If You Ever Needed Proof...

There's a big debate in education right now regarding how effective SMART Boards (or other interactive whiteboards) are in the classroom.  I've seen numerous conversations on Twitter, nings and various blogs hashing out whether or not the cost of purchasing this technology actually translates into "better" teaching and learning.  Embedded in these debates is the question: are students authentically engaged with the material, or are iwbs simply a magical novelty that will wear off over time?

My response? Technology is simply a tool and will not magically transform your classroom! It's been said before and I'll say it again, "It's the teAch, not the tech."

My role as an Education Consultant is to lead educators through professional development workshops modeling effective use of their SMART Boards.  I purposefully demonstrate how teachers can change the structure of their classroom and have this new technology become a student centered tool instead of a primarily teacher centered tool.

How? One of the easiest ways is to set up the class into 'centers' -- yes, even high school classrooms can function this way.  As such, the SMART Board becomes one center where 4-6 students collaborate to work through a problem, explore a new concept, challenge each other to a review, etc.  This concept is the main reason for my Fresh Look Fridays posts -- using effective interactive websites can instantly increase the amount of student interaction with your new technology when combined with an adjusted layout of your room.

Recently, I attended Catalyst 2010 in Kelowna, BC. At our booth, we obviously had a SMART Board displayed, and I was playing around with some of my favourite interactive websites, when a group of high school students that were volunteering at the conference came over.  Essentially what happened was that they unknowingly modeled what I've been preaching this whole time -- small group collaboration to solve a problem.

Enter Exhibit A:

If you ever needed proof as to whether or not proper use of a SMART Board can be engaging, authentic and improve student collaboration and learning, here it is.

They spent the better part of two days at our booth, determined to solve all 10 geometry problems from the 3D Interactive Geometry site that I reviewed here. 

We couldn't keep them away!

Of course, being teenagers, once they realized that I was taking pictures they posed for a few more:

Haha - I miss the antics of teenagers sometimes. It was fun to have them hang around for the two days :)

Next time someone questions you on whether or not SMART Boards can be student-centered and engaging, point them to these pictures.

There, now I'm off my soapbox.

Vanessa