Technology integration in current classrooms has significantly increased over the past few years, including interactive whiteboards. Technology is constantly evolving in our daily lives, as well as, in our classrooms. This is apparent in the interactive whiteboards. There are many different models and upgrades of the interactive whiteboards in hopes to make them more accessible, easier for students and teachers to use, and programs/software that help engage students, such as the SMART notebook software.
From elementary school to high school I experienced the transition from overhead projectors,
Promethean boards, and eventually SMART boards. From kindergarten until fourth or fifth grade, I can vividly remember my teachers using the
overhead projectors to teach. They often had the worksheet or lesson that we were doing on a projector sheet that allowed them to project the picture of worksheet or lesson we were discussing, as well as, to write annotations and answers as they taught. Around middle school, my school advanced from the overhead projectors to Promethean boards. I found these interactive boards very effective in my learning, and my classmates. We would often get excited about learning and being able to utilize the board while learning.
Although I did not experience learning with the
SMARTboard, I was introduced to the SMARTboard when I was a Sophomore in high school as an employee at a preschool. As an assistant preschool teacher for the K3 and K4 classes, I was able to teach them through the SMARTboard. My personal experience with the SMARTboard has been an overall positive experience although I have faced many difficulties with it as well. The children loved watching educational videos, dancing and singing songs, playing interactive educational games, and practicing writing their letters and names on the SMARTboard. This was a very effective and useful tool that we as teachers in this classroom relied on, so when it was not working properly we would have to adjust and replan quickly for our students.
One disadvantage to the SMARTboard that I faced as an assistant preschool teacher was that the students were able to walk up to the board and use their fingers to touch the board and it would mess up what we were doing such as pausing a video we were watching. With twenty preschoolers, it was very hard to get them to understand that they could not touch the board unless the teacher gave them permission to. Preschoolers love to touch things, especially if you tell them not too, so this was one issue that we faced with the SMARTboard in our classroom.
There are many
types of technology in interactive whiteboards that could be used in the classroom, such as resistive technology, electromagnetic, laser scanner, and interactive whiteboard software. SMARTboard is a type of resistive technology, which supports touch recognition through fingers, pens, and other objects. The contact is detected and sent to the computer. The electromagnetic
whiteboards "use electricity to create a magnetic field." Electromagnetic boards do not support touch recognition and can only be used with the special pen specifically for that board. An example of this could be the earlier Promethean boards which could only be used with the pens that were designed for that board. The laser scanner boards use special pens that have reflective pieces on them. There are infrared laser scanners in every corner of the board that detects the reflection of the reflective piece on the board pens. Most interactive whiteboards are sold with software that contains interactive features to utilize with the boards. These features could include lesson plans, a variety of tools for teaching different subjects and concepts, interactive books, and more. An example of this could be the SMART notebook software for the SMARTboards.
The SMART notebook software allows teachers to access lesson plans, premade activities and interactive lessons, or they could make their own interactive lessons. Although I have utilized the SMARTboard with my preschoolers, I personally do not have much experience with the SMART
notebook software. In my classroom, I used SMART notebook, but only for the children to practice writing their names and the letters of the alphabet. I had no idea that the SMART notebook software had so many resources that could be used in the classroom. If I would have been educated more on this software then I would have used it in many different ways and much more often. I believe that this software is an effective way to help students learn in an interactive way that they will enjoy.
Overall I believe that the effectiveness and usefulness of the SMARTboards and other similar interactive boards and their software is a successful tool that helps students significantly grow academically. I believe that the benefits of interactive boards and their software outweigh the negatives. Although technology is not always reliable, I think that interactive boards are effective and a fun way for students to learn and interact with the material presented to them.
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