Interactive White Boards

This week we were introduced to the interactive white board. Since I was in elementary school, this has replaced the good old chalkboard. Since the Fall of last year, I have seen these boards implemented in schools. The first time was in a kindergarten class; they were working with the calendar tool and they were having a blast taking turns and working with the technology. I have also seen it being used in every class that I have worked in this semester. The teachers use it for everything from math lessons to watching videos. In fact, in Knox County, their math textbooks are aligned with a program that was specifically designed for use with an interactive white board.

On Thursday we played our role as second graders and were walked through a lesson about the weather to learn how to use the tools of the board. This particular brand of board works with a program called AvitivInspire that provides instructors with the corresponding technology so that they have the ability to create lessons using the board. You can upload pre-made lessons or work to create your own using the various tools. Some really interesting things about the IWB are the layers that you can work with. In the lesson that we completed all of the correct terms to complete the activity were hidden behind the cloud and we had to drag the correct answer from behind the cloud using the interactive pen, and place the term in its correct spot. There is an option of setting up activities that allow you to use the tool to drag answers to the correct place, but then if the answer is not correct, you can set it so that it makes a sound and goes back to the original spot. If the answer is placed correctly, you can set it so that there is a cheering sound or a round of applause. I look forward to working with the technology and the IWB itself. In the classroom, I think that this technology has opened up many new doors to engaging students in productive learning.