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I have long subscribed to the Plutarch philosophy ‘the mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled’. With the

advent of interactive whiteboards (IWB) in our classrooms, longstanding teaching philosophy is being challenged as students become more actively involved in the directions their lessons take. A teacher’s role may change from the ‘Sage-on-the-stage’ to ‘Guide-by-the-side’ (Stinson, Milter. 1996). This can be exhilarating and scary at the same time. I think that IWBs will cause a tectonic shift in classroom teaching, to the benefit of both students and teachers.

You don’t need an expensive IWB to start implementing interactive learning concepts into your lessons. You can get going with very little by way of equipment. For example, put together a PC and a data projector and you have the basic components. You don’t even need a passive whiteboard – a white wall will do.

Schools that have not previously contemplated shifting to IWB lessons can access the Government funding now available for IT to get going.

In this article we visit Ulladulla High School and Copacabana Primary. Both have embraced the IWB concept and are looking forward to the day when every classroom has its own IWB.

Ulladulla High SchoolUlladulla is a coastal town in NSW situated approximately three hours drive south of Sydney. Ulladulla High School (UHS) has over 1200 students and embarked upon the implementation of IWBs in Semester 2 2008.

Today, 32 classrooms are outfitted with computers, projectors and whiteboards; 29 are eBeam Pods (http://www.keepad.com/ebeam.php) and three are Smart Boards (http://www.electroboard.com.au/products/smart.aspx).

Ongoing teacher training includes half-day in-house sessions conducted by teachers who have attended intensive external training courses, while strategically trained small groups of cross-faculty staff are available to support their fellow faculty members.

UHS teachers also meet voluntarily for what they call ‘a play in the sandpit’. This is a regular weekly afternoon gathering of interested teachers to discuss and share IWB ideas. As one teacher said: “The Wednesday afternoon ‘play in the sand pit’ has been excellent. There are always

Getting started with interactive whiteboardsMichael Tunks says introducing whiteboards delivers results in learning

little steps that need clarifying. Having a dozen or so teachers who can say ‘Oh, that’s easy, you just do...’ and then show you how saves heaps of time and frustration.”

Deputy Principal, Trevor Schofield, says that the IWB classrooms are in high demand from both staff and students and the school has a two-year plan to outfit all 55 classrooms over this period. Initially, the school experimented with using the eBeam Pods as portable IWBs, but soon progressed to a plan of equipping each classroom with a fixed projector.

UHS has found that the eBeam Pod is a cost effective solution, enabling the school to push on with the implementation at a faster pace. At around $1000.00 each, these devices are significantly cheaper than dedicated IWBs.

Business Services Teacher, Karen Bulbert, said: “Even with all our eBeams, the number of staff who want to give it a go far outweighs the availability of rooms. It is quite infectious among the staff. Sharing the buzz of a good lesson amongst your peers in the common staffroom is now a daily occurrence. Other people wander

over to watch over your shoulder and we are all learning new applications and being inspired.”

The school also purchased two class sets of TurningPoint student response systems (http://www.keepad.com). These credit card size keypads are distributed to students, allowing them to respond to questions posed on MS PowerPoint slides by the teacher. Student responses are instantly collated and displayed on screen, promoting valuable class discussion.

The keypads can be used anonymously or assigned to students, enabling the recording of each child’s responses.

The Science Faculty uses the TurningPoint keypads to conduct self-paced assessment tasks for 200 Year 9 students, with automatic test marking and reporting.

Science teacher, Donna Miles, says: “You need to have your printed test, and you must hand out the keypads in numerical order and have a record of who has each one. I find that lining the kids up alphabetically outside the class room and handing them out in sequence is quite efficient.”

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Keyboard time at Copacabana Primary

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Asked by Education Today why a teacher should make the effort to start using IWB technology, Business Services Teacher, Karen Bulbert, said: “Your lessons are more fun for students and yourself. You are learning together. The teacher clearly models that learning is a lifelong process. Making mistakes and having glitches is part of the learning curve, even when you have put in the effort beforehand.

“This can demonstrate to students that learning is not all plain sailing and successful. It can be a challenge; perseverance and determination are needed to achieve. The reward of self-satisfaction when it does work is good to share with the students.”

Mathematics teacher, Matt Graham, added: “Once the teacher is comfortable using the hardware and it is shown to be reliable, the IWB really does benefit a teacher who is well prepared in their lessons and lesson sequences. The units of work can be reused and modified later, and inside a faculty the sharing of lessons can be very helpful too.”

Students with learning difficulties also benefit from the use of IWBs as Special Education teacher, Chris Armati told Education Today: “Although I am hardly a skilled practitioner and will need a lot more training, I do believe that the introduction of this technology engages students with emotional disturbances. It is instantly gratifying, dynamic and adaptable. You can skip from interactive, literacy-based work, search the net to research anecdotal questions and skip to a Clickview movie to support the direction that students’ thoughts are heading. As soon as you pull out the eBeam stylus the kids are hooked.”

Copacabana Public SchoolThis small primary school, set in an idyllic position on the NSW Central Coast two hours drive north of Sydney, is a global force when it comes to IWBs. The school website contains a gold mine of IWB resources and has had over 1.2 million visits from educators around the world. Under the guidance of school computer coordinator, Glenys Goffett, almost every classroom has an IWB with overhead fixed projector.

Copacabana is now in its fourth year of using

IWBs and is nearing completion of their plan to have an IWB, ceiling mounted projector, computer and cabling in every suitable classroom.

Ms Goffett first saw an IWB at a training session and says they were a ‘must have’ at first sight. The school has eight Smart Boards permanently installed in classrooms and the library and all are in high use. “Due to the cost of boards and projectors, immediate mass unlikely,” she told Education Today, “Our slower phased-in approach allowed for mentoring amongst

A first IWB lessonHere is a simple sample lesson for you to try with your current spelling list. You can set this lesson up on your own computer first and try it out before using it with your class.1 Go to http://www.kidsspell.com2 Half way down the page click on ‘Create a Custom List’ and enter your spelling

list separating each word with a comma3 Give your list a title – ‘My IWB Spelling List’ and click the button ‘Create My

List’4 Copy the URL from the box and paste it into the URL address bar at the top

of the screen and hit ‘Enter’5 Bookmark this page so you can come back to it easily6 Your spelling list is now displayed along with several spelling games that will

use your list. Click on ‘Letter Drop’ and read the instructions.7 Click the ‘Play’ button and test out the game. 8 When you feel confident with the Letter Drop game, use an IWB to project

the website for your class and have them play it in teams of two.9 Enjoy!

TurningPoint keyboards provide instant feedback

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Education Today – Term 2 2009 31

teachers and for minor problems to be sorted out along the way.”Teachers at Copacabana have used various ways to get started

implementing the IWB technology in their classrooms. Music sites like Virtual Orchestra (http://ngfl.northumberland.gov.uk/music/orchestra/default.htm) are easy to use and greatly enjoyed by students. Apart from the Copacabana school website, another favourite resource is Learning Clips (http://www.learningclip.co.uk/) which has excellent maths activities and demonstrations.

For IWB lesson preparation, Copacabana teachers offer the following tips:uDon’t expect teachers to make their own lessons until they are proficient

in operating the IWBuSpend time observing a mentor using the IWBuInitially, lesson preparation takes time but quality time needs to be

spent uAlways have Plan B in mind in case of computer problemsuJust get in and try it.

ReferencesStinson, J. Milter, R. (1996). “Problem-based Learning In Business Education: Curriculum Design and Implementation Issues”. In Wilkerson, LuAnn and Gijselaers, Wim (Eds.), Bringing Problem-Based Learning to Higher Education: Theory and Practice. Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco, CA.

UHS' Hints and tips for getting startedu Most teachers tend to get started by using flipcharts and

then progress from there u Asking the kids for patience and their help and

understanding while learning this new technology will help to get through the teething problems.

u Use of eBeam in lessons includes using the highlighter tool to highlight text, filling in cloze passage, matching worksheets, annotating diagrams and revising via the playback tool.

u Seniors love using the eBeam IWB and like to discuss their answers with the rest of the class while they are out the front.

u Try out new flipchart techniques on your ‘settled’ classes first.

Michael Tunks is Director of ImproMation, a software development company with its focus on helping schools. The company currently provides online services for over 1800 schools throughout NSW. Visit www.impromation.com.au.

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From top: Fun with maps at Copacabana Primary School; business studies at Ulladulla High School; eBeam in a primary setting; IWB lessons are popular with special needs classes at Ulladulla High School

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Schools can transform any whiteboard into an interactive classroom workspace with the eBeam Pod. By using this technology,

the classroom whiteboard has dual functions. It can be used as a fully functioning interactive whiteboard, or used with standard marker pens for a passive lesson.

The eBeam Pod can be used in either ‘Projector’ or ‘Whiteboard Capture’ mode. The former, which requires operation with a data projector, allows annotation and control with an interactive stylus pen while ‘Capture’ mode allows operation without a data projector and enables the teacher to capture all material written on the whiteboard in normal marker pen (housed in a special sleeve) to their computer for future reference and re-use.

eBeam WheelThe eBeam is intuitive and easy to use and require less training to get up to speed. Having all the annotation and mouse functions on the eBeam Interactive Tool Palette Wheel makes it easier to prepare and conduct a lesson because there is less to remember and the system anticipates the next desired option.

With the eBeam Wheel, there are fewer distracting toolbars to get in the way of the lesson content by competing for interactive workspace.

TurningPoint keypadsTeachers can engage the whole class and give every student a voice with a set of TurningPoint student response system keypads. These credit card size keypads are distributed to students, allowing them to respond to questions posed on MS PowerPoint slides by the teacher. The IR and RF are multiple-choice keypads while the XR is the self-paced assessment version.

The Keepad Interactive ICT collectionStudent responses are instantly collated and

displayed on screen, promoting valuable class discussion. The software suite also includes TurningPoint Anywhere software that allows a teacher to poll the class in any software application or browser.

The keypads can be used anonymously or assigned to students, enabling the recording of each child‘s responses.

Faculties wishing to conduct self-paced assessment can save valuable teacher time using the XR keypads, which allow alphanumeric responses and provide automatic test marking and reporting.

TestingPointTestingPoint, a MS Word-based authoring programme supplied as part of the TurningPoint suite allows teachers to quickly create tests with: Multiple choice, Multiple response, Matching, Short answer, True/false, Numeric response, Fill in the blank and Essay questions.

QuestionPoint, with its bank of 30,000 or so questions, is also included.

Visit http://www.keepad.com

ActivInspire is an easy-to-use software package designed to be adaptable to a teacher’s experience, subject matter or teaching style. The software can be used across multiple operating platforms in combination with both the ActivBoard and other interactive whiteboard manufacturers. Fully integrated with Promethean’s existing product range, ActivInspire is created for use in classrooms from primary and elementary through to secondary, high school and higher education.

ActivInspire is available in two versions: Personal and Professional. The Personal edition is a free download. The Professional edition contains a range of new and enhanced features including an intelligent shapes library, screen recorder and handwriting recognition. It is currently on offer at a promotional cost until the end of June at www.prometheanplanet.com.

ActivInspire contains a range of new features

Promethean launches cross platform ActivInspire software

designed to enhance teaching in the classroom: u Fully compatible with all major operating

platforms, including Windows, Mac and Linux, and a range of interactive whiteboards.

u Choice of Primary or Secondary user interface from a single application.

u Full integration of ActivClassroom solutions,

1 2 3A B C

including Promethean’s ActiVote and ActivExpression Learner Response Systems.u The ability to customise and personalise toolbars and layout of the programme.u An extended library of resources with thousands of ready-to-use flipcharts, backgrounds, images, shapes and activities that can be accessed through Promethean’s online teaching community, Promethean Planet (www.prometheanplanet.com).u A toolbar that updates automatically with the most frequently used and last used tools.

u Integrated media players, images, and audio, as well as existing resources, even if from different interactive whiteboard software or programs such as PowerPoint.Existing users of Promethean's products will

be entitled to a free upgrade to the ActivInspire Professional edition.

eBeam Interactive Tool Palette Wheel