Simulation software with an interactive whiteboard

introduction

Nigel Cotter is head of Physics at Bannockburn High School. He has used an interactive whiteboard for two years. He says that although the novelty factor has now worn off, the students still very much enjoy lessons taught with it and are aware that it improves their learning. In this S3 intermediate 2 class about energy transformation he uses an interactive whiteboard with a simulation package from ‘Interactive Physics’.

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Teacher profile

Nigel took his degree in Scotland and has been teaching for ten years. For the past six years he’s been Head of Physics at Bannockburn High School. He teaches science and physics across all age groups at the school.

Although he took several computing modules at university, Nigel has had little formal ICT training since entering teaching. He has honed his ICT skills through ‘practice, inspiration, using help files and making plenty of mistakes.’ He now chairs the school ‘s ICT committee.

He had no specific training to use the interactive whiteboard. The day it was installed in his classroom, the blackboard was removed, so he was committed to using the whiteboard. Luckily the software arrived first and he had the summer holidays to familiarise himself with it. He now uses the whiteboard extensively in his lessons.

Nigel says he would much rather have an interactive whiteboard in his classroom than six PC’s because he has control over his pupils’ learning

School profile

Bannockburn High School is in a suburban setting to the south of Stirling next to the site of the Battle of Bannockburn. It opened in 1979 and now has 860 pupils on the roll. It was identified as one of the ten most improved schools in Scotland at the end of the 1990s. The school has five dedicated ICT rooms with around 200 computers and a full time ICT coordinator. Staff receive ICT training through the council’s continuous professional development opportunities

Nigel has the only interactive whiteboard in the school which was bought with the help of parents’ fund-raising activities. Nigel has done some informal straining in the use of the whiteboard for interested staff.