How to use interactive whiteboards
How to use whiteboards - a course by Wendy Adeniji
Wendy Adeniji taught French, Spanish and German for 10 years and now works as a trainer and consultant. She is the lead tutor for the CILT Graduate Teacher Programme in Leeds and regularly delivers MFL-specific interactive whiteboard training in schools.
She has also acted as a consultant for the BBC digital curriculum, is the ICT consultant for Comenius Yorkshire and the Humber and has recently acted as consultant for a KS3 Strategy project relating to how interactive whiteboards can improve learning modern languages. She is the MFL moderator for the NGfL Teacher Resource Exchange and writes regularly for the TES on matters relating to MFL.
First steps
Identify your board
The first thing you need to do is to find out which type of board you have in your classroom or department. Each interactive whiteboard (IWB) has its own type of software that is used to create activities and for presentation. Once you know the type of board, you need to have access to the software. You can find information on the software for your board on the following websites:
- SMART Board: SMART Board Notebook software
- Promethean board: ACTIVstudio 2 software
- Hitachi StarBoard: Starboard software
- RM Classboard: Easiteach software usually comes with the board, although Easiteach is generic and can be purchased and then used with any type of IWB.
Transfer software and files
The next step is to have the software available on the computer where you do most work or where you will be working through this course from. It could be your home PC, a laptop or a computer at school. You need to ask your ICT technician for a copy of the software and install it, if it is not already on the computer. When a school buys an IWB, the software comes with it free of charge and there is normally a licence for around five other computers to have the software installed, so this is perfectly legal.
You will also need a way of transferring files that you have created to the computer attached to your board. The best way of doing this, as the files may be quite large with lots of clip art, is to use a pen drive. These go into the USB port at the back (or sometimes front) of a computer and can hold a huge number of files. They can be purchased from around £20 from a PC store or ordered through your ICT department.
Practise with your whiteboard
It is unlikely that you will actually be creating materials at the computer attached to the IWB. However, at some point you should make sure that you have an opportunity to practise with the IWB (with no pupils!) so that you can familiarise yourself with using the tools and the pen or your finger with the board, and so that you can get used to standing next to the board with the projector on.
Health and safety issues
When using the board with the projector, get used to standing next to one side of the board, so that you do not cast a shadow over it. This is also important because if you stand for too long in the glare of the projector you can get headaches. It is also important not to look directly into the projector’s lens when it is on, as research has shown that this can damage the outer retina of the eye if it is any more than 20 seconds.
For your pupils, be aware that for any pupils who are prone to epileptic seizures, IWBs have been known, on rare occasions, to trigger these. Finally, make sure that your backgrounds are not white, as the glare from this can cause headaches, but are pastel colours, which are much easier on the eye.
SMART Board
If you do not already have a copy of SMART Board Notebook software it can be downloaded from SMART's website free of charge. The latest version is 9.1.3, so if your board was purchased before April 2005 you will have an older version of the software. The newer version is much better, so it is a good idea to make sure that your ICT technician downloads and installs it across the network.
Word file: How To Use a Smart Board - 1.18MB (1.2 MB)'How To Use A SMART Board' aims to highlight some of the key uses of your SMART Board and also of Notebook software, the program which enables you to prepare lessons in advance and to use the Interactive Whiteboard as a ‘live’ tool in your lesson. This guide will first explain how to create a page in Notebook and will then show how you can use your material on the Interactive Whiteboard itself.
The SMART Board Notebook Exercises document contains information on exercises which you can use with the SMART Board, and details of how to use them.
Promethean and ACTIVstudio
ACTIVstudio2 is the new software that was launched by Promethean in January 2005. If your board was purchased before January 2005 you will have an older version of the software. The newer version is much better, so it is a good idea to make sure that your ICT technician contacts Promethean and buys the update (for only £20 per school) and installs it across the network.
The Promethean board responds to its pen only.
Hitachi StarBoard
StarBoard software comes with your board, and is not quite as intuitive to use. It has most of the features of the other boards’ software, although it may take some time practising with it to get the hang of it. It is useful to remember that if you find it difficult to use, your school could purchase Easiteach (see below) which can be used with any IWB and is much easier to use.
The StarBoard responds to its pen only.
RM Classboard
The Classboard responds to a pen and its tools. Functions such as turning a page can be found as part of the hardware on the edge of the board, rather than as part of software. However, RM also sells Easiteach and many boards come with this software.
Easiteach has won several BETT awards.
PowerPoint
PowerPoint is a great tool for modern languages teachers. Bearing in mind that it is a presentational tool, it is good to use it to present vocabulary using pictures, sounds and words, to emphasise the sound–spelling link to pupils. It can also be used to practise vocabulary by using the flash once technique and Kim’s game.
PowerPoint can be used to present a new grammar point, and here the ability to use colour to denote, for example, the different parts of speech, is very useful. It is the ability with PowerPoint to 'animate' objects and words, so that the order in which they appear can be controlled, which makes it so useful. The speech bubbles are also useful as a prediction activity, whereby pupils have to guess what the character is saying before the words appear.
Do not forget that PowerPoint presentations can be printed out as handouts with up to nine slides on a sheet of A4, thus ensuring that pupils with special needs, who may not be able to write the vocabulary out quickly or may need the picture to help them, can easily have a copy.
In this section, learn how to create multimedia presentations to enliven your languages lessons, but do not forget the new affliction 'death by PowerPoint' and overuse this medium!
Read the useful documents on using PowerPoint, and try out the PowerPoint presentations:
PowerPoint file: Blockbusters clothes - 73KB (75 KB)Alternatives to fully interactive whiteboards
eBeam
eBeam is a new technology which is well worth investigating. Handwritten notes, colour diagrams and images can be captured on a PC or Palm handheld, and saved, printed or shared over the internet very quickly and easily. They are also portable and can be moved from classroom to classroom. Standard whiteboards can also be converted into interactive presentation screens with an eBeam system and a data projector. The eBeam systems cost around £400.
You can show PowerPoint presentations, the internet and CD-ROMs, and also purchase interactive whiteboard software such as Easiteach (see above) to use with this technology.
How it works
eBeam is a cheaper alternative to an Interactive Whiteboard (IWB). Rather than requiring a new board, like the IWB, eBeam uses infrared beams attached to the corners of a traditional whiteboard to mark the position of regular board pens at any time.
The software adds other functionality. eBeam Interact is the software component which provides:
- an interactive clip-art gallery and the ability to rotate, resize and organize images
- multilayer scrapbook pages
- Master page, a tool to control the background of every page from one easy-to-find template.
The Mac version has added functionality. You can use the desktop palette to annotate anything on your screen and capture it back to Scrapbook, host cross-platform meetings so everyone can stay on the same page, annotate a PDF document or simply use Scrapbook to turn your entire projected image into a huge digital whiteboard.
To get lessons off to a start with eBeam, there is already free content sharing and collaboration services so you don’t need to spend money on paid services from third-party sources - you simply need an internet connection and eBeam projection.
The software is free so other teachers and students at home and join sessions from their own computers - Mac or PC.
Mimio
Mimio is a device that fixes onto the edge of a normal whiteboard and records pen strokes using infrared, allowing you to operate from the board rather than the computer. It lacks many of the features of a full interactive whiteboard but costs less. You still need a data projector in order to use this device.
You can show PowerPoint presentations, the internet and CD-ROMs, and also purchase interactive whiteboard software such as Easiteach (see above) to use with this technology.
This course was written by Wendy Adeniji, ICT Consultant