Technology Reflection: Interactive Whiteboards

Description/Experience

The technology demonstration presented in the last seminar was interactive whiteboards.  The demonstrator showed us how they can be affectively used within the classroom to enhance instruction; he even showed us websites that help educators come up with creative and new ideas for lessons.  Being that I am studying to be a secondary English teacher, I find that interactive whiteboards are more difficult to work with considering the age group of my future students.  A lot of activities that involve interactive whiteboards are catered to the younger age groups, and older students would not find them beneficial.  However, it did provide me with hope that one day, I will be able to use the interactive white boards with my students in an affective and helpful manner during my instruction.

Application
Describe an instructional activity (e.g. part of a lesson plan) where you or your host teacher can incorporate this technology. Consider an activity that can be conducted in 15-20 minutes.

First, provide some details regarding:

• Learners: The learners for this activity are eighth grade students in a Read 180 classroom.
• Learning outcomes: At the end of this activity, students should be able to define the different parts of speech, and know how and when to properly use them.
• Assessment: The activity in itself acts as a form of assessment.  This lesson requires classroom discussion and the interactive whiteboard offers a facilitation for learning and encoding the information presented.

-First the teacher must spend five to ten minutes discussing the parts of speech with the students.  It should focus on nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions.  The teacher should define each for the student, and have the students then provide examples of each.

-The next ten minutes will be spent having students go to the interactive whiteboard and complete a mad lib sheet together.  Each student gets a turn writing in an example of the different parts of speech

-The last five minutes will be used by presenting the class with the story they created together by unknowingly filling in words that correspond to the different parts of speech.

Reflection

--Pedagogical-Content:

I find that for the students at the secondary age level, interactive whiteboards are not particularly useful in the integration of technology into lessons.  Technology cannot replace teacher interaction, and instead, should be used to simply enhance the lesson.  Therefore, my pedagogical strategy for this lesson revolves around a lecture-based instruction.  While lectures are not exactly the best form of instruction, for the material being taught, it is probably the most effective.  However, the lecture can easily turn into a classroom discussion through the use of probing and examples.  An educator should be aware of his or her students’ zone of proximal development and create the lesson around it.

These strategies are appropriate for teaching this specific content because part of speech is something that everyone simply must memorize.  It is difficult to prevent rote learning when it comes to parts of speech, but through the application of this knowledge, students will easily encode the information using meaningful learning facilitated by the instructor.  The motivation in this instruction comes directly from the technology being used, as the educator is encouraged to outline the lesson before jumping right into it.  Thus, the students know what to expect, and if they are cooperative, they will be rewarded by being able to play an educational game.

--Technological-Pedagogical:

The technology, as stated above, is used to provide students a means for meaningful learning.  It acts as an assessment because the students will be providing examples.  It can also act as motivation for the students.  Most of all, however, the technology acts as a method for student practice allowing the students a way to apply what they have learned.

Different classroom management strategies will be required because students will be approaching the interactive whiteboard one at a time.  While one student is at the board, the others will remain in their seats.  The educator must keep these students engaged during this time.  Perhaps as the student is picking an example of a part of speech, the teacher could be going over different examples with the students.  Also, the educator is encouraged to inform the students that they will be working with the interactive whiteboard so that it has a few moments to settle in before the jump right into it.  If the students have not used it before, it is a smart idea for the teacher to go over how to properly handle the technology so that students do not break it.

--Technological Pedagogical Content:

Mad libs is a game that students play that involves students providing blind examples of the different parts of speech.  At the end, those parts of speech come together to create a pre-made template of a story.  It often ends up very silly, and the students will be able to recall the game when recalling their knowledge of parts of speech.  Examples is the best way to go about teaching parts of speech because while providing students with a clear definition is crucial, examples allow for students to understand and apply the knowledge.  This activity does not teach the students the parts of speech, it allows student to apply what they know in order to assess their knowledge and understanding.  For example, if the activity is asking for an adjective and a student says “table,” the educator will be able to recognize that that particular student will need some more help with adjectives.

            This technology allows students one-on-one interaction with interactive whiteboards, and while it could be carried out without the technology, the activity would be much more difficult.  Students are supposed to provide examples without knowing the story, and technology provides students with the means of hiding the story so the students do not cheat and pick words that would make sense necessarily.  The technology helps students process and apply the knowledge they learned during the lecture or classroom discussion.