Hi-tech boards transform teaching

Interactive whiteboard technology is ultimately an enabling tool and allows teachers to engage learners by incorporating multimedia in a dynamic way, says Johann Strauss, MD of VastraTech, a distributor of Smart Technologies' interactive whiteboards (IWBs).

“It starts with a need,” says Strauss. He explains that usually in a meeting environment, the communication process is somewhat disjointed, as one person is speaking and using resources, while the others are taking notes instead of focusing on the presentation.

“Now you can use a tool to integrate all of this, so it's natural and easy to use, and afterwards people can walk away with everything you said,” he explains.

According to the company, an IWB is basically a touch-sensitive screen connected to a computer and projector. The projector displays the computer desktop onto the surface of the board, and the teacher used a finger or pen-like instrument to open and control applications, so the whiteboard essentially functions as a screen, keyboard and mouse simultaneously.

Internet pages, save the screen shot and publish it onto the school intranet, or get students to load it onto their flash sticks.

“What brings the system to life is the software,” says Strauss. “People limit the boards by thinking you need Internet connectivity, but it shouldn't stop you from taking the next step.” He adds that teachers can be just as successful using a blackboard or traditional whiteboard, but it requires a lot more effort and greater reliance on the students taking down information.

He also stresses the ability to address questions without preparation. “In a class of 30 minds, it's impossible for a teacher to prepare for every question, so if something comes up they can quickly go online and bring it into the lesson, and then save it to file immediately. If a learner is sick and parents can access the school intranet, they can also download the day's notes remotely.”

On the preparation side, Strauss explains that older teachers are often reluctant to share material they've built up over years with new staff members. “Now that they don't have to prepare for hours in advance and the process is easier, teachers start sharing with each other more. It's one of the fundamental changes we've seen.”

Frans Kalp, technology teacher at Ligbron Academy of Technology in Mpumalanga, which introduced IWBs in 2005, says designing lessons around the board helps educators integrate ICT more efficiently. “Years ago, I started presenting lessons on a PC and data projector, but one of the biggest challenges was maintaining dynamic interaction with students while they sit in front of a computer screen or look at the data projector.

“When I got an interactive whiteboard, everything changed. The IWB helped me overcome this challenge and enrich ICT by providing a large workspace for hands-on work with multimedia resources.”

Strauss says teachers often feel threatened by technology, but that it should be integrated and easy to use. “Teachers need to be inspired first. If you connect technology in a teacher's comfort zone - their classroom, they discover it enables them to pull things in to assist them in explaining exercises. Then they can call up learners to do the experiments themselves.”

He says this teaches students multiple things at the same time. “They learn how to use technology, they learn how to speak to a group of people, and they're demonstrating something to their fellow students themselves, which is the best way to learn.”

Kalp says he found pupils who hardly ever spoke in class were now motivated to discuss work with their peers. “Interactive whiteboards definitely promote class discussions and improve pupils' explanations and presentation skills.”

He adds that one advantage, compared to seating students at individual workstations, has been that Web sites can be examined as a group activity. This also allows members of the group who are not especially computer literate and daunted by the prospect of using Web sites on their own to be introduced to sites in a group situation.

“The tutor can point to the screen and touch the relevant buttons without having to move away to the side to use a mouse or keyboard, which is useful in showing them how to achieve this step-by-step,” explains Kalp. “It allows members of the group to ask and hear others' questions and reactions before starting tasks individually.”

With the younger generation growing up on a diet of stimulating digital content, a static blackboard often has a hard time competing, notes Strauss. “Students today live in a world of cellphones, PlayStations and the Internet, but we want to educate them using old technology.

“It starts with getting their attention and interest, and once you've got that, you need to allow them to engage and interact with you so there's two-way collaboration,” he explains.

According to Kalp, having an electronic workspace large enough for everyone to see allows higher student interaction in both teacher-directed and group-based exchanges. “One can interact with the tool at the front of the class and everyone can now feel involved because of the IWB's size,” he says.

“The interactive nature of the IWB itself and its accompanying software allows for the development of classroom activities that are engaging for students.”

One of the fundamental aspects of implementing IWBs in classrooms is training, says Strauss. “They're a very powerful tool if used with imagination; but if here's no training, the technology becomes a white elephant,” he notes. “It has to be integrated into the teacher's pedagogy.”

Kobus van Wyk, programme director at the Cape-based Khanya project, adds that teacher training is a huge task. “With over 350 000 teachers in the country, by far the majority are not computer literate. Before a teacher can use IWB technology, it is assumed they have a basic understanding of the use of a PC or laptop, so that's the first step.”

Next up is learning how to use the products, he says, both the IWB, and the software used with it. “But that is only the start - the real challenge is to help teachers make the paradigm shift towards using technology as a teaching and learning tool.”

Dr Hannah Thinyane, a computer science lecturer at Rhodes University who has done field work in the use of interactive technologies in local schools, says the biggest problem is experience.

“Our teachers are not all computer literate and you can imagine how unnerving it would be to have to use a particular learning aid such as an interactive whiteboard in front of a class of 40 or 50 students who are probably more competent at it than you are.”

Thinyane adds that in addition to purely technical skills, incorporating IWBs involves an evolution in the teaching methods. “If a teacher uses an interactive whiteboard in the same manner as a traditional whiteboard, the full potential of the device will never be reached, and the impact it has will be limited.”

Associate Professor Cheryl Hodgkinson-Williams, at the University of Cape Town's Centre for Educational Technology, says the key issue is really not around the technology per se, but how the teacher uses it to achieve the specified outcomes.

“If they perceive the role of the teacher as 'transmitting' knowledge then they're likely to use the IWB to support this one-way transmission. If they believe their role is to facilitate learning, they are likely to use it in more collaborative ways.”

There have been various pilots and rollouts of IWBs locally, through government initiatives and school-driven projects. One example is Montagu Drive Primary School, in the Mitchell's Plain area of Cape Town, which secured funding in 2005 for a computer lab and interactive whiteboard, as part of the Western Cape's Khanya 'technology in education' project. The school now has 20 interactive whiteboards.

“When the Khanya project started, we concentrated very much on computer labs,” says Van Wyk, who acted as project manager. “But then we realised the real value of technology can be felt only when we bring technology into the classroom itself.”

Technology is an aid to teachers - not a replacement.

Associate Professor Cheryl Hodgkinson-Williams

School principal Felicity Sasman says learners were hooked by this approach to learning and more receptive to their lessons, particularly those with audiovisual content.

“The interactive whiteboards give learners the confidence to take part in lessons and they find it easier to express themselves,” says Sasman.

Another example is Ligbron, a technology-focused school in Ermelo, which with the support of the Mpumalanga Department of Education, created a network of a half a dozen schools in the region by connecting the IWBs wirelessly. In this way pupils in remote schools can share in Ligbron's mathematics and science lessons. The project has since been extended to include another two schools, with expansion to 15 schools planned.

Kalp says the initiative has created a distance-learning environment where several classrooms within a 50km radius can virtually work on one desktop. “We also use this technology to train the

teachers and uplift the standard of teaching and learning in rural, less-advantaged and underperforming schools.”

Strauss points out that it's a challenge for government to bring computers into every classroom, given some schools don't even have basic teaching tools and equipment.

According to Thinyane, there's a very broad spectrum of readiness for technology in SA's teaching environments. “Some more technology-savvy teachers may already have IWBs and be using them very effectively. But from our user study of previously disadvantaged schools in the Eastern Cape, we found the benefit of just a laptop and projector far outweighed the whole interactive whiteboard package.”

Van Wyk says the greatest challenge is the cost of the technology. “Not enough funds are made available by central and provincial government to provide technology to schools. There is a lot of talk about it, but government still has to put their money where their mouth is in this regard. There must be a political will to accomplish this.”

He adds that ignorance regarding the potential of technology in education is another barrier. “Education officials, school principals and teachers in general are not aware of the great value of technological tools.”

Kalp says there are only a handful of schools in SA that realise what positive impact the use of educational technology can have on the teacher and student in the classroom.

“Technological innovation will have a major influence on teaching methodologies over the next five years and the schools that fall behind will never catch up, and will always be 10 to 15 years behind.”

Strauss says in future, there will be a significant shift in classroom structure. “Previously, you had 30 students sitting behind their desks looking at the educator in front. That is going to change. Now they're going to break up into groups and work on an interactive table, or wireless laptops which are all integrated.”

He explains this will allow the teacher to interact with multiple groups, giving out projects that learners can come back and demonstrate. He quotes Smart Technologies CEO Nancy Knowlton, who describes the 21st century classroom as one where the teacher moves from being “the sage on the stage to the guide on the side”.

Strauss notes that every teacher is different and every class is different: “You don't have to put the same technology in every classroom.”

“I think technologies such as interactive whiteboards can play a large role in education, if the teachers are well trained and incorporate the device into their teaching, instead of the use of technology being an end in itself,” adds Thinyane. “The technology has to support the teaching.”

“Technology is an aid to teachers - not a replacement. Developing countries need to weigh up the benefits of using technology and not expect it to solve key educational problems that are pedagogical, not technological,” adds Hodgkinson-Williams.