Is the interactive whiteboard now old school?

I came across some articles this week about interactive whiteboards while looking through #edchat on Twitter.  I am always drawn towards talks about inefficiencies in education because I feel like it is one profession that is so good at staying inefficient.  I have been an Activeboard user for the past 4 years, and I remember when it first came out, I was a little blown away.  I never imagined my laptop could be turned into such a powerful device for displaying information.  Then I was able to use the voter eggs for the board and thought my teaching practice had changed forever.  I appreciated these articles because they forced me to sit back and think about my use of the interactive whiteboard and reveal to me what it really is in my classroom.  


Since being introduced at my school and adopted by a few "savvy" teachers, the interactive whiteboard has been installed in every classroom to the disproval of some teachers. Ferriter writes "hanging them on walls and showing them off like proud hens that just laid the golden instructional egg."(2010) Parents are indeed amazed when they see what an interactive whiteboard can do, and the students love to use the pens to draw pictures, but up to this point, I would agree in some ways with Ferriter's views that the interactive whiteboard is really just an expensive tool that allows the teacher to spend more time standing in one place. “I’m willing to argue that even with time and training, interactive whiteboards are an under-informed and irresponsible purchase. They do little more than reinforce a teacher-centric model of learning…make presentations, give notes, deliver lectures…I ask you: Do we really want to spend thousands of dollars on a tool that makes stand-and-deliver instruction easier?” (Ferriter, 2010)

Heather Wolpert-Gawron writes on her Tweenteacher blog "while these boards were initially meant to help less-tech savvy teachers to embrace technology use, their hefty training time and prep time serves as its own gatekeeper for more than just tech tentative teachers."  (2011)  I found that using an interactive whiteboard was incredibly intuitive, and I enjoyed finding new resources to use in my beginning days.  Lately, I stick with what I am familiar with to support my lessons.  Technology has always been intuitive for me though, and I am constantly amazed at the time dedicated in my school to using the activeboards.  I wonder if Wolpert-Gawron is on to something when she talks about using all that money and time in other places to improve other parts of their teaching.  Is technology something we need to force onto teachers to use if they survived a long time teaching without it?  


I started using the interactive whiteboard a few years before the iPod touch and the smartphone and ipad, and I definitely got caught in the naive scenario of thinking the interactive whiteboard would be the game changer.  As with all technology in the classroom, the game changer is the teacher and these days schools do not have the funds to support new technologies as easily.  I know how much of a game changer the smartphone was to my personal life, and I am so impressed with the apps and technologies being developed to use these tools in the classroom.  I dream of a day when each of my students has an iPad on their desk.

"As for the future of educational technology, we must guide our purchases to reflect the world around us. We must support the learner on the go. We must support individual use, not teacher-only use. We must support inexpensive options that give us access to the most information, easily accessed and easily presented. Smartphones, (and, I believe, eventually iPads or other tablet options) permit us to assume more and more that learners have access to the same information and opportunities."  (Wolper-Gawron, 2011)

I have the fear that I am taking for the granted the so called efficiency that the interactive whiteboard brings to my classroom.  I feel like after 4 years of use, it is time for me to evaluate the worth of this device and whether it is helping to improve the learning which occurs in my classroom.

Wolpert-Gawron, H. (2011, October 3).  How the interactive whiteboard is really ed tech's laserdisk. Tweenteacher.  Retrieved October 26, 2011, from  http://tweenteacher.com/2011/10/23/how-the-interactive-whiteboard-is-really-ed-techs-laserdisk/

Ferriter, B. (2010, January 27).  Why I hate interactive whiteboards.  Education Week.  Retrieved October 26, 2011, from http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2010/01/27/tln_ferriter_whiteboards.html?tkn=Q%5BRFGmQux6XnMebDMl4nddRDutTae13KtmNE

Current Event 3

www.pixton.com

I am always looking for ways to engage my students in unique ways. I have been amazed lately with the number of students who love graphic novels such as Diary of a Wimpy Kid or Big Nate. It seems like both boys and girls love this genre, and I am continually reminding my students to put away the Calvin and Hobbes books during class although I can remember being the student who would just try to sneak in one more comic before starting my work. I was so excited to discover the Pixton comics website. There seems to be so many out there right now, but Pixton was the first I was told about so therefore it is the main site I have explored so far. It is free to use, and extremely straightforward and easy to use. There are so many options for creating different sorts of comics. Here is a link of another teacher who had his students create a cover for some guided reading books using the site.

http://mreclassroom.edublogs.org/pixton-comic-maker/

I have not had the chance to let me students play with the site yet, but I told them the basics of it and showed some examples and they were so excited. I will post examples of their creations as soon as I can.

Current Event 2

http://www.typingweb.com/

I had a goal this year at school to have my students practice keyboarding skills once a week. I teach grade 5, and it has reached a point that many of my students choose to complete written assignments on a computer, but at this point they can handwrite the work faster then they can type. So I set out to find a program that was cheap, easy to use, and allowed me to monitor their progress. This site is the best I have found so far. I am able to give each student a username and password, and I can easily see what they are doing. The site does not give a large amount of useful information to the teacher, but the basic lessons are free. You can of course pay for more detailed information. So far we have used the site once in class and it worked well. It was easy to understand and navigate, and there were no major issues.

As of October 24, this program has become a weekly part of my classroom. Every Friday we get out the computers for a period of typing practice, The students love to compare their accuracy and words per minute. I will also login and type on the Smartboard so my students can compare their times with mine. This program has also been very useful for homework practice and the students know I am able to login and check what they have done.

Current Event 1

Choose a museum

I love art, and I love google. Although I am not a formal art teacher, I try to incorporate more serious art projects into my curriculum and study specific artists. So for my grade 5 students have loved the projects, and the lead up to my project always involves having a slideshow of the artiist's work on my smartboard. I also like to make sure I can fit my art projects into different subject areas such as language arts, math and social studies. Needless to say, I was thrilled when I discovered Google's newest project where you can tour museums throughout the world. You can actually virtually walk through the museum and see the paintings on the wall. You can also click on individual paintings and look at high definition photos of a single work of art and zoom in to the point that you can see individual brush strokes. If you have not played with this yet, then check it out.

https://www.googleartproject.com

Just like I love to wander around an art museum and get lost among the paintings and sculptures, I find myself doing the same thing on this site. I will spend so much time wandering around, looking for new things and just checking out the art. I have not had the opportunity to introduce this to my students yet, but it is my goal to have two lessons this year which utilize the Google Art Project.

Take a tour

And.....Go!

I always feel challenged to just jump into something without a little background knowledge and at least a small plan of where I am going to go. These tendencies have evolved from my passion for long adventures in the wilderness where getting lost is part of the adventure, but I know from a few bad experiences that you always need a basic plan. And if your goal is to reach a certain point, then you need a more complex and detailed plan. At this time, I am not sure where I want this blogging adventure to go. My main motivation to take it on it because it is required for a university course. Prior to this class, I have followed a number of blogs, but I have never had the desire to make my own. I think I just never saw the point or had enough of a reason to invest in it. So before I could make this jump, I had to see what was out there and look at some patterns about blogging. I spent a lot of time over the last two weeks looking at blogs, trying to discover what has motivated these people to sit down at their computer and put this information out there. Of course, there is the risk that no one will ever look at it so then the question comes: what is the point now? At this moment I have one follower. I would imagine a blogger is motivated by followers. So my first goal will be to spread this around to some friends who I think would be interested or who will at least pleasure me with the simple act of being a follower.

My next step has been to try and figure out what is the point of this blog.

I regularly read blogs that focus on Italian Cycling http://italiancyclingjournal.blogspot.com/)

Someone's thoughts on art and simple things http://www.2or3things.blogspot.com/)

Thoughts on improving our health by studying primal lifestyles (http://freetheanimal.com/)

Climbing and other mountain sports in the Canadian Rockies http://gravsports.blogspot.com/)

All of these blogs have a clear reason for existing, and generally I know what to expect when I go there. So rather than make this a random, stream of conscious listing of my very eclectic mind, I am still searching for the point of this blog. Will is be as broad as my life in education? Or how to integrate Web 2.0 into education? Or simply a 3 month project that allows me to pass this course?

I do not like to commit to anything which is not efficient and helpful for me, which is why I feel I need a reason for this blog to exist that will be useful to me and maybe someone else one day.  I have always been a believer in journaling, but I would never want those random thoughts to be exposed to the world.  In a way, this seems like a similar idea only with a focus.  My goal for the day is to find that reason for this journey.  In case you are wondering what Google offers if you search for "reason to blog" here it is:

http://weblogs.about.com/od/startingablog/tp/Top-Ten-Reasons-to-Blog.htm

Nothing too profound there, but Susan Gunelius makes some simple and reasonable points.

Inquiry Project Proposal

This inquiry project will be based on my current position as a grade 5 teacher at an independent school in Calgary, Alberta. I entered the teaching profession 6 years ago because I have a deep appreciation for knowledge, and I have a constant desire to learn and experience as much as possible in the world around me. As a teacher, I emphasize the importance of being a lifelong learner in my classroom, and I hope to model this concept for all of my students. I have discovered that as a teacher my personal life has become intertwined with my professional life. Therefore, the overall purpose for me in this project is to enhance my knowledge of Web 2.0 tools and to allow me to feel more comfortable using different tools between personal and work situations. Up to this point in my life, I would say I have become very comfortable with many technological tools and have discovered ways to incorporate new technologies into my everyday life. This project will provide an opportunity to investigate a variety of tools that I have had little to no experience with up to this point, and to discover uses for these tools in my everyday life both personally and professionally. The tools I have chosen to investigate are Twitter, Google Reader, LiveBinder, Pixton Comics, Shelfari, and Google Art Project. I believe this selection of tools will enhance my teaching practice as well as encouraging my desire for lifelong learning.

Goals

In his book, The Socially Networked Classroom, William Kist states, “a crucial first step in helping students negotiate the Web is for the teachers to become part of the world of Web 2.0 themselves.” (2010, pp. 71-72) From my experience in using Web 2.0 tools, I have quickly discovered that everyday day can be a new first step because of the constantly changing software and tools. My goals for this project will center on my desire to incorporate my knowledge and use of Web 2.0 tools more effectively and consistently into my classroom. By the end of this unit I hope to achieve the following four goals. I hope to develop a personal database of resources, which can be accessed quickly by me and shared with colleagues and students. I want to develop more useful experience with Web 2.0 tools. Through this experience and practice with the tools, I would like to create a more cohesive link between technology and my teaching practice. Finally, I would like to use this new knowledge to improve my teaching practice by creating more engaging experiences for my students and being able to share information with them more efficiently.

Twitter

Of the six tools I have chosen for this project, Twitter is the one tool, which I am most familiar with, but I feel I have only scratched the surface of how it can be used. I have used a Twitter account for the past 6 months primarily to stay up to date on my favorite cyclists. I am just starting to recognize the huge potential Twitter provides in regards to gathering useful teaching information from very experienced teachers all over the world. Throughout this project I will be using the Tweetdeck app to track hashtags such as #mathchat and #edchat in order to add to build my teaching resources. I will be highlighting weekly finds on my blog throughout the duration of this project.

Google Reader

While I have been following blogs for a few years, I am curious to see how Google Reader will help to make this experience more efficient for me. I have not been the person who checks blogs regularly, but I can see how I can potentially use this tool to tap into the shared knowledge of experts and enthusiast around the world. Using a tool like Google Reader will be most useful in promoting my personal professional development at work as well as allowing me to continue my passion for learning. As I have stated, my hopes are to use my personal blog as a database of information I find useful in regards to a classroom, and I will use Google Reader to discover articles that can be posted to my blog for this purpose.

LiveBinder

I have only recently heard of tools such as LiveBinder and Diigo, which allow a user to create a space that records websites and online tools for the purpose of accessing the sites from any computer. I am most intrigued in experimenting with LiveBinder with the purpose of creating a database of educational resources that can be shared with my students and classroom parents as well as with my colleagues. I often run into the issue of trying to track down websites that I may have bookmarked on my school computer, but not on my personal computer. I believe a site like LiveBinder will help to put all my resources in one place. My progress on LiveBinder will be tracked on my blog by making a post every two weeks, which highlights changes and additions to my personal binder.

Shelfari

Since taking the time to look at this website a few days ago, I have found myself searching through my bookshelves at home and school to find books to add to my “shelf” on the Shelfari site. I have a passion for books, and I made it a personal goal three years ago to read as many children’s books as possible in order to be able to provide personal recommendations for the students in my class. I am excited to explore this site with the purpose of being able to share it with my classroom students and parents in order for them to search for books to read. I will be working throughout the project to update my shelf by adding books and creating personal information about the books to help guide my students when they are searching for something to read. Shelfari has already been attached to the bottom of my blog as a gadget, and can easily be reached by anyone who accesses my blog. A long term goal I have for this site would be to have students create their own Shelfari page with the books they have read in order to share with other students.

Pixton Comics

One of my personal interests is graphic novels and comics, and I have noticed in my classroom that students are also engaged in reading graphic novels such as Diary of a Wimpy Kid or Bone. I was immediately drawn to this site with the intention of using it as a tool in the classroom to engage reluctant writers who may feel more interested to present complex information as a comic. I can also see the benefit of creating comics myself that I can share with my students when presenting new information such as how to do long division. I have only used the site briefly so far, but it is my goal to create three comics that can be used to cover content in my classroom before the end of this project. The comics will be posted to my blog for others to use throughout October and Novemeber.

Google Art Project

I have been using Google Earth for a number of years both in my classroom and for personal use. I was overwhelmed when I first saw Google Art Project, and immediately started to think of ways I could incorporate it into my classroom. Google Art Project allows the used to take a virtual tour through famous world museums, and to view a high definition image of famous paintings. I find myself amazed at exploring museums I may never see in my life, and I am hoping to use the Google Art Project site as a source for critical thinking response practice in my classroom. This site will also provide inspiration for art projects that are completed in my classroom. By the end of this project, I will create two lessons, which provide my students with the opportunity to utilize Google Art Project. These lessons will be posted on my blog when completed by the end of October and November.

Timeline

I have made an effort to choose tools that I will be able to utilize on a daily to weekly basis, and I feel my blog should reflect updates of my experiences every week. For the duration of this project, I will utilize the blog to demonstrate my findings, experiences, and frustration that I encounter during my daily practice. The completion of my project goals will be measured by examples of new resources I have collected and by a thorough representation of the tool being used.

As a classroom teacher, I see first hand how our ability to gather information and to educate ourselves is rapidly changing. I am excited about taking this opportunity to create my own personal and professional development with the hopes of continuing to blog and explore past the project deadline.

Works Cited

Kist, W. (2010). The Socially Networked Classroom; Teaching in the New Media Age. Thousand Oaks, California, USA: Corwin.

My First Bike

The Cannondale M400 is officially retired 

and ready to hang as a memory in my classroom.