Integration of Technology

Whiteboards allow material to be presented in highly engaging ways, using a wide range of multimedia resources. The student had direct input to the whiteboard where the teacher could either read the message or the answer to a question anywhere in the classroom. This dynamic enabled the teacher to move from the didactic methods of teaching to an interactive style. The whiteboard and its associated software allowed shared activities, including the possibility of students voting on an issue and seeing the results compiled automatically on the board, and the possibility of electronic brainstorming, where ideas typed by students were shared on the whiteboard. Depending on the students’ preferred learning style, they could either work in groups or individually.

Interactive whiteboards are appearing in an increasing number of classrooms and there is an emerging body of literature on their effective use in teaching and learning.

Some of these educational benefits include the following:

• IWBs encourage more varied, creative and seamless use of teaching materials.
• They engage students to a greater extent than conventional whole-class teaching, thereby increasing enjoyment and motivation
• They facilitate student participation through the ability to interact with materials on the board.
• They allow the teacher to present materials in multiple ways, using a variety of media such as text, images, audio and video.
• Lessons can be pre-prepared, annotated and reused by individual students or by the class.
  

• Structural

• Educational

• Assistive

• The World Wide Web