Interactive Whiteboards (ICT Tutorial Set Text 2 Task)

An Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) is a large display in the appearance of a whiteboard that connects to a computer and projects the desktop of the computer, where users can control the computer by finger touch or a stylus (Wikipedia, 2012). It has been widely seen in Australian schools nationwide. However, during my four rounds of placement teaching in 2 different schools, I only witnessed a math class where an IWB was turned on and used by the teacher and the students. As a matter of fact, there is a heated debate over the role of IWB in classrooms.

The Arguments

To start with, Bill Ferriter (2010) in his blog argued that the purchase of an IWB package ($5000 - $6000) would be a waste of money and the money should be more wisely used. He said an IWB does not promote group work like what netbook computers do, each costing less than 1/10 of an IWB. For a teacher's direct instructions to a class, a mid-range LCD projector will be enough. He also suggested some online services such as VoiceThread or Brainpop Access that can facilitate an interactive class without an IWB.  Additionally, he pointed out the risk of the investment on an IWB that it might be eliminated in a short time in the present era of high-tech.

On the other side, Emily Starr (2010) in her blog listed several major negative arguments about IWBs and refuted them one by one. She thought the one-time purchase of IWB should not be the fist consideration for cost cutting, as schools spend money on more expensive technologies that fail to directly improve learning efficiency. Moreover, she argued for the irreplaceability of IWBs by the combination of tablet and projector, as IWBs may benefit younger students and students with special needs, who may have difficulty with hand-eye coordination. What's more, there will no physical barrier between students and teaching content when they can directly control the content. She also claimed that IWB can improve teacher collaboration that may help broaden some teachers' horizons who are said to keep traditional teacher-centered teaching styles. When it comes to the proof of the effectiveness of IWBs, she questioned the measurement of test scores as evidences of improvements in teaching and pointed out that there are other aspects of student achievements that are difficult to measure such as the enjoyment and engagement in classes and the motivation and enthusiasm towards learning. 

The implementation in Chinese teaching

In my opinion, despite the possible high cost of IWB, an IWB is still worth exploring its potentials in promoting student-centered learning in Chinese teaching. For example, in the past when we teach a character, say, 们, and want to improve the students' metalinguistic awareness by telling them 们 is composed of two parts - 人 (for meaning) and 门 (for sound). With the help of an IWB, the students can explore the intra-character structure by themselves, as they split a character up and copy the shape of a part of a character on the IWB and look that up in an online dictionary without knowing its sound. Interactive applications such as Cracking the Code can maximize its use on an IWB, as students can research on characters by the direct touch on the IWB.