The new iTILT podcast features an excerpt from a discussion that was held just before this year's IATEFL conference in Brighton, UK, in April.
ITiLT 04 Apr 2011 - IWB discussion at IATEFL by iTILTeu
The event was the PCE (pre-conference event) of the IATEFL Learning Technologies Special Interest Group and was dedicated to interactive whiteboards (you can see the full programme here).
Time was spent during the day looking at the IWBfrom all angles, with practical workshops and talks about how best to use it, time for discussion, and even a 'Make your own IWB' session!
One of the highlights of the day was a discussion about Teaching Unplugged (DogmeELT) with the IWB, which was led by Luke Meddings. Teaching Unplugged is all about moving away from a reliance on course books and concentrating instead on emergent language from 'the people in the room'. Leading lights of this approach to language teaching have, in the past, spoken out against the need for IWBs, so it was praticularly interesting to have Luke and the people in the room talk about how the tool could be used in ways that promote communication, without too much planning and preparation. Some of the benefits that were talked about : the ability to draw upon resources on the Internet at a moment's notice, the recording facility of the IWB (i.e. language can be captured and returned to more easily than with a normal board).
The iTILT project was also presented at the PCE and participants welcomed the effort to provide examples of good practice and training for teachers on how to use the IWB in a less teacher-centred way.
At the end of the event, the PCE speakers and a few invited guests took part in a panel discussion (see photo above, by Rodney Mantle) where participants were invited to speak their mind about what they had learned, to ask questions that hadn't been answered, or make comments/observations. This resulted in a lively discussion, part of which you can hear in this podcast.
Comments
Interactive Whiteboards
I am the director of Integral Network Solutions (http://www.integral-networks.co.uk/) and I find that IWBs are becoming increasingly popular in schools. They are also becoming more popular in lots of other industries too. In fact, many businesses use them to display sales figures and help host meetins. As for the education environment, my children seem to be more interested in school than I ever was, and I think that this is primarily due to the interatcivity of the lessons. Lets face it, children get so bored these days, and with it being so easy for them to escape into a technological world, the classroom really needs to reflect what they want/need. This is not strictly limited to children either, the adlt learning environment is equally enhanced!
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