whiteboard become a classroom phenomenon? From the S-curve you can see that:

• The interactive whiteboard was not adopted in 2000-2004. • From 2005-2008, the interactive whiteboard became a

classroom sensation.

• Looking at the graph from 2008 until present, the interactive whiteboard has become an effective teaching and learning tool in the classroom.

With any new technology tool there are the innovators, adopters, and the laggards.

• Administrators and educators who participate in technology conferences are more inclined to introduce new technologies that will help raise student achievement levels.

• Teachers who have been in the classroom for less than 10 years are more motivated to use interactive whiteboards to deliver instruction.

• Those educators who have been in the field of education for over 20 years are less likely to embrace new technology and implement it in the classroom right of way.

• Trialability and observability will help motivate laggards to become more comfortable with using interactive whiteboards.

• Students assigned to projects are able to encourage laggards to implement technology into teaching and learning through their various demonstrations.

• Team teaching with older and younger teachers can help implement more technology usage in the classroom.

• Encouraging laggards to attend more technology conferences will encourage laggards to become adopters in using technology in teaching and learning in the classroom.

Which approach will be used to implement the interactive whiteboard into the classroom? Will it be decentralized or centralized?

• Integrating interactive whiteboards into the classroom for our school will be done with a decentralized approach.

• Core subject teachers will work in teams with their departments.

• Each department will be responsible for developing lesson plans and activities that correlate with interactive whiteboard usage.

Who will be the key change agents?

• The key change agents within my organization will include the administrative team, curriculum team and select students.

• The seven roles of change agents within my organization will help promote academic growth among students and promote growth among faculty, staff and teachers. All will work together for the common goal of raising student achievement and helping students to become more successful in life once they leave the classroom.

Now we will take a look at the champions:

• Who are the champions of the interactive whiteboard? • In our school we believe that administrators, teachers, and

students are all champions. • When our administrators first were introduced to the

interactive whiteboard they were visiting other urban school districts that were able to turn failing schools around. The key to their success was the use of technology. As a result they were eager to share these innovations with the faculty and staff.

The next step was to bring the champions together:

• Administrators introduced teachers to interactive whiteboards through the use of presenters.

• Lottery numbers were drawn to determine which teachers would be the experimental group for using the interactive whiteboards in their classroom.

• The control group consisted of teachers that did not have access to interactive whiteboards.

The experimental vs. control group:

• Two science classes were used in a one month study to determine the effectiveness of the interactive whiteboards in the classroom.

• Chemistry was the control group and physics represented the experimental group.

• At the completion of the study, it was determined that the experimental group outperformed the control in terms of an increase in student achievement.

Our students as champions:

• Students who had the opportunity to experiment with the interactive whiteboard stated that this innovation helped to bring more meaningful learning into the classroom.

• Students who were subjected to the traditional way of teaching and learning were not as motivated to learn the material.

Let’s not forget our teachers as champions:

• The chemistry teachers who represented the control group reported that student attendance was down, homework assignments were incomplete and test scores were down.

• The physics teachers representing the experimental group reported an increase in student participation, attendance, as well as test scores.

So what can be said about interactive whiteboards in the classroom?”

• Teach students to learn in the traditional way, they will learn the material for a day…

• Teach students to learn using interactive whiteboards, they will learn for a lifetime…

So I am asking that you will all carefully digest the information that I have presented to you in terms of the effective use of interactive whiteboards in the classroom.