Instead, we need to embrace more fully mobile technology. The big clunky forward facing, whole class method of lesson delivery via Interactive Whiteboard, I believe, is the Laserdisc of educational technology. The overpriced fad of Interactive Whiteboards (whether Smart or Promethean) is imperfect in their current incarnation. Sure, we all imagine classrooms with “Iron Man2”:-esque 3-D touch sensitive lessons, but inherently these pieces of equipment do not illustrate the spirit of technology in information delivery: all-access, collaborative, open, interactive, etc…

Currently, they are only as engaging as the lessons created, and those lessons are tedious to create and time-suckers in their efficiency. The prep time to create charts that utilize any effects over-and-above what you would already do with a laptop and LCD projector feels clearly developed by those with a disconnect to the precious time we have in education and the many hats we already wear. Additionally, while these boards were initially meant to help less-tech savvy teachers to embrace technology use, their hefty training time and prep time serves as its own gatekeeper for more than just tech tentative teachers.

I believe an online colleague of mine, Bill Ferriter, said it best when he wrote,

“I’m willing to argue that even with time and training, interactive whiteboards are an under-informed and irresponsible purchase. They do little more than reinforce a teacher-centric model of learning…make presentations, give notes, deliver lectures…I ask you: Do we really want to spend thousands of dollars on a tool that makes stand-and-deliver instruction easier?”

Instead, I believe mobile technology, that truly frightening technology the schools would rather spend money on avoiding than really examining, is really the silver bullet (if there is such a thing.) Smartphones, for instance, have the potential to be the great equalizer.

Mobile technology caters to individualization and differentiation, which is the present and future of student-centered learning. Mobile technology is cheaper and also represents the concept of “democratization of information,” the openness of high levels of information to the masses. The Interactive Whiteboard is still locked and loaded into the antiquated philosophy of “sage on the stage” rather than “guide on the side.”

Yes, the remote clicker technology gives the very important immediate feedback, but gaining access to remotes is not dependent on the purchase of the boards themselves. The fact is that 99% of all students carry their own remotes right there in their backpacks.

In fact, my students interviewed a young scientist from JPL earlier this year. She had just returned from rural Africa where she helped establish Internet access to remote areas throughout the continent. When asked by one of my students what the future of Internet Access was, she said that it, frankly, didn’t include computers. After all, many people in these remote areas don’t have Macs or PCs, but they do have iPhones right there in their pockets. In other words, the future of Web 2.0 tools is already being defined by global availability.

As for the future of educational technology, we must guide our purchases to reflect the world around us. We must support the learner on the go. We must support individual use, not teacher-only use. We must support inexpensive options that give us access to the most information, easily accessed and easily presented. Smartphones, (and, I believe, eventually iPads or other tablet options) permit us to assume more and more that learners have access to the same information and opportunities.

The real question is How can we spend the money saved on Interactive Whiteboard purchases in ways that really propel education into the 21st Century?  What tools or training do you think are more to the point of education’s future?

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2011. | Permalink | 40 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: educational technology, interactive whiteboards, iPads in education, k12, middle school, smartboards, smartphones

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There’s a really interesting discussion thread going on at the Interactive Whiteboard Revolution ning.  It all began with my post recapping Robert Marzano’s position on the influence of IWB technology when he presented at the CUE conference this year.  You can read the thread here.    

One of the most interesting arguments going on is in the importance of whether or not Marzano is sponsored by Promethean (he is) and whether or not this somehow corrupts his findings (it shouldn’t).  As Peter Kent points out, “Corporate sponsorship is common practice. The MIT Media Lab (created by Papet and highly reputable) and currently including Mitch Resnik of Scratch fame has over 60 corporate sponsors including the possibility to having an employee of a sponsor work in the Media Lab. There is also the opportunity for a sponsor to work closely with a principal investigator and a graduate student in a specific area.  My point is that corporate sponsorship of educational research is both common and necessary.”

I’ve written on this topic before when I’ve said that I think there is a future in education as a privately sponsored entity.  In my earlier post, “Walmart Presents: (insert some president’s name) Middle School,” I previously wrote, (...)
Read the rest of Marzano con’t & Corporate Sponsorship in Education (318 words)

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: assessments, collaboration, Ed Tech, education, fundraising, interactive whiteboards, ning, TED, Title I, TLN, VLC

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So I want to share some of the awesome questions my 7th graders developed to help them fill in the story gaps:

1.     If the mother pig didn’t have the “means” to have so many kids, why did she have three?             

2.     Why did the three pigs go their separate ways?  How was their relationship if they wouldn’t stay together?

(...)
Read the rest of Where the Wild Things Are: Part II (154 words)

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Curriculum, curriculum design, Ed Tech, education, interactive whiteboards, k-12, k12, middle school, tween, UCI, Writers Project

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CUE scored Marzano.  

As he began his keynote presentation on Friday at the 2009 Computer Using Educators conference, Robert Marzano confessed that he had been slow on the tech bandwagon, only recently researching enough to see what all the fuss was about. But by the end of test study, after test study, after test study, he soon realized that using certain ed tech strategies resulted undeniable successes in student achievement.

There are four strategies, he says, that are irrefutably changing the future of education, that, without proper adoption, would doom us to be “dinosaurs” in our practice.  

But he warned us that while there are “no silver bullets,” there are “silver bbs,” and a teacher must decide “which combination of silver bbs is best for [their] classroom.”

And of the four points he talked about, the leading teaching strategy that Robert Marzano felt was a true breakthrough in education (aside from the use of the internet which he is currently studying), was the use of the Interactive Whiteboard and its Voter-Response Technology.

(...)
Read the rest of The “Sweet Spot” in Interactive Whiteboards courtesy of Robert Marzano (404 words)

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2009. | Permalink | 10 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 100% accountability, achievement gap, Curriculum, curriculum design, curriculum development, Ed Tech, education, interactive whiteboards, internet literacy, middle school, robert marzano, voting

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That’s a little of what my relationship is like with my new Interactive Whiteboard.

I wouldn’t give it up for the world.  I have come to depend on the tools it provides me.  I love it.

But I am consistently re-calibrating, re-starting, re-booting, and it so far won’t read the kids remotes.  I have come to intimately know the board representative.  We have each other’s cell phone numbers and my husband is starting to raise an eyebrow.  I have also had tremendous support from our Director of Technology and the few other district pilot teachers.   

But the bottom line is that the board has become a daily joy even while I have daily frustrations.  And like that puppy that you automatically fall in love with because of the joy it brings you the minute it comes into your room, I am going to do everything I can to make it work.

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: blog, collaboration, computers, critical thinking, curriculum design, curriculum development, data, Ed Tech, education, ELA, integration, interactive whiteboards, internet literacy, k-12, k12, Title I, TLN, Writers Project, writing

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© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2008. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 2008, blog, Ed Tech, education, ELA, interactive whiteboards, internet literacy, k-12, k12, Language Arts, learning, new teachers, powerpoint, professional development, technology, Title I

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So I write to you today as a contrite tweenteacher.  Lesson learned.  Don’t listen to the gossip in the teacher’s lounge.

So, in an attempt to bring this post around to some actual advice for all you educators out there, I want to reiterate that point: do not waste one minute of your time this year in a toxic teacher environment.  This is different than a Toxic Teaching Environment which can be defined as anything that gets in the way of you doing your job: under-funding, lack of school wide discipline, fractured classrooms, etc…

No, I’m talking about a specific breed of pollution that is meant to choke the enthusiasm out of you: the Toxic Teacher Environment.  (...)
Read the rest of Oh, the Wells Fargo Wagon is a’comin… (419 words)

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2008. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 2008, blog, carnival of education, Character Education, collaboration, computers, credential, critical thinking, Curriculum, curriculum design, curriculum development, differentiation, digital immigrants, Ed Tech, ELA, employment, equity, game shows, interactive whiteboards, internet literacy, k-12, k12, middle school, new teachers, professional development, teaching, tenure, Title I, UCI, websites

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The Carnival of Education is in town and tweenteacher has joined the parade.  Interesting host and post.

Enjoy!

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: carnival of education, Ed Tech, education policy, interactive whiteboards, middle school

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So, I had my online training.  I met the Whiteboard sales guy in my classroom to discuss where the board is to be mounted.  I talked with my principal to develop an interactive whiteboard presentation during our first staff development in an attempt to drum up excitement amongst the somewhat less-than-tech-enthused staff.  I spent time over my summer developing my own curriculum for the first quarter: pulling out my books, pacing my units, and choosing those individual static lessons that I will expand into Interactive board lessons.  

It wasn’t long, however, that I began to suspect I had wasted my time.  The odor of bullshit was in the air…

 (...)
Read the rest of Hurry up & Wait – My New Interactive Whiteboard: Part II (737 words)

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2008. | Permalink | 11 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 2008, blog, carnival of education, computers, critical thinking, CUE, curriculum design, curriculum development, digital immigrants, integration, interactive whiteboards, internet literacy, teaching, technology, Title I, UCI, writing

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