Learning to Teach Literacy with Smart Technologies

The readings related to this week’s theme, “Learning to Teach Literacy with Smart Technologies,” reveal insights about how Smart technologies and tools empower students’ learning and enhance teachers’ teaching. The first article, “Interactive Whiteboards and Learning: Improving Student Learning Outcomes and Streamlining Lesson Planning” focuses on the positive impacts interactive whiteboards have on students’ learning and teachers’ preparation and lesson delivery. Throughout the article, research from the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia support the use of interactive whiteboards and discusses the positive effects they have on student learning. First, interactive whiteboards increase student engagement by promoting interaction between students, the learning material, and the teacher. Interactive whiteboards also appeal to both intrinsically and extrinsically motivated students. Some students may enjoy demonstrating their individual achievement as they model an activity in front of the class, while others simply enjoy interacting with this exciting technology. In either case, students are motivated to participate and engage in the lesson. Aside from promoting students’ engagement and motivation, interactive whiteboards are also an effective means for addressing students’ diverse learning needs and styles. Visual learners, kinesthetic and tactile learners, deaf and hearing-impaired learners, visually impaired learners, and students with other special needs all benefit from the features of Smart technologies. For example, visual learners will benefit from the note-taking aspect of Smart technologies because these programs enable the teacher to incorporate diagrams, objects, and symbols throughout instruction. Research also found that students who received instruction via interactive whiteboards were more likely to retain and recall information because they were engaged and motivated to participate throughout the lesson, their individual learning styles were addressed, and notes can be printed or emailed for review at a later time. Finally, interactive whiteboards assist teachers’ lesson preparation by allowing teachers to incorporate a variety of digital resources and build a collection of learning materials that can be modified and updated over time. In conclusion, interactive whiteboards have many positive effects on student engagement and motivation, and also have the ability to address diverse learning styles, enhance content, and assist educators in lesson preparation.

The second article, “Creating Classrooms for Everyone: How Interactive Whiteboards Support Universal Design for Learning” discusses how Universal Design for Learning (UDL) standards can guide both the evaluation and use of interactive whiteboards in today’s classrooms. Education researchers at the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) explored how education could be individualized through a flexible approach to teaching methods and materials and developed techniques that not only reduce the barriers for students with special needs, but enhance learning for all students (Technology, 2009). The three principles of UDL researchers developed were:

1. Provide multiple means of representation
2. Provide multiple means of action and expression
3. Provide multiple means of engagement

Interactive whiteboards allow for these multiple means of representation. Just as the first article, this article goes on to discuss the benefits of interactive whiteboards for accommodating learners with special needs. Whether students experience fine motor delays, are visually challenged, deaf, or have mental and/or behavioral challenges, the technology within interactive whiteboards allows educators to adapt materials and lessons to accommodate the diverse learning needs and styles of their students. Interestingly, the article references Mark Prensky, stating that interactive whiteboards are an excellent means of reaching the “digital natives” present in today’s classrooms. While students appreciate using interactive whiteboard technologies in the classroom to create, share, play, research, and organize information, parents, teachers, and administrators appreciate the positive effects this technology has on student achievement. As is evident from each of the resources provided, interactive whiteboards and other 21^st century technology are becoming a necessity in order to reach, engage, and motivate “digital natives” in the classroom. 

The “Interactive Whiteboards Workbook” lists various uses for interactive whiteboards in the classroom. The workbook suggests using interactive whiteboards to plan and conduct virtual fieldtrips and enhance English Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, and Fine Arts content and concepts through interactive games and activities. Further, it provides a list of twenty-four real-life examples of how these concepts could be used in the classroom. Some ideas from this list include creating a collaborative play, writing poetry, building virtual fieldtrips, watching documentaries, and taking virtual tours of museums, planetariums, or birthplaces of famous authors. Each of the activities listed are highly engaging, motivating, and promote interaction among students and the teacher. At the ends of the workbook, additional resources (links to websites and activities) are provided. The resources are organized by content area, making it simple to locate the specific type of activity desired.       

These articles revealed many insights into the benefits of Smart technologies and tools in today’s classrooms. Not only do interactive whiteboards engage, motivate, and accommodate students, they also ease the process of lesson planning and preparation for teachers. Monday’s SMART Board training was a further example of how flexible and adaptable these technologies are. Before the training, I felt confident in my abilities to incorporate these technologies in my classroom instruction; however, by the end of the session, I realized how much my future students would have missed out on. Throughout the training, I learned so many tricks and tools that I didn’t even know existed. I took what I learned and utilized it immediately. I teach an afterschool Spanish class for students grades 1-4 at the local elementary school. For Tuesday’s class, I incorporated each of the activities I had recently learned. The students absolutely loved them – it was incredibly rewarding to see the students so engaged in the lesson and eager to come up and participate!