This post is Part 1 of my report for FLE Assignment 2 - Virtual Learning Environments. This has also been posted at The IWB Challenge Blog. Feedback is very welcome.
I decided to create the Interactive Whiteboard Challenge because I have been asked over the past couple of years to give quite a few workshops on how to use IWBs and I have found that teachers really don’t feel that they have had enough training and professional development in using this tool. I’ve been told by a few teachers that the whiteboards were just installed and they were expected to just jump in and start using them. Rather than just give a one-off workshop I thought it would be important and useful to create an ongoing resource that teachers could access in order to get ideas and support for the use of their interactive whiteboard. I have also found that teachers really appreciate examples of what other teachers have done (as opposed to sales-pitches by IWB companies) and so that was the motivation behind asking several teachers I know to show how they use their IWB by setting a challenge and making a video that other teachers could watch.
Enter the Interactive Whiteboard Challenge (IWB Challenge). The challenge involves several teachers who are advanced users of IWBs to set a challenge to other teachers that focuses on a particular IWB skill - like adding audio, cloning, or using the IWB for reflective activities. Whatever suits that teacher. These challenges (7 so far with more coming) have then been added to the IWB Challenge wiki, which is the base for displaying challenges, and for participants to create their own page to display the videos of the results of their completed challenges.
Trudy Sweeney of Flinders University in South Australia writes about transforming pedagogy through interactive whiteboards, saying that the effective use of IWBs requires (among other things) ongoing teacher professional development and engaged communities (Sweeney, 2010). The main aims of the IWB Challenge are to provide a resource for teachers’ ongoing professional development as well as create a virtual community where teachers can connect with other teachers who are also interested in improving the way they use their IWB.
Creating an online virtual community allows teachers to access learning materials at a time that suits them, avoiding the constraints of a full teaching day. David Wetzel writes that approaches to online professional development for teachers that consists of watching slides or self guided screens lacks “sustainability because there is no follow-up or collaborative effort” (Wetzel 2009). I (and hopefully some others) will be facilitating the IWB Challenge in order to see how participants are progressing, to get real time feedback from them about the structure of the challenge, and to offer them timely help and feedback on the skills they are developing. I’ll also be encouraging participants to reflect on their learning by writing about it in their wiki pages, and by interviewing them for the IWB Challenge podcast. This ‘facilitated format’ will gives teachers not only opportunity to reflect on their work with the support of accomplished users of the IWB technology, but also gives teachers time to go back to their classrooms, attempt a new strategy, then reconnect with facilitators and peers to discuss successes and failures and hopefully sustain their engagement in the professional learning (Wetzel 2009).
The structure of the IWB Challenge in respect to the tools used to build it is outlined here. All of the tools used (wiki, blog, Twitter, YouTube, Diigo, and Facebook) are common Web 2.0 tools. Using these tools is not only convenient and free for me, but also then introduces participants to using these tools to develop their own online personal learning environment and network. In this way, focussing on improving IWB practice is acting as a ‘gateway’ to learning more about Web 2.0 tools as well.
As part of the evaluation process for this assignment, I received some really constructive feedback and really appreciated the peer review process. The main suggestions were to have more specific guidelines for the discussion forum on the Challenge wiki, as well as more specific guidelines on what part students play in the activity. I’ve done that but also think I need to add a few more short instructional videos on how to manage certain parts of the wiki.
The other suggestion in the feedback was to have a page with brief discussions of the educational theories underpinning the challenge. I think this is a great idea and could really stimulate some good discussion on the use of IWBs. This topic will be something that I’ll work on throughout the challenge and I’ll use it as a conversation starter in the Facebook and Diigo groups. I’ll also find someone who I can interview about educational theory and IWBs for the podcast.
I also plan to use an article called 10 IWB Features Every Teacher Should Know About by Chris Betcher which will also provide a basis for discussion during the challenge. I hope to interview Chris for the podcast at some stage during the Challenge.
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References:
Betcher, Chris (2008) ‘10 IWB Features Every Teacher Should Know About,’ Eastern Shores School Board Website, www.essb.qc.ca/recit/more/iwb/10%20IWB%20features.pdf accessed: 22/05/10
Fawzi, Hala (2007) Out of Isolation Circles: Web 2.0 for Teacher Professional Development: http://www.slideshare.net/halafawzi/out-of-isolation-circlesweb-20-for-teacher-professional-development accessed: 10/06/10
Nikolov, Roumen (2007) Towards Web 2.0 Schools: Rethinking the Teachers Professional Development: http://dspace.ou.nl/handle/1820/1064 accessed: 10/06/10
Sweeny, Trudy (2010) ‘Transforming pedagogy through interactive whiteboards: Using activity theory to understand tensions in practice,’ in Australian Educational Computing, Vol, 24, No. 2, p. 28
Wetzel, David R (2009) Virtual Professional Development for Teachers - Online Continuing Education for Educators is Rapidly Expanding: http://continuingeducation.suite101.com/article.cfm/virtual_continuing_education_for_teachers accessed: 10/06/10
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