This research was conducted as part of the Technology School of the Future 2005 PLICT (Professional Learning in ICT) project. As the new DECS Learning Technologies site no longer has the article I have hosted it here.
So you've got an Interactive Whiteboard! Now what?
Abstract
Many schools are currently looking to purchase Interactive whiteboards (IWBs) for use in their classrooms. This research seeks to investigate the kinds of support structures that schools can put in place to encourage and assist teachers to use IWBs as powerful tools in their classrooms to improve student learning.
Context
Ingle Farm Primary School is a school of over 400 students in the northern suburbs of Adelaide. It consists of 12 classes of New Arrivals students (NAP program) who, upon their arrival, speak very little or no English. They come from diverse backgrounds but at present the large majority are refugees from the African continent. The students stay at IFPS for approximately 12 to 18 months for an intensive English program. We have 10 classes of mainstream students. Many of these students are from Non-English Speaking Backgrounds and there is a high proportion of Government assisted students and about 30 Aboriginal students. We also have a Special Education class and a Language Support class for students with receptive and expressive language difficulties.
In 2003 our Principal visited Canberra on an unrelated issue and was taken to Richardson Primary where he saw the Interactive Whiteboards in operation in classrooms. He came back full of enthusiasm but, given that none of us had seen them, staff were unable to visualize the IWB concept. After a product demonstration, 6 staff said they were willing to trial them in their classrooms. Nothing much happened with them until, in May 2004, four staff went to Canberra to see them in action. The Principal also brought a staff member from Richardson Primary over to conduct a workshop at IFPS for many of our staff. The transformation was amazing and staff then started using the IWBs as effective tools in their classrooms.
I have always had a passion for helping teachers to integrate ICTs into their daily programs so I set about to assist staff in this process. I set up an after school group where staff could come along and work through problems as well as learn ways to use the IWB. As all classes also had a scanner, microphones and access to a digital camera, training was needed on how to use these peripherals. The group met once a week for about half an hour and attendance was voluntary. We created an area in one of our network drives to enable staff to share their files. Staff were encouraged to collaborate and share, even presenting at the Literacy and Numeracy Expo. The 'buzz' was palpable.
Soon after, the ground swell of enthusiasm started to come from other schools as well as our own. I began an IWB Hubgroup to assist schools from the Adelaide metropolitan area that were looking at this technology. Schools that visited were eager to install the IWBs but I began to be concerned that, while staff were eager to embrace this new technology, the schools had not looked at the structures that needed to be implemented around the IWBs to ensure a successful integration in a school. In fact a few schools have had IWBs for some years and staff did not find them useful at all. I was eager to look at what structures and support processes will assist in the successful implementation of IWBs across a whole school that includes eager as well as reluctant adopters.
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What did you research? The teachers who have IWBs in the classrooms at IFPS can be divided roughly into 3 chronological groups. The first group put up their hand to try out the boards in the first year. They were not all technologically savvy but were willing to see if they enhanced our educational program. The second group either came to the school after the IWBs were installed in many classes or saw the impact they were having and requested one for their class. The third group have responded out of peer pressure and possibly not wanting to be left out. Many have found them to be useful in their classroom but are still not sure about them. The boards for the second and third group were operational at varying times in Terms 1 and 2 of 2005. There are now 21 IWBs in the school and 27 teachers are involved in using them. The Training and Development and support offered to the groups has worked very well and there was a need to document what the staff found to be the most useful. This could in turn be used to assist schools starting out on their journey. |
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Why is your research educationally significant?
For some years, Governments have supported projects within schools to assist teachers in integrating ICTs into their everyday program. We have had Discovery Schools, Lighthouse Schools, various programs set up by The Technology School of the Future and, more recently, the Federal Government has supported The Learning Federation to develop and disseminate Learning Objects into schools. All have had some impact on teacher learning but the shift in teacher attitudes and skills has not been great. All of these projects have also focused on providing more individual computers in classrooms or in labs for students to access. In a world where collaboration and working in teams is a requirement of many employers, having students work together rather that on separate machines would seem to be a step in the right direction. SACSA includes 'Working with others and in teams' as well as 'Using technology' in the Key Competencies for all students.
Ingle Farm Primary is a good example of a school where there had been an ICT Co-ordinator in place for some years to assist teachers in their ICT take up. The infrastructure was working well with a good network, good computers and a blossoming intranet. Given all of this, the results of the ICT Skills and attitudes survey taken by staff in 2003 were alarming. (Appendix 1) With all of the money spent and support given, staff were still not readily using ICTs in their work with students.
If IWBs can engage teachers (and students) in using ICTs, and assist them to work collaboratively, then the money spent on the boards will have been wisely used.
Teachers mentioned many reasons why
the IWB is an effective tool in the classroom. These include:
" As well as being interactive, they are highly visual.
'You could say a word 150 times to a person but if they don't or can't
relate it or associate it with an experience or a visual, they will not
retain it.' PTK
" They focus and engage students.
'It has been the biggest influence on the way that my class respond to
teaching in all of the years that I've been teaching.' WTP
'Anything that holds their attention is good …… their attention
span is short generally. I've been very surprised at the amount of time
I can work on the SMARTboard with them and they don't lose that attention.
They are still attending. If they don't 'attend' they can't learn.' WTP
" They are a bridge between the concrete and the abstract.
'It is a really good link between them doing the actual hands on concrete
stuff and the abstract.' CTH
" They promote collaboration and discussion
'When children are on a network (computer) you can't get their attention
and have the kinds of conversations that you can with a SMARTboard.' WTC
'It encourages co-operation and discussion and as they are working together,
you can hear them talking about it.' PTC
'We've had lots more discussions. It is fantastic. You can bring up anything
on the SMARTboard and we can sit and have a half hour discussion about
it.' GBR
" They enable us to truly personalise our teaching.
'We can do our own stories in our own way in a very easy context or I
can scan the kids' work in, their own work. It is there up on the board.
It means a whole lot more to them. Then we can work with that text.' LGM
" They enable us to cater for different learning styles. Visual,
aural and kinesthetic learning preferences are catered for.
'It stands to reason that the kids are going to learn better because you
are using a few more senses with a touch screen than you are just actually
listening to a teacher or recording something.' BAA
" They allow students to take charge of their own learning and demonstrate
learning.
'It is much easier for the kids to be a part of the learning experience.
They can come up and be involved in it much more than me, as the holder
of the information, needs to disseminate it to them.' LGM
" They enable explicit teaching.
'In Maths it is a real struggle to get the kids to know how to set out
their books, and it's a pain for the rest of the year. This year I got
up the Maths grid and showed them exactly how to write in their sums and
rule it up ….. it is something as simple as that.' GBR
" They promote local to global.
'It brings the world into your classroom immediately through the Internet
so you are going from local to the World Wide Web immediately. When they
talk about the global world, we have it in our classroom.' WTC
" We can be more organised.
'It makes teaching easier and I feel more organized using a SMARTboard
because I really love that aspect of saving our learning and we can just
revisit it at any time during the day.' CSL
" They encourage efficiencies. Teachers can share the load - they
don't need to reinvent the wheel each time.
" Less explanation time is needed - and therefore there is more time
for group and individual work.
'I can get through what I need to get through for them quicker and then
move onto their group work or their individual work after that. They are
actually a lot more part of the group than what they were before.' KNM
" We can get through more content.
'It has broken down the whole group time to get a concept across. I can
get it across quicker and then they can actually get into their group
activities and then from that into their individual time.' KNM
" Teachers are able to introduce more complex concepts because of
the visual imagery.
'This is actually quite a complex thing you wouldn't try to do normally
but you can because you've got the SMARTboard. So you're reaching the
higher potential through the visual imagery and kids seeing exactly what
to do through using the different colours.' WTC
" IWBs enable ALL teachers for the first time to truly integrate
ICTs into the everyday curriculum.
How did you gather your data / evidence?
Most of the evidence for this research project has come from a series of taped interviews conducted with the staff at Ingle Farm Primary. Notes were then made of the interviews. I began with interviewing the staff who had had their IWB in their classroom for between 6 and 18 months. I wanted to find out what support structures they had found to be useful in learning to integrate the IWB into their everyday program. I also wanted suggestions for other structures or support mechanisms that may be helpful. During the interviews I took the opportunity to ask how they used the IWB and what were the perceived benefits for their teaching and the students' learning. Some classes also completed a student survey to find out what students thought of their learning with an IWB.
I then interviewed the staff who had been using IWBs since the beginning of 2005. I asked them the same questions as the first group. The second group came up with some other support structures that they believed would be helpful. These were implemented as well as continuing with the structures already in place. After about three months, the second group of teachers were interviewed again to see whether the new support structures had been helpful to them. Finally all staff who have IWBs in their classrooms were given a survey (Appendix 2) to rate all of the various aspects of the project. The results of that survey have been graphed as a total group as well as split into Pre 2005 and Post 2005 groups. (Appendix 3)
Research findings
- All but 2 of the staff rated at least one of the Training and Development strategies as essential for the implementation of the IWB into their classroom. Every staff member listed many of the strategies as either essential or helpful to their implementation. This indicates that schools need to look at implementing some of the T&D strategies we have identified if they wish to have staff comfortable utilising the technology in their classroom. In their article 'Missioners, Tentatives and Luddites: leadership challenges for school and classroom posed by the introduction of interactive whiteboards into schools in the United Kingdom' Glover and Miller (2001) state, '…. undertaking professional training was as important as installing the technology itself.'
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- Following on from teachers' different learning styles, the provision of a USB stor drive for all staff, upon request, was seen as important. It was particularly essential for those staff who preferred to work at home and transfer their files to school using this method. This had an interesting spin off. As teachers began to use their USB stor drives, they began to be more aware of file management and the ways to transfer and back up their files. This was a definite improvement for the whole school network.
- The availability of the software, both throughout the school and on teachers' home machines, was cited as a major factor in our implementation. It enabled staff to practice and create interactive files wherever they were most comfortable. This should be taken into account when purchasing software for use on the IWBs.
- The presence of a good technician to ensure that the hardware is kept running was seen as the most important aspect of the implementation. The first group did not see the technician as the most essential aspect, perhaps reflecting a greater confidence in their own ability to solve a problem with the technology. The second group showed their greater reticence with their ability to work through any problems by citing the technician as the most important key to the implementation. Interestingly, during this research project, the school changed over the curriculum server and all computers in the school were out of action for a day. When talking with teachers, many of them from both groups spoke to me about how difficult that day was as they have come to rely on the technology being available. The technician and I commented that had the change over taken place 18 months before, no-one would have noticed!
- Many teachers mentioned the collaboration that has occurred in the school as a result of the IWBs. All teachers found some form of collaboration essential to their implementation of the technology. Our initial structures provided staff with opportunities to work together at the after school meeting, by sharing resources through our P: drive and by encouraging incidental sharing as teachers walk past each others classrooms. Georgina Stein (2005) in her article 'Pedagogy, practice and ICT' also found sharing to be an integral part of the implementation process. After our first round of interviews some teachers suggested that the school timetable was too busy and they did not have time to work out how best to use their IWB. As part of this project, I instigated 'Collaborative Pairs' where teachers were released during school time to work with a mentor. This also enabled teachers to have a connection with another staff member who could assist them with their learning. For many staff, their mentor is now the first person they will turn to when they need advice about their IWB.
- Having someone to lead the project and take responsibility for troubleshooting was given a high priority by the surveyed staff. Staff need to know that if they come across a problem, someone is committed to helping them work through it. The answer may be in the form of a simple instruction or "I'll work it out and get back to you" or "I'll email the company and ask them". Whatever the problem, staff felt it was essential to have someone who would take responsibility finding a solution.
- While all staff have embraced their
IWB with varying levels of enthusiasm, some of the barriers to the implementation
should be acknowledged.
a. Almost all teachers mentioned the lack of time available to learn to use the new technology or to further explore the Gallery of images that can be used. Teachers did acknowledge that, even though making a file takes time initially, it saves time in the long run if they can reuse it.
b. Some staff had difficulties accessing a computer to work on at home as they had children who needed to use it. The school purchased two laptops to alleviate this situation.
c. For staff who wanted a step-by-step approach, we obtained Flipcharts that are a guide to the SMARTnotebook software.
d. Two staff members questioned the impact of the IWBs on the student teacher relationship. 'Teaching is about interacting - me and the kids. I'm wondering whether that triangle of the SMARTboard is distracting.' MTR - Some teachers started their interview apologetically. They explained that they had not had time to learn to use it as much some other staff used it. As our discussions progressed it transpired that they felt they had not made many files using the accompanying software. They then went on to list the various ways they have used the IWB including scanning student work in for the whole class to edit, loading in digital photos from an excursion, editing videos, using the internet for research and to interact with educational interactive files and games, explicit ICT skill teaching as well as saving brainstormed information. The IWB's have increased the range of technology tools accessed by our teachers and students. Some teachers spoke about their surprise at how many times during the day they used it. All teachers spoke about the improvement in their students' ICT skills as they - the students and teachers - are using a computer for regularly during the day.
How has this research changed your theory and practice
This research has been confirming in that it has supported my belief that formal T&D structures are necessary to assist teachers in their integration of a IWB into the classroom. It has also been exciting to talk with teachers who are passionate about a tool that they see having a great impact on the student learning. All recommended that schools should have them. Many students had asked their teachers how students in other schools get on without them.
I was surprised at the different learning styles exhibited by teachers. As I have said before this should not have surprised me but I am now more aware of the different ways to present new learning so that we can influence the greatest number of teachers.
Most importantly, I have had my belief confirmed that, given appropriate training and support, IWBs can assist ALL teachers to successfully integrate ICTs into all aspects of their program.
What new questions emerged for you as a result of this research?
During this research I also took the opportunity to gather some anecdotal evidence regarding improvement in student learning as well as changes in teachers' methodology and the curriculum content they were able to present. Having listened to all of the teachers at the school, I am convinced that the IWBs are making a difference to student learning in every classroom and I will continue to look at the ways in which we can quantify and record this difference.
Appendix 1 ICT skills and attitudes survey results
Appendix 2 Staff support survey
Appendix 3 Staff support survey results
References
Interactive Whiteboards in Year 6 n.d. Retrieved September 5, 2005, from http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/eaz/sharing_good_practice/759451
Stein, G 2005 Pedagogy, Practice and
ICT Retrieved September 20, 2005, from
http--client.canterbury.ac.uk-research-papers-georgina-stein-interactive-whiteboards-primary.pdf.url
Glover, D & Miller, D 2001 'Missioners,
Tentatives and Luddites: leadership challenges for school and classroom
posed by the introduction of interactive whiteboards into schools in the
United Kingdom' Retrieved April 13, 2005, from
http://www.keele.ac.uk/depts/ed/iaw/Missioners.pdf
From Replacement to Transformation
with Interactive Whiteboards. n.d. Retrieved September 5, 2005, from
http--www.nwnet.org.uk-pages-rev_imp-downloads-replace_transform.doc.url