Schools throughout Australia are rapidly adopting SMART Board™ interactive whiteboards to improve teaching and learning. They, like thousands of schools around the world, are realizing the many benefits of using interactive whiteboards in the classroom.
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Direk Primary School in Adelaide, South Australia is one such school that has fully embraced the ideal of having SMART Board interactive whiteboards in their classrooms and the results have been profound. Teacher and ICT Coordinator Lynne Lang first observed and was encouraged to buy SMART Boards by a fellow school but after evaluating several brands of interactive whiteboards, she made the decision to choose SMART. The result has meant an exciting and extremely rewarding journey for the students and staff at Direk Primary, a reception to year seven school.
“We initially purchased two SMART Boards from ELECTROBOARD but were quick to add several more,” says Lang. “We use them across curriculum with all classes, both with SMART Notebook™ Software as well as the other software applications on our network (Windows applications, curriculum programs, mind mapping software, encyclopaedias, graphics programs, the internet, etc.).”
Now with eight SMART Boards and likely more to come in the future, Direk Primary is quickly realizing the many benefits of having SMART Boards in their classrooms. “Being able to create a file in SMART Notebook and save it for later is so fantastic,” says Lang. “We used to write all the information onto a whiteboard and then have to rub it off at the end of the day and redo it a couple of days later.”
Unlike desktop or laptop computers, Lang also views the size of SMART Boards as a key advantage for whole-class learning. “The size of them [SMART Boards] makes it accessible to all students at once and because the whole class can view and navigate the same internet site, it makes for a very powerful teaching tool. Not to mention the fact that the children absolutely love the big, visual, hands on access to the computer.”
Lang also sees many positive changes to the way in which she prepares and delivers her lessons. “I use graphics and colour a lot more to appeal to the students, I save much of what I do and use it more than once and I even give the children greater access to the internet and other tools as it is so much easier for me to supervise them from anywhere in the classroom. Having a SMART Board in my class has definitely added so much creativity and excitement to what I do and plan for my students”, says Lang.
Although SMART Boards are now the hit at the school, Lang admits it has taken some time and effort on the part of the teaching staff. Despite the fact that students tend to master the technology from the start, the whole process of learning how to use technology and more importantly how to make the necessary changes to traditional teaching methods can be a bit of a challenge for some teachers.
However, this should not represent a barrier to anyone. “Based on our experience, teachers are fine if they are learners,” says Lang. “But if they resist the technology, like anything, it’s going to be a long and difficult process. It really comes down to computer skills rather than specialist SMART Board skills. And of course imagination and a willingness to try new things is also very important,” notes Lang.
In order to provide better support, Lang as ICT Coordinator has implemented a number of strategies aimed at helping staff maximize the benefits of the SMART Board. “I run training and sharing sessions for the staff and have set up a shared computer network so that people can copy and share resources. Our teachers also attend area hub group meetings and bring back good ideas for the rest of the staff,” says Lang.
With this kind of support, Direk Primary is fast becoming a school dedicated to using SMART Boards in innovative ways to make a difference in the classroom. However, dedicated access to the technology can’t happen overnight and therefore the biggest problem at the moment is envy from the students that don’t yet have a SMART Board. “Classes and teachers who don’t have access to a Board all the time want to know why and although it will take some time, we do have plans to put one in every room,” says Lang.
Given the many educational benefits that the teachers have observed, Direk Primary is likely to join the growing number of technologically advanced schools throughout Australia and the world that have completely transformed all of their classrooms with the help of SMART Board interactive whiteboards. And why is this important? Perhaps teacher Lynne Lang summarizes it best when she says, “SMART Boards are the present and future way of accessing information for learning.”