Teaching with Technology Blog—Sustaining Technology Use

Technology will be the catalyst to improving instruction in my classes. My challenge may be to get the administration of the college where I teach to change the culture of the institution to one where the use of educational technology is encouraged in the teaching and learning of mathematics. In this regard I will be encouraging the Dean of my faculty to purchase interactive whiteboards. According to Beauchamp and Kennewell (2013) the interactive whiteboard pedagogy should be seen as an aid to orchestration rather than merely a set of tools which substitute or supplement traditional teaching resources. I will use the interactive whiteboard technology to: enrich the teaching/learning processes, exploit the opportunities it offers for observability, aid in monitoring and to aid in formative or summative assessments.

The interactive whiteboard is just a screen that can communicate with a computer; this means that any information on the computer can be used in the classroom to enhance the teaching and learning process. Interactive whiteboards allow teachers to use videos, the internet or ready-made materials. One of the important features of this technology is that information on the computer can be edited at the board; this provides scope for both students and teachers to manipulate or play with the information that is projected. Such features are beneficial to students in a mathematics class because it will help them to build conceptual understanding of concepts and thereby improving their problem- solving skills. Just as important is the fact that it will enable the teacher to cater for the learning style of each student in his or class. Many of the students in my mathematics classes are English language learners and therefore, I use the interactive whiteboard technology for grammar presentations, pronunciations, playing games and for providing immediate feedbacks for the students.

Many teachers struggle with finding effective ways to integrate an interactive whiteboard, for language proficiency development in English language learners; this challenge can be reduced if educators learn to use an interactive whiteboard for: visual presentations, interactive games, and test reviews. Findings from a study done by Won and Suhyuns (2012) showed that effective use of the interactive whiteboard will help English language learners to develop new vocabulary and participate more in the teaching and  learning process. Technology component such as an interactive whiteboard can develop active learning environments by providing engaging and repeated learning opportunities for all learners.

 A number of studies indicate the benefits of interactive whiteboard  for teaching and learning, such as promoting learner motivation, supporting the whole class while teaching, assisting effective presentations, meeting the needs of diverse learners, and making it easier to interrelate texts, images, and videos (Wood & Ashfield, 2008). Interactive whiteboards motivate students to participate in lessons because of the way they allow them to offer answers to teachers' questions by reason of the high visual and interactive effect. In order to help ELL students with the development of language proficiency and mathematical competency, an integrated whiteboard  is an effective teaching aid.

References

Beauchamp, G., & Kennewell, S. (2013). Transition in pedagogical orchestration using the interactive whiteboard. Education and Information Technologies, 18(2), 179-191. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10639-012-9230-z

Jung Won, H., & Suhyuns, S. (2012). Making Learning Active with Interactive Whiteboards, Podcasts, and Digital Storytelling in ELL Classrooms. Computers In The Schools, 29(4), 320-328. doi:10.1080/07380569.2012.734275

Wood, R., & Ashfield, J. (2008). The use of the interactive whiteboard for creative teaching and learning in literacy and mathematics: A case study. British Journal of Educational Technology, 39(1), 84-96. Retrieve from the Walden University Library