How May Teachers and Students “Bring Learning to Life” on the PolyVision Interactive Whiteboard? Customized for the School District of Springfield Township (PA) Dr. Swanson surveyed district teachers in December 2011 regarding the topics/areas of support of most importance for the January 2012 PD session. Aside from the “basics” of using the PolyVision ēno board, which will be addressed, nearly all respondents indicated “classroom instruction ideas” and “using the board as a center” as high priority issues. Science and math teaching blogger, David Wetzel, cites several examples of how interactive whiteboards (IWB) are used effectively and ineffectively to teach math and science, although these examples easily apply to other areas of the curriculum.( http://www.teachscienceandmath.com/2010/07/28/why-interactive-white-boards-are-usedineffectively-in-classrooms/ ). These lists are not exhaustive, but they offer valuable guidance on several more and less effective practices. Ineffective Methods Teacher-centered instruction (if this is all you do) Displaying videos and images (glorified pull-down screen) Failing to link to and make full use of Web resources “Canned lessons” that merely convert mundane paperbased lessons to digital lessons
Effective Methods Drag and drop/matching: on-screen items are moved to classify, process, compare, order, etc. Hide and reveal: hide then reveal content to help students’ build conceptual understanding. Movement or animation: demonstrate principles and illustrate principles. For example, the water cycle, chemical reactions, etc. Color, shading and highlighting: help to emphasize similarities and differences, enhance explanations, and identify patterns
A session presented by Candace Hackett Shively at the International Society for Technology in Education 2011 conference provided multiple ideas for student-centered uses of an IWB, including a learning center. (http://www.teachersfirst.com/iste/iwb/index.cfm ). She provides several IWB activity format tips and strategies for grades K-12, followed by specific activities in three categories, “working with words,” “working with images,” and a category she calls “create/improve/decide” (note that she pairs each activity with one of her activity formats). While she does not cite Wetzel’s suggestions, many of her tips and activities embrace them. Since your district uses the Smart Notebook software, check out her “Resources” tab for links to several sites with activities and lessons for this resource.
Example “Working With Words” Activity (taken verbatim from the website). Working with words: Ranking copy thesaurus entry for an adjective such as "fat" from Big Huge Labs thesaurus “pluck" words from the thesaurus synonyms or "similar words" students rank them in order by connotation, from good to bad Activity format: Students do this in groups (Save As or screenshot to save) or with an emcee taking direction from the class as an All-4-one. This requires judgment and higher order thinking skills. Students may end up arguing about which word is worse. Try a similar ranking activity, putting causal factors (Civil War? WWII?) in order of importance. Since there is more than one possible answer, different groups could compare and debate their results in a whole class activity after small groups take their turns. Ranking also works for definite information, such as ranking math equations by slope, events of a life cycle in chronological order. **A related idea from Greg: Choose two antonyms, like “hot” and “cold.” Have students search for synonyms for hot and cold (using an online thesaurus?) and write/type these on the IWB. Next, students place each word on a continuum from the “coldest” to the “hottest” words. Friendly disagreements and lively discussion are encouraged as students debate which words are “colder” and “hotter.” Prepared by Greg Brooks, PolyVision Education Consultant (gbrooks@polyvision.com , 585-545-9135). January 2012.
There are countless websites that offer ideas and lessons for making the most of your IWB. Some sites are operated by or lean toward a specific IWB or software product, while others may be adapted to any IWB board or software package. A Sampling of Free Online Resources for Your IWB Thinkfinity (www.thinkfinity.org). Funded by Verizon Wireless, this site contains in excess of 50,000 teaching resources, grades K-12, across content areas. Most resources are provided by a vetted list of trusted partners, which are listed at the bottom of the homepage. SAS Curriculum Pathways (www.sascurriculumpathways.com ). Funded by the SAS corporation, this site contains hundreds of lessons and activities, primarily gauged to the middle and high school populations. Resources are organized by topic, but you may search by keyword. Note that you need to register for an account to gain access, but all materials are free. Scholastic (http://teacher.scholastic.com/whiteboards/languagearts.htm ). A well known and respected publisher of teaching resources, literally from A to Z. This specific page provides specific activities and resources across content areas, such as language arts and social studies. Most items are geared to the elementary level, but a few may work with middle and high school students.
Other Websites Offering Free Lessons/Content to Use With Your IWB (Teacher Recommended) www.edsitement.neh.gov http://illuminations.nctm.org www.readwritethink.org www.pbskids.org www.mathfactcafe.com www.abcya.com www.math.com www.teacherfiles.com http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/kbosch/200 9/04/06/eight-great-interactive-sites-that-letyou-paint-like-a-famous-artist/ (art resources) http://www.ettcnsc.org/Instructional_resources /other/interactive_whiteboard_links.htm (links to many online resources for nearly all content areas) www.funbrain.com www.aplusmath.com/games www.arcademicskillbuilders.com www.crayola.com www.internet4classrooms.com www.wordcentral.com
www.iknowthat.com www.studystack.com www.superteachertools.com http://nrich.maths.org/public/ http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.a spx?FamilyID=9caca722-5235-401c-8d3f9e242b794c3a (Microsoft Mathematics) www.edheads.com (great for HS science- virtual surgeries) http://www.khanacademy.org/ (extensive math and science) www.starfall.com (primary grade ELA) http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/recommended/2011.html (top 100 tools for learning) http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vlibrary.html (Nat’l Library of Virtual Manipulatives)
Please share your ideas and questions on PolyVision’s Collaborative Teacher Community “ning” site— http://bringlearningtolife.ning.com . A ning is a social networking website—think Facebook.
Prepared by Greg Brooks, PolyVision Education Consultant (gbrooks@polyvision.com , 585-545-9135). January 2012.