All things IWB

Ok Shaun
I´ve been using ans training IWB for over 2 years in Brazil and they can do so muchbecause as you can bring the internet and everything that goes with it into the classroom and then ,'at times', hand the class over to the learners.

The process of using IWB is simple. After a few months, like any new resource, teachers are comfortable with using them and the students do tool.
The main initial problem that I have observed in the classroom is an overuse of the IWB and this is due to:
1) teacher preparing too many slides/pages for a simple language point or lots of practice opportunities with visuals
2) teacher-centred classes. The T stand next to the board all class. (you have to reintroduce the use of 'the chair' into the teacher language vocabulary lol)
3) the teacher afraid to lose-face in front of the learners by not knowing everything it can do
4) not preparing or reviewing the teaching software used with the book/lesson and not knowing how to use it effectively.
5) presentations in class with teachers trying to use all a IWB has to offer without giving much thought as to the learners.

Once these hurdles have been overcome and used well classes can bring in a new dynamism into the classroom.

We don't have an IWB yet at IH Moscow but I live in hope :-)

What can you do to overcome the hurdles mentioned?

Shaun: I think if the publishers you work for did another survey after 3 months of using IWBs these fears would be forgotten. These expectations are natural but mostly unneccesary. Too much attention is given to IWB and they are just another learning tool.

Jennifer: Classroom management is the key to overcoming most of these along with hands on experience if the boards. If the software or hardware dont work it is not the fault of the teacher but the school. The teacher is their to provide the students with an comfortable environment to learner with or without using an IWB.

The other important issue is the process of introducing IWBs. If this is not respected the consequences can be considerable. My experience is having 29 IWBs put into our school 2 years ago.

Let me explain:

When training IWB, teachers 'generally' fall into two categories with IWB.

1) Computer experienced, limited teaching experience. I´ll call young
2) Limited computer expereinced and more teaching experience. I´ll call old

The young just dive straight into IWBs but have less teaching experience so are less effective using them for teaching but can use all they have to offer. If the boards have to be used in class from day one these young Ts do not neccessarily provide better classes and reflect less on their use. They tend to fall into the pitfalls I mentioned above in my first post but the students feel confidence in the teacher using the tool.

The older teachers need a longer time of practice to get over their fears and eventually end up becoming more proficient at using IWB in class. They have more teaching experience and adapt the board to the students much better. They eventually adapt and overcome the problems mentioned in my other message but as they take time impatient learners can get frustrated.

If the all of the teachers share, then these 2 groups balance up in time and become one. The young can show the old what the boards can do and the old question how each activity can be effective for their learners and show how the young can used IWBs better.

This shows there is no substitute for experience (computer and teaching) and sharing.

The other problem is the business constraints.

Teacher need to use the IWBs in class a.s.a.p. as the students need to use them or see them being used when they are installed. If experience teachers don´t adapt, ignore what most of what they can do with them or don´t use them quick enough (or are not given this time to adapt) then they will be seen as not being able to use an important investment and may lose their jobs.

The consequence is that the whole team suffers.

I´m happy to say where I work, loss of work has not happened but this was perhaps the biggest underlying fear of teachers as we started intitial training.

By the way, you may ask then, wouldn´t it be better to have one board in for some piloting with training? It could be but I´d be careful. The young teachers will tend to dominate their use as they are enjoyable to use and these teachers have ease in using them. The older teachers tend to get discouraged seeing younger teacher using all the tools an IWB has to offer.

.
Wow I didn´t realise this message was long sorry! Must go and do the washing up to rethink and lighten up on this subject lol.

Hi Guys,

I couldn't agree more with what you said above "Too much attention is given to IWB and they are just another learning tool" - i have a quote similar to this in my talk for IATEFL :-)

Jen, as for collaboration, how do you mean? Surely your school uses some sort of online system to coordinate teachers and sites? Couldnt this be used to share ideas and materials?

S

Hi all

I have been following this discussion with interest. I fall into the category of "older teacher" having no experience at all with IWB. I would welcome most heartily the opportunity to learn how to use one from a younger and more competent user. I saw the IWB demonstrated at TESOL Italy last year, and I was impressed by all the different things you could do with it. I like the idea of it being linked to the Internet. I look forward to being trained in its use and hopefully one day, I'll see what it is like for myself. I look forward to hearing more about the IWB on this thread.

Best

Janet

Hi,

Shaun

IH as a whole has some great ways of encouraging collaboration :-)

In Moscow we've got some online forums (for teachers and within management) but the teachers' one doesn't have an awful lot of momentum in terms of a positive exchange of teaching ideas. Various people have tried to make it more effective, but it's still a work in progress :-)

Just looking at VYL, there is a lot of fantastic collaboration, in the Teachers' rooms, during worskhops or seminars, planning sessions, or via very old-fashioned notice boards and folders :-) It's taken quite a long time to build this all up but it works well.

It's easier to establish and maintatin that collaboration and mutual support in one teacher's room, linking 20 is more of a challenge and online systems are an obvious tool here. Started scanning all the VYL resources so they'll be ready for September which is a start.

:-)

If / When we get an IWB I expect it will be just the one, so training would be quite localised, but if we got more training would be folded into the existing system we have (inductions, workshops, seminars etc.).

If (and this is getting quite idealistic) we had more than 1, within VYL and YL I'd try the following (looking to encouage the collaboration between 'young' and 'old' that Shaun D mentioned)
- At the moment we do monthly planning sessions at playgroups where teachers plan goals and outline lesson ideas for the next month. I'd build on that with some sort of partner / buddy system. Get an 'old' and a 'young' teacher planning together. Ideally they could peer observe and then give feedback.
- Make sure materials were easily accessible and transferable, and do lots of PR to get people exchanging ideas.
- Incorporate IWB training into existing workshops, plust initial and ongoing training.
- Add lessons using IWBs to our lesson DVD 'library' (peer obs can be hard to schedule with conflicting schedules so recording them gives more opportunity)

Would this work? What else would I need to do?

Hi Jennifer,

Shaun and I work at the same organisation in Brazil and I was actually in charge of training all of our 650 teachers!!!

I think the idea of a buddy system is perfect - it'll bring the mature and experienced teacher (and sometimes, but not necessarily always more techno resistant person) and younger teacher (less experience but techno wizz kid) together.
What I really love in your suggestion is working on lesson planning first and then focusing on the IWB training. This has the great advantage of not forgetting the the IWB is just another resource (a fab one, but which needs to be put in it's correct place).

What we found was that it took almost a year before everyone was fully used to the IWB - and we felt we needed to give everyone as much time as was needed. We talked a lot to the teachers about collaborative learning, I often mentioned Rogoff's notion of novice and expert and how sharing was the key to sucess in learning to use the IWB. Wwe aslo gave teacher s loads of opportunities to vent their frustration and their "failures" - this was important so people felt in the long run more comfortable with the tool.

But, having gone through all this 2 years ago, some of our initial worries concerning the IWB are still present:
1) The IWB can indeed make lessons more teacher centred and it's a fine art managing to focus back on sts. It needs constant monitoring, lesson observation and reminding teachers not to get over enthusiastic with the resources;
2) teachers spend hours working on flipcharts - I rather they'd focus on other things as well when preparing for a lesson.

But, on the whole, I still think it's been worthwhile - it does add a great deal - but it does make you re-think classroom management issues.
Perhaps you'd like to see a slide-share I created on the introduction of IWBs in our organisation:
http://tinyurl.com/yzljmqy

Take care,
Valéria

After several years teaching and training with IWBs, I created a training session called "Keeping the 'I' in IWB" as a reminder to teachers that it's only as interactive as you make it, and by that we need to emphasise as interactive as you make it for your students, it's a tool for learning as much as for teaching, if you see what I mean.
For me one of the key elements in teacher training has been keeping it simple and effective, and getting teachers to recycle ideas and lesson flipcharts. So a lesson idea comes up, and teachers share ideas about how the idea could be adapted to other lessons or activities, topics etc. it becomes a kind of "template" activity and it takes away the fear of having to think you've got to do something totally creative and original each time for every lesson, and reduces time spent on flipchart creation! You often find it's the "older" teachers who've got the sound teaching ideas of what to do with the activity once they've been given a prompt on the technology.
I've found that there's a kind of natural peak of activity when teachers start out with the IWBs, but once the initial excitement has died down and teachers really start getting to grips with them, use in classes is more balanced. But, yes, it easily takes a year (or 2!) to really hang in there with them!

Hi :-)

Sarah - I like the idea of a collaborative 'template', it's reassuring and you don't feel like you've got to constantly reinvent the wheel on a daily basis.

Valeria - thanks for the feedback and the link, it's really helpful :-)

How much does a beamer cost approximately??? Is the word "beamer" equivalent to "mimio"???? Just, because it is common practice that I do not use the specific EFL Greek context, either; the application is exorbitantly high...I suppose companies are trying to swindle us out of our revenues...

I believe "beamer" is what is properly called a digital projector, whereas a Mimio is a device that you can carry around in a small bag which you attach to a normal white board to make it into an IWB. They cost between about 300 and 700 pounds I believe, depending on the version.

The price of a projector depends on where you live and what you need it for. These days in the UK you can get a projector for 500 pounds, but that wouldn't be suitable for use in daylight in a larger classroom. For that you are probably talking about 2000 pounds plus. Then of course the bulbs are over 200 pounds each!

HTH

Kevin