Tanner and Jones' How Interactive Is Your Whiteboard?

This article addressed the need for interactive, whole class teaching and the assumption that interactive whiteboards provide this type of class environment. The article defines a continuum of the Nature of Interaction from the less student active side, lectures, to the very active students doing collective reflection. The authors discuss ways to improve student interaction utilizing an interactive whiteboard and strategies that promote self-reflection.

I agree with the authors on many points, students should have a high degree of control over their learning and that teachers are facilitators of discovering knowledge. I also agree that interactive whiteboards can be used to assist in the learning process and helping students become active in their own learning. However, I don't think that it is the interactive whiteboard or the skills attained to utilize the board that promoting an environment where your students can self-reflect and guide their own understanding, but rather the teacher must possess a certain set of skills and attitude that empowers students to become controllers of their own learning. I believe that a teacher who possesses these skills and promotes this environment can support their students with only a pencil and paper. I feel that the teacher's tool box of strategies and questioning techniques are what promote an environment that harbors self-reflection and deep interactivity. Without these skills, even an interactive whiteboard wouldn't be an effective teaching tool.

I do think that an interactive whiteboard can be utilized to deliver some very interactive and successful lessons but we should not forget about other resources beyond technology. We shouldn't forget to think out of the box just because we've been provided with very advanced supplies. Students need change. We are extremely aware of the multiple learners there are in a classroom and the need to differentiate instruction to meet their needs. I feel that an interactive whiteboard is just another tool for the tool box but is not to replace the rest of the tools we have collected over time.

Interactive whiteboards can be used in a secondary mathematics classroom from simple to complex levels. For example, the interactive whiteboard and its software can save all of the notes you write on the board. As we know, this is especially important in a math classroom where questions may arise and the "small" steps can easily be missed. If a student misses class, the saved notes can be printed and given to these students. Also, if students have a hard time keeping up with your notes, you can provide the student with a copy. Another way to utilize the interactive whiteboard in the math classrooms is so you have more time for visuals to tie in with your notes. If you give the students the typed notes and draw sketches demonstrating the typed notes it will help the visual learners and also give you more time to provide examples (this is great for Geometry)! There are also really useful math tools that come with interactive whiteboards that provide graphs and a software package that allows the teacher to see everyone's calculators. You can synchronize the calculators and have a student demonstrate their processes. There are many good uses for an interactive whiteboard in the secondary mathematics classroom and would make a great tool for a teacher.