Interactive Whiteboards-A Blessing or a Curse?

It seems ironic that I would have anything bad to say about interactive whiteboards, since I used one during my field experience and found it to be an excellent tool for both myself and the students I was teaching. These interactive whiteboards, such as the one pictured here, have become increasingly common in schools in recent years and have received a great deal of praise for their ability to help motivate students and make classrooms more interactive. However, these boards have also received some criticisms including; the amount of training given to teachers, whether the money used to add these boards to the classroom could not be put to better use, and if students are really motivated these new interactive whiteboards or if they are simply a "glorified chalkboard" with some cool interactive features.

These interactive whiteboards do appear to have a great many advantages. According to one study done by Robert J. Marzano, who looked at 200 classrooms, those with interactive whiteboards saw significant benefits that were lacking from the more traditional classrooms. Among these benefits were a 16 point percentile point gain in student achievement, in general when using the whiteboard, as well as increases in student participation and motivation. You can read more about these results by following this link: http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/nov09/vol67/num03/Teaching_with_Interactive_Whiteboards.aspx. However, Marzano cautions that while these interactive whiteboards can be a powerful tool but that it will always remain simply a tool and if not used effectively than it does not truly benefit instruction. In fact one-fourth of the teachers in his study did better without the whiteboard than with it. It should also be noted that not all school districts are being rigorous in teachers how to use the technology, for instance, in Maryland's Kent County Schools, require teachers to apply for the whiteboard program, attend summer training sessions, have monthly follow ups, participate in a teacher blog discussion, and study the material on the best uses of the interactive whiteboard technology. However, someone who commented on this article with the screen name CEE, stated that in their district no training is offered or given unless you set it up yourself and do it during non-contract hours. I also have heard from some teachers here in the Waterloo, Iowa area that not much training has went in to ensuring all teachers can use the interactive whiteboards effectively.

This lack of training appears to be just one of the flaws that seems to be developing in using interactive whiteboards in the classroom. For instance, in the United Kingdom, where interactive whiteboards are available in 98% of secondary schools and 100% of primary schools the benefits and the flaws of interactive whiteboards are more apparent. For instance, one study found that the increase in student motivation was short lived after the novelty of the technology wore off and statistical analysis showed no impact on pupil performance once the interactive whiteboards had been in use for one year. More information on this study can be found at this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactive_whiteboard#Criticisms. It has also been noted that some teachers become tied to the interactive whiteboard and no longer move around the classroom in order to ensure all students are actively involved in the lessons. Other problems with the whiteboards are their high cost, and many have argued that the money may be better spent on laptops or mobile devices that allow for one-to-one computing for students. School librarians have also noted that the high price tag of interactive whiteboards, has cost them the ability to buy traditional resources, such as books, and having enough staff, especially during tough economic times.

These are all valid points and clearly a great deal more research needs to be done to determine the advantages and disadvantages of interactive whiteboards and how they should ultimately be used in the classroom. I know I for one look forward to seeing what happens because clearly this is an important issue and will ultimately effect how I teach.

Image Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mtsofan/2888347999/sizes/m/

Advantages of Ebook Readers

One of the biggest developments of technology in recent years has been the development of ebook readers or ereaders. These include a wide variety of devices including; the Nook developed by Barnes and Noble, numerous variations of the Kindle, including one marketed by Amazon.com, and the Sony Reader. Although these three brands are popular a wide variety of ebook readers are available, this link provides a list of them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_e-book_readers. However, these new ebook readers are not just for entertainment, they could easily be put to use in the classroom as well. In fact some universities have already started running pilot programs to incorporate ebook readers in courses rather than using traditional textbooks. For instance, in the Fall of 2009, Princeton University ran a pilot ebook reader program to determine their effectiveness for students and to reduce the amount of paper used to print documents by students. You can learn more about this program and its conclusions at the following link: http://www.princeton.edu/ereaderpilot/index.xml. Unfortunately, much of the focus about using ereaders in education, have focused on their usefulness in the college settings, such as in the video below, but they ignore the usefulness ereaders could provide for Kindergarten through Twelfth grade students.



Many ebook readers provide a number of advantages for K-12 students that traditional textbooks lack. The following list includes just a few of the many advantages ebook readers provide.

-Many ebook readers include a Read To Me Feature, this aspect would be excellent for all students to help them dual code the material, by using both verbal and auditory skills. This Read To Me Feature would also be beneficial for students who suffer from learning disabilities or dyslexia where being able to hear the material works better or for physical disabilities such as low vision and would not require any expensive extra technology used by only a few students. -We could eliminate some health problems, although most people assume only college students carry a lot of heavy books, which lead to back problems, high school textbooks have become increasingly heavy over the years, especially as more content is added to them.

-It is an excellent use of storage and can help keep students organized. With a storage space for at least 1500 books in most ebook readers, students could keep not just textbooks but also term papers, documents used in class, including grading rubrics and worksheets, and even novels to read for fun.

-Students are more familiar with technology. Unlike most digital immigrants, digital natives, who we know have grown up with technology are far more willing to try new technology and are more comfortable with such technology. Allowing them to use ebook readers would allow schools to play to students strengths rather than forcing them to use out of date and poorly designed textbooks that were written by and for people who were not born in the digital age.

-Finally we need to remember the biggest issue COST. Although most would assume ebook readers would cost more, mainly because they are a newer technology and the fact that they may still have some bugs to work out. In reality though most ebook readers are relatively cheap, only between $150 and $400 for most ereaders. When you compare that to the cost of just the 5 or 6 textbooks a student might need in a single year could easily go up to $400 or $500 dollars a year and if new books are purchased every 3 to 5 years, such cost can easily spiral out of control.

The ebook reader would greatly reduce not just the economic cost for schools and students but would save thousands of trees each year, which would make the world a better place for everyone. Clearly the many advantages of ebook readers need to be considered at all levels of education and how beneficial they could be for all students.

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Wikipedia, To Use or Not To Use

As a social science teaching major, perhaps no website has caused as much controversy as Wikipedia. In both high school and then when I was earning my Bachelor's of Science in History, I heard over and over again, do not use Wikipedia. The warnings were a lot like the ones mentioned in this blog entry that are sceptical of Wikipedia: http://www.pbs.org/teachers/learning.now/2006/07/wikipedia_in_the_classroom_con.html. You cannot trust that the material, anyone is allowed to edit, Wikipedia makes a lot of mistakes. Unfortunately of these criticisms seemed to be based on the same information they are allegedly complaining about. For instance, an entry on SCHOOLS@hslc.org listserv (ironically, a non-for-profit group designed to promote information sharing among its members) warned that Wikipedia was unsafe. I have been unable to locate this entry despite looking for it, but ironically it brings up an equally good point, you claim something is unsafe but no one can look at your evidence and determine if it is accurate. However, Wikipedia itself does not do that it allows information to be changed over time and allows everyone to provide evidence to prove their position is correct.

I know from first hand experience that professors, teachers, and students have all used Wikipedia to aid them in teaching material or completing assignments. Perhaps the most blatant use of this hypocrisy I have ever seen is that my European Politics professor claimed we should not use Wikipedia but a book she wrote and assigned to us, listed a Wikipedia webpage as a source. The reality is if students are taught to use Wikipedia properly it can be an effective tool both in and out of the classroom. Wikipedia as mentioned previously is a great starting point for research. I know from experience that using Wikipedia as a starting point has led not just to reputable, scholarly, peer-reviewed articles on the topic but can also led to interesting first source material, which is a great tool to have in any social science classroom because it makes the material more relevant and interesting for students. I mean what are the odds that a traditional encyclopedia will ever include the original text of the resistance letters written by the White Rose member in 1942 and 1943 (an intellectual German resistance movement that opposed the Nazis). The reality is no traditional encyclopedia ever could but yet we still encourage students to use textbooks and encyclopedias to help start their research in middle school and sometimes in high school. The reality is we need to show students how to analyze Wikipedia correctly, know how to spot biases in the entries, and even how to correct mistakes they find in Wikipedia using material that is accurate. If all of us simply stop seeing Wikipedia as a threat, people will be able to see it as a useful, relevant source, although it will probably never be as accepted as an academic journal article or an academic book, but that is probably a good thing because if Wikipedia became a book it would lose some of its most important contributions as an effective teaching aid.

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Who's Who in the Digital Age

I like many people born after 1982 grew up with computers but I know that my brother, born in 1991 can do things with a computer I could never imagine doing before I saw him do them. Such behavior I believe reflects the fact that just because someone is born in the digital age does not mean they are "digital natives" or that people born prior to the 1980s are all "digital immigrants." In fact Dr. John Palfrey and Dr. Urs Gasser, authors of the book Born Digital, seen on the right, have pointed out that if anything far more categories can be used to define people in the digital age, which I believe is a more effective approach than simply using Mr. Marc Prensky's two sided approach. Basically, age may be an important factor in determining if someone is a "digital native" but how technology is used by people or if it is used at all also matters. Obviously full fledged "digital natives" were born digital, like my brother and many of his friends, and who live digitally and spend more time talking and working with one another on-line then off, and being on-line is about the only way you can talk to them even if you live in the same house. However, we must also recognize that many people have been "born digital" but may not live digitally. This group includes both young people who choose not to live digitally or are unable to live digitally. In reality only 1 billion of the world's 6.7 billion people have regular access to the Internet, meaning the vast majority of people cannot even consider living digitally because it does not exist for them. Also many people born prior to the 1980s fall into more than just a broad "digital immigrant" umbrella term. For instance, a colleague of Dr. Palfrey recommended the term "digital settlers" for people who were born before the 1980s but live digitally, and in some ways, I believe, they might live on-line even more than "digital natives" especially if they work in a field that requires extensive use of computer technology and they have children who are "digital natives" and are more involved in their children's lives by living on-line. A "digital immigrant" on the other hand is someone who struggles through the digital world, like my parents, but do not live digitally. Finally though, we have people who do not have anything to do with the digital world either by choice or circumstance and were not born digital. I believe these more comprehensive terms provide a better understanding of how people live in a growing digital world.
I do however worry that as an educator, trying to teach my own students how much privacy they need to have when living digitally will be very hard to, in part because they are drawing the lines more than their parents and lets face it teenagers do not always exercise the best judgment (in fact we know the frontal lobe, which governs judgment develops more during adolescences than at any other time in life-Courtesy of Dr. Elizabeth Sowell of the UCLA Brain Research Team). I think in the end, parents and teachers, regardless of when we were born, will need to find a way to live digitally enough to ensure the safety of the children we raise and educate, but still find a balance so that the kids can still learn from their mistakes and become well functioning adults. I also have to say, I am very worried about how people who do not live digitally will be able to survive in the years to come. We need to find ways to make living digitally relevant to everyone, otherwise some people will inevitably be treated unfairly in a digital world, or are taken advantage of by having their identity stolen on-line.
I also must note that this is my first blog so I am uncertain how to end it. However, I feel I must give thanks to Dr. Palfrey and his colleagues for the research they do on this topic, and I must note that they do not endorse this work. I also would like to leave you with two links one to Dr. Palfrey's blog and the other to the Digital Natives website from the Berkman Center at Harvard. http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/palfrey/2007/10/28/born-digital/
http://www.digitalnative.org/#home

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