Interactive Boards in Smart School

Interactive Whiteboards Enhance Classroom Instruction and Learning

Although the first interactive whiteboard was released in 1991, only in the last several years have whiteboards become a must-have tool in K-12 classrooms. New emphasis on developing 21^st century skills for students, the requirement for educator proficiency in technology, and research documenting increased learning with the use of interactive whiteboards have spurred its adoption.

Fundamentally, an interactive whiteboard combines a dry erase whiteboard with an LCD projector and is usually mounted on a wall or floor stand. Powered by easy-to-use software, the whiteboard becomes a computer screen viewable by an entire classroom. The projector projects the content from a computer onto the surface of the board while the teacher controls the content either with a pointer or a touch of the hand instead of a keyboard and mouse. The combination of software with the projector results in much more than simply a projected image.

Anything that can be done on a computer monitor, can be replicated on the interactive white board. A teacher can create engaging lessons that focus on one task such as a matching activity where students use either their fingers or a pen to match items. Another teacher might integrate multiple items into a lesson plan such as websites, photos, and music that students can interact with, respond to verbally or even write comments on the board itself. Image size and placement can change with a simple touch to the screen. This technology makes the one-computer classroom a workable instructional model. Imagine taking a class on a photo safari to Africa complete with embedded videos, animal sounds and mapping software.

Research has repeatedly demonstrated that students learn better when they are fully engaged and that multisensory, hands-on learning is the best way to engage them. Interactive whiteboards facilitate multisensory learning whether it is a collaboration exercise for math problem solving or a Google Earth tour of the Changa Manga forest.

Please share your experience of using white board how useful it is in enhancing students learning?

Active Learning and Passive Learning

The education system throughout the world is in a transition state today, from the formal passive teaching and learning to active teaching and learning aided by the use of technology. In Pakistan mostly the passive learning methods are used in the school. I wrote this article for the Pakistani Teachers to understand the difference between active and passive learning.

Flipped Classroom Learning

Flipped classroom or flip teaching is a form of blended learning in which students learn new content online by watching video lectures, usually at home, and what used to be homework (assigned problems) is now done in class with teachers offering more personalized guidance and interaction with students, instead of lecturing. This is also known as backwards classroom, inverted classroom, reverse teaching.

Traditional vs flipped teaching

The traditional pattern of teaching has been to assign students to read textbooks and work on problem sets outside school, while listening to lectures and taking tests in class.

"My AP Calculus class was a really anxious environment, it was weird trying to get through way too much material with not enough time. It was exactly the opposite of what I was looking for when I got into teaching." (A teacher explaining what motivated her to adopt flipped teaching.)

In flip teaching, the students first study the topic by themselves, typically using video lessons prepared by the teacher or third parties. In class students apply the knowledge by solving problems and doing practical work. The teacher tutors the students when they become stuck, rather than imparting the initial lesson in person. Complementary techniques include differentiated instruction and project-based learning. Teachers are blending flipped learning with traditional in-class lecturing through tools like eduCanon or EDpuzzle that keep students accountable to video lessons at home through time-embedded formative assessments.

Flipped classrooms free class time for hands-on work.^[14] Students learn by doing and asking questions. Students can also help each other, a process that benefits both the advanced and less advanced learners.^[15]

Flipping also changes the allocation of teacher time. Traditionally, the teacher engages with the students who ask questions — but those who don’t ask tend to need the most attention. “We refer to ‘silent failers,’ ” said one teacher, claiming that flipping allows her to target those who need the most help rather than the most confident. Flipping changes teachers from “sage on the stage” to “guide on the side”, allowing them to work with individuals or groups of students throughout the session.^[15]

In addition to assisting the students, flipped classrooms give parents the opportunity to view the same class materials and instruction as the students. Viewing the teacher's instruction methods gives parents the confidence to assist their child with the same teaching style and helps with homework support. ^[16]

History

Eric Mazur developed peer instruction in the 1990s. He found that computer-aided instruction allowed him to coach instead of lecture. Lage, Platt and Treglia published the paper "Inverting the Classroom: A Gateway to Creating an Inclusive Learning Environment" in 2000.^[17] In 1993, King published "From Sage on the Stage to Guide on the Side"^[18] in College Teaching, Vol. 41, No. 1 (Winter, 1993), pp. 30–35. Baker presented "The classroom flip: using web course management tools to become the guide by the side" at the 11th International Conference on College Teaching and Learning. Baker's article presents the model of classroom flipping.

Starting in fall 2000, the University of Wisconsin-Madison used eTeach software to replace lectures in a computer science course with streaming video of the lecturer and coordinated slides.^[20] In 2011, two centers at Wisconsin Collaboratory for Enhanced Learning^[21] were built to focus on flipped and blended learning.

In 2004, Salman Khan began to record videos at the request of a younger cousin who felt that recorded lessons would let her skip parts she had mastered and replay parts that were troubling her. Khan’s model essentially provides one-to-one tutoring. Khan Academy videos are used as part of some educators' flipped teaching strategy.