The infamous Interactive Whiteboard (Week two)

Hiya,

So my second ICT session was on Interactive Whiteboards (IWB). I thought the session would be about the ways you can use one but it was more to do with using the Smart Notebook software to create resources to use in class. The resources are used to make lessons more interactive with children taking an active role. However, "some teachers tend to restrict the interactivity to their demonstrations" (Allen, Potter, Sharp & Turvey 2007 p.198) as many have found that continually bringing children up to the board can have a negative effect on the pace of the lesson

We were split up into groups to each create a different resource:

• Magic Tunnel
• Magnifier Glass
• Checker Tool
• Click to Reveal
• Erase to Reveal
• Random Generator
• Pull Tabs
• Balloon Pop Tool

Once we created the resource each group presented theirs to the group so that we all knew what each of them do.

Random Generator
The group I was in was given this resource to look at...I must admit we found it a bit difficult at first but as we rapidly ran out of time we worked under pressure to create a simple demonstration.
This resource can be used in a number of ways as there are different generators. There is a word generator which is a useful way to help you ask questions to children in your class. Put the names of all your class in the list and when you click it will give you their names at random, or if you want the names to come out in a specific order all you have to do is type them in that order and uncheck the 'random' box. Then it will generate the names in the order you have listed them.
For our demonstartion we used the number generator, with this one you set the number range (for example we had the range of numbers 1-10 only) and then when you click the generator it will randomly give you a number between your range. We decided to use this resource to help children learn counting on from 10. We had the question 10 + __ = and used the generator to give us the second number in the question.

So the answer here would be 19.







To find the generators, in Smart Notebook go to Gallery- type 'generator' into the search box and then click on 'interactive and multimedia' and this will bring up the different generators for you to choose from.
Some of the other resources required more creativity and thought so I'll probably choose one of the others to base my assignment on!  :0) 
Could have done with more tips on how to use the actual IWB as we all had some problems with that part but as we ran out of time I might ask about this when we have our next session.

Until next time, thanks for reading :0)


Reference: 
Allen, J. Potter, J. Sharp, J. & Turver, K (2007) Primary ICT: Knowledge, Understanding and Practice 3rd Edition Exeter: Learning Matters.