Ideas on encouraging staff to use their Interactive Boards

[ninjabeaver]

Morning all,

 

I have a regular meeting with my SMT line manager and the conversation of budgets and interactive boards came up.

 

Now, he's on the same level of thinking with me. Interactive Boards seem to be a large waste of money as very few staff use them as interacive boards and only projection boards.

 

I'd like to look into ways of encouraging staff in a secondary school to make more use of these expensive wall pieces.

 

I truthfully don't know where to start. I did put out the idea of a training session with an outside company to start the encouragement of using the boards but no one really took up on the offer and did not make if cost effective.

 

I keep seeing some nice WEB 2.0 stuff out there, which is great but does not get the students or staff up and using the boards interactively.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ukschools/archive/2011/01/14/the-bett-futures-presentation.aspx

 

Anyone got any ideas?

 

Cheers,

 

Simon.

[nicholab]

I seen a teacher use a graphics pad and a data projector to great effect and it is a lot cheaper. Can you IT budget support IWB's?

[witch]

I think he is saying that they already have IWBs - which ones do you have? Both Smart and Promethean run training - online, webinar and all sorts of things - you could run the training yourself with the appropriate materials?

[rad]

Remove all whiteboard pens from the school, simples...

[featured_spectre]

A cattleprod...they dont use the board, they get a shock!

[CESIL]

When we had Promethean IWBs fitted here the existing whiteboards were removed due to space constraints and so all teachers have to use them.

 

It has taken a few years for some of the older teachers to adapt and really use the board as something more than just a board (a couple of the older ones still haven't!) but they have gradually been getting more adventurous with the technology. The new younger teachers are of course much happier with using them properly.

 

We have had several training sessions from Promethean and I back this up with extra tips if asked...

 

Of course the lack of non-interactive options mean that projector failures cause more aggro!

[dwhyte85]

A cattleprod...they dont use the board, they get a shock!

 

The threat of removing it and putting it in a room where they'll use it, doesn't work that well though. But I like the idea of a cattleprod...

[ihaveaproblem]

I would say get some training in so all staff are aware of the features an IWB can offer. I find staff members can be afraid of new technology and try to avoid it as much as they can, so if you can offer some training and make them comfortable with the board and the software they might start using it more once they've been shown how it works.

[ninjabeaver]

With the new round of budget cuts coming in this financial year I just want to make sure that best use of all resources is being made. I know that getting everything used 100% is nigh on impossible, but if I can just get the IWB's in use as IWB's and not projection boards it would mean a lot to me personally.

 

I'm really after ideas or little web 2.0 apps that I can encourage staff to use and get the classroom as a whole using the IWB and was wondering if anyone else has get any more tips.

[Domino]

Have you looked at Sankore? Sankoré EduGeek.net - BETT 2011 -

 

open source IWB software, has a webkit back end so w3c compatible apps can be developed for it. even has a little app store built in that lets you drag web resources right to the workspace.

 

To my mind much less intimidating than the smart or promethean software - might be a way to get people seeing what's possible.

 

Also, the way I increased take up was to train 2 or 3 of the more technically minded staff as to what was possible with the board. they then went off, made resources etc and used them in lessons. then those teachers did training sessions during an inset for other staff members.

 

That way you're not just showing them what's possible with an IWB, there's someone who's used it well showing how it can be used as a teaching aid.

[elsiegee40]

Remove all whiteboard pens from the school, simples...

 

As rad - remove or half the size of all the conventional whiteboards in the classroom... it's effectively what we did as we didn't have enough space for both on the walls.

[K.C.Leblanc]

As rad - remove or half the size of all the conventional whiteboards in the classroom... it's effectively what we did as we didn't have enough space for both on the walls.

 

At my old school we mounted the IWBs on top of the existing whiteboards. Sounds a bit odd, but it gave an area at the side of the IWB that could be written on.

[laserblazer]

Our problem is the opposite, if there's a problem with an IWB teachers feel they have lost a limb. One of the things we did after they had been installed was to have a "tips" session at the start of staff meetings. The NQTs seemed to be most proactive and came up with some great ideas that fired the imagination. The kids love using them as well.

[pete]

We find subjects that are very much "show how to do something on the board, with kids suggesting answers" rather than "discuss what's on the board" use them better (or rather, more often). A malfunctioning IWB in Maths will be reported within 5 minutes, for example.

[judyB]

They need to see the benefits - if you "force" staff to use them by making it difficult to use other methods you just end up with grumpy staff (although taking away whiteboard pens is tempting sometimes).

 

Training sessions are great but if they're voluntary you end up preaching to the converted and if they're compulsory they result in grumpy staff....

 

You could try giving a presentation at a staff meeting just focussing on the benefits - you never run out of ink, you have unlimited boardspace, you can save/print flipcharts etc. Then following it up with a voluntary training session with hands on practice. In the training make sure you mention the disadvantages as well - what to do if it goes wrong, common problems, who to call etc.

 

I've definitely found convincing people to use the IWB as whiteboard (for writing on) the best place to start, as that doesn't require a fundamental shift in how they're teaching. Then after that you can start looking at creating funky interactive resources.

 

Lastly -Tell them it's like driving a car. This is my favourite metaphor at the moment as I learnt to drive quite recently, and found it really challenging. Everyone said to me "Oh it's easy!" - and I thought "that's not very helpful, but I've been saying it about e-learning for years". So - tell them it's *not* easy at first, but it will get easier the more they practice, and pretty soon they'll wonder how they managed without one .