Interactive White Boards are Beneficial to Students

·         What is the impact of an interactive whiteboard on student achievement?

o    The use of IWB has the ability to improve the quality of education for today’s students and they have be shown to improve student’s overall performance

§  Robert J. Marzano quotes one study where it was found that using an IWB improved student’s performance by 16 percentile points versus a control group with no IWB.

§  The use of IWB with add-ons like a hand held voting device for entering answers; with the visual, interactive nature of IWBs and employing methods that reinforce accuracy with immediate feedback like adding applause all will improve scores an additional 10-15 points.

• The improvements noted above only work if the emphasis in the IWB lesson is to enforce understanding and mastering the material, not just on presenting information in a fun way. That is the challenge that will face teachers using IWBs. Teachers will have to create organized IWB lessons with a purpose and clear success criteria.  

·         What are the Xs and Ox for designing effective IWB lessons?

• IWB lessons are not much different from other lessons.
• It should start with a title page that clearly explains the lesson’s objective and method.
• The lesson should be interactive for the students. They should use the board more than the teacher.
• The IWB lesson should incorporate the following interactive elements:
• Pull down tabs to reveal or add important information. This little element of suspense help keep the students engaged.
• Drag and reveal question and answers are a fun and interesting method for students to understand and correlate material.
• Make the lesson visually appealing by maintaining a theme and using animated objects.
• The smart board is also a great tool for creating learning games for the students.
• One should not be afraid to experiment and try new things and continually update an IWB lesson. Through trial and error by keeping what works and throwing out what doesn’t 21^st Century teachers will be able to create an exciting and successful learning experience for today’s learners.