EWB, IAW or IWB?
I guess that IWB is probably the most common acronym for the big touch screen boards making a huge
impact in classrooms around the world. The “I” is for interactive and the manufacturers are very keen to press this as being what these boards are. Observations of use in a lot of schools can sometimes reveal this to be a misnomer. To quote a colleague I did some training with recently “interactivity means that the kids can influence what happens on the board”. This requires the teachers pedagogy to be aligned with student interaction and directing the lesson to the needs of the kids. This is not always the case.
As many critics of mass programs to put boards in rooms with little thought to training and support point out, there is nothing inherently “interactive” about the boards. They can, and often are, used exclusively by the teachers and, worse still, some are used mostly for the same sorts of things that the standard white board was used for or, worse still, are used as expensive projection screens.
I think a good aim for all of us is to convert our Electronic Whiteboard (EWB) into a true IWB for all class members.
Filed under: Appropriate Hardware for Education | Tagged: classroom, interactive, IWB
