Interactive what boards?

We live in the future. It's official.

Our lives are now so hugely different, due to innovations in technology.

Planning a holiday with a few people used to mean endless phone conversations, and gatherings around a pub table. Now, I can set up a Whatsapp group on my phone, and include everyone in the conversation.
Facebook means that parties can be organised without any human interaction before the agreed date.
Of course, we have all heard stories about poor people starting 'open' groups about a house party, where the address is given out, much to the chagrin of the organiser, and usually, the organiser's parents!

Teaching has changed too. I remember a lot of classrooms at my school had the revolving blackboards, that would trundle up and down during a lesson. I also remember one particular physics teacher that had an entire year's lessons on one OHP transparent spool, which was the sole method of transferring knowledge to each class. I can only imagine her consternation at the thought that pupils might be permitted, if not encouraged to WRITE on the transparencies that had, over the years, come to be looked on with the spiritual reverence as might be afforded the shroud of Turin.

We have had a session on the use of Interactive White Boards (IWBs).

They make the job of a teacher, in my view, so exciting. They also make the job of being a pupil (to take on new information, use it, and create with it) very exciting too.

There are three scenarios that I am going to explore:

• Learning outside the classroom, inside the classroom
• Differentiation
• Creativity made easier

So.

1. Learning outside the classroom, inside the classroom

I have to state, right now, that I do not think that this is a replacement for any school trip. The fact that there is a really cool, shiny and let's-not-forget, fun IWB at the front of the class, does not mean by any standards, that the things out there in the real world will be any less fun.

What is DOES mean, is that we can do a lot of preparation work before getting to our destination, based on what we will see.

2. Differentiation

Thinking about this, it's going to be very useful for me. In two ways.

Children that have English as an additional language can always have a visual aid. We don't need to spend ages cutting out, sticking and laminating pictures from the internet. Instead, we can have a 'picture bank', saved on our computers for easy access.

Secondly, any kids in the class with SEND, who might usually be in a lower ability group, and not engaged with fully during all teaching, will have the opportunity to come up to the front of the class and have a go. I've worked in a class with a young boy like this, and he absolutely loved this feeling of inclusion.

3. Creativity made easier

You can do so much! The IWBs are so versatile, that I challenge you not to be able to fit them into a lesson. In my recent three day placement at a school in North London, I noticed that the teacher didn't really use the IWB in her classroom much.
I was teaching a mental/oral started for a maths lesson, and used the IWB for this. She was interested in the things I had done, and asked me to show her some more tricks.
So, the next afternoon in her PPA time, we worked together on producing a set of slides that she would use for the whole of the next week in her English lessons. It took about an hour to do this, and I hope that the class and the teacher found those lessons even just a little bit more fun.

Also, on the point of creativity, it really does encourage me as a teacher to be creative! I really want to find cool ways to present things to my class. I want them to have some 'Wow' moments when using an IWB.