Writing on the wall

I’m not sure how to categorise the SMART Board. Is it an ICT tool? Or a platform for tools? Or both?

I attended an introductory session on SBs today and thought I might offer a few first impressions couched in a broader consideration of what is effective learning.

It seems to me that the uses for the whiteboard are as broad as you want them to be. You can view and annotate ready-prepared documents, link to web pages or video files, write up points from class discussion and capture and save a screen shot.

I can see enormous potential for primary school students and younger secondary students. However…

There is a worrying potential to get caught up in the ‘fun features’, believing your class is happy simply because there is technology at play, and failing to realise that behind you sits a wall of bored students. I am talking here about the physical construction of the classroom.

 The old classroom of teacher-at-front and students-facing-teacher was effective for the didactic model of learning. The new classroom should instead scream collaboration as soon as students enter it. And no teacher should not be positioned in the one spot, front and centre, for a lesson.

The key seems to be to ensure all the students are highly competent in using the SMART Board and that they do use it every time it is turned on. They need to feel it is their space up the front too, rather than a privileged ‘teacher space’. For example:

Capturing class discussion

If students' discussion, and capturing it, is so important, then students have to be given the chance to get up close and hands on. Students should be able to get out of their chairs and gather in front of the board. As they discuss, they each have the chance to add conceptual words to the board. This way, discussion is a process of mutual construction.

This could be done as a whole class if they are mature, or in groups while the rest of the class is on a rotation of other activities. The SMART Board enables each group to save the screen shot of their discussion points for wider class reflection.

Student presentations

Another way to destabilise the physical hierarchy of the classroom is to hand over presentations on the SMART Board to students as often as possible. Giving students the opportunity to take on a teaching role is known to be one of the most powerful forms of learning for them. The SMART Board offers students some interactive and enjoyable ways of presenting. They have the scope to make it as simple or as whizz-bang as they like. That flexibility is very appealing.

At worst, the SMART Board can stop a lesson in its tracks, with a teacher fiddling away in isolation with different shades of highlights and technical issues. At best, it can create a similar scene to those well considered and executed community art projects, where everyone is centre stage, working and the end goal is tangible and shared.