The week 9 learning path also brought the utilisation of IWBs in the classroom into focus. Oddly enough, this article brought it to my attention that the first interactive whiteboard was supposedly released in 1991, despite the fact that only in recent years have IWBs become an extremely common and regularly used tool in classroom settings. However, given the new emphasis on developing student skills with ICTs, or specifically the ICT general capabilities as outlined by the Australian Curriculum, has significantly increased their use by both teachers and students over the years.
In conjunction with this, the same article mentioned earlier emphasises that research has repeatedly demonstrated that student learning is amplified and transformed when they are completely engaged. This same research indicates that multi-sensory, hands-on learning is the most effective way to engage students. IWBs provide teachers with the opportunity for teachers to easily facilitate multi-sensory learning in numerous ways. For example, a teacher can create a highly engaging lesson that focuses on a task such as a ‘matching activity’ in which students use either their hands or the IWB pointer/pen to match items for the whole class to simultaneously view. IWBs also allow teachers to integrate several items into a lesson plan/learning experience such as websites, photos, music that students can interact with and so on. Given their benefit of amplifying and transforming student learning, it is important to incorporate the use of IWBs wherever possible when planning lessons while on professional experience.
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