INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARDS (IWB)

Prensky quotes, (2001, p.1) "Our students have changed radically. Today's students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach.

Answer.com (2009) defines interactive whiteboards (IWB) as a

large interactive display that connects to a computer and projector. A projector projects the computer's desktop onto the board's surface, where users control the computer using a pen, finger or other device. The board is typically mounted to a wall or on a floor stand.

I have never seen IWB in action, thus when I watched what You Tube offered I was astonished and engaged straight away. How far have we come from the days of blackboards? I remember looking at blackboard and just daydreaming think hurry up clock. The digital natives of today are not even going to realise that blackboards existed (Prensky, 2001). From watching You Tube, I could see that e.learning tools, IWB, have improved teaching and learning using instructional strategies enhanced by technology (Waterhouse, 2005) Ways LM can and employ IWB in the learning environment:

• Save lessons to present to students who were absent.
• Create video files.
• Do a lesson with the built in maps to teach continents, oceans, countries, or states and capitals.
• Digital storytelling.
• Brainstorming.
• Take notes directly into PowerPoint presentations.
• Use the online Web to reinforce what is being taught or to answer questions.
• Creating a project calendar.
• Use highlighter tool to highlight what your focus is for example the answer to a match question, grammar etc.
• Use it with Kidspiration or Inspiration.
• Illustrate and write a book as a class. Use the record feature to narrate the text.
• Use the Interwrite software to create lessons in advance at home or at school (Wichita Public Schools, 2009).