11/2007 - London, UK
Focus on: Interactive Whiteboards
Interactive Whiteboards in the Language Classroom
Date: Saturday 3rd November
Venue: Bell International Institute, London
One day professional development event in London organized by IATEFL Learning Technologies SIG and sponsored by the Bell International Institute
Powerpoint presentations and other materials from the event are available to SIG members and conference participants
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The "Interactive Whiteboards in the Language Classroom" LT SIG event was a one-day conference organised by the IATEFL Learning Technologies SIG and sponsored by the Bell International Institute. It took place on Saturday 3rd November at the Bell International Institute in London. As we are all becoming increasingly aware, the ubiquitous Interactive Whiteboard can have a very positive effect on teaching and learning. However, as with any ICT tool, the impact on teaching and learning really does depend on how successfully the technology is integrated into classroom practice by the teacher. In short, Interactive Whiteboards have the potential to improve the language learning experience when they are used in tandem with effective teaching, and it was this desire to extend and transform learning through their use that brought us all together.
The conference attracted 50 participants and presenters from nine different countries and hosted five talks and workshops. The countries represented at the conference were England, Wales, Scotland, South Korea, Italy, Turkey, Iceland and Germany. The conference was very much focused on the practical applications of the Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) in the English language learning classroom. As is always the case with LT SIG events, there was a wonderful mix of people, ideas, and teaching backgrounds. Delegates had lots of opportunities to see the practical applications of IWBs in the language learning classroom, as well as having opportunities to try out ideas presented.
Loraine Kennedy
The day kicked off with a presentation by Loraine Kennedy, the Centre Manager at Bell International London. Loraine and the Bell staff have been lucky enough to move to new premises and have had the luxury of being able to design their classrooms and learning areas from scratch. Loraine talked about the process of choosing and installing Interactive Whiteboards, and training and supporting staff (and students) in their use. As part of the process of using them Loraine also talked about the need for monitoring and responding to the reaction from both students and staff to an all-IWB environment and how this had impacted on successful teaching and learning. As many of us have just gone or are about to go through the process of having Interactive Whiteboards in our classrooms, this was a particularly useful session.
Julia Glass
Julia is the Interactive Content Manager for Promethean. The aim of Julia's session was to get teachers started in using an Interactive Whiteboard for their classes. She ran through some of the basic functions of the Promethean Interactive Whiteboard that are applicable to the English language teaching classroom. She looked at basic functions such as saving, naming, producing attractive flipcharts, using templates, locking materials down so that they could not be accidentally altered, making permanent copies for a shared institutional materials bank, different ways of introducing existing content into digital flipcharts and, last but not least, navigating around a flipchart. Delegates also had great fun using the Promethean personal response system, a wireless voting handset that integrates with the Interactive Whiteboard and allows learners to "vote" or respond to questions with the results being instantly shown on screen as graphs. It was interesting to learn that learners often see the voting system as being the best way to use an Interactive Whiteboard to participate actively in the class and interact with both the teacher and their classmates.
Alexandra Pitt
Alexandra is the Middlesex University Preparation Programme Coordinator. Alexandra's presentation looked at the use of Interactive Whiteboards from the perspective of fostering learner autonomy. Her session focused primarily on the learners and demonstrated ways in which the Interactive Whiteboard could be used to both build learner autonomy and also to develop a classroom community. Alexandra demonstrated how the Interactive Whiteboard can help teachers to be better prepared and less obviously in charge of the learning environment.
Later in her presentation she showed how using the Interactive Whiteboard in the English language learning classroom empowered students so that they became more involved in their classes and interacted with their fellow learners and their teacher more freely. Interestingly, Alexandra also spoke about how the Interactive Whiteboard had improved the quality of her students' work. She further highlighted how the Interactive Whiteboard had brought about a change in her students' attitude, which saw them starting to work harder outside the class, something which we would all agree is highly desirable.
Nick Lamarti
Nick Lamarti is a teacher with Bell International Institute in London. In his session Nick demonstrated a variety of very practical ways in which he integrates the Interactive Whiteboard into both his lesson preparation and his actual classroom teaching. The session provided lots of different examples of how the IWB was able to enhance learning in the classroom through using the different tools available. In particular, Nick's session looked at a range of the functions and capabilities of the Interactive Whiteboard and how these could easily be used to enhance a wide range of different course book and classroom activity types.
The breakout workshops
The breakout workshops were a very interesting feature of the day. They gave delegates the chance to break up into smaller groups of about twelve people and move into three dedicated classrooms to try out the ideas and techniques presented in the workshops. The breakouts also allowed delegates to discuss issues arising from the presentations, ask questions that were directly relevant to their own teaching situation, and discuss and try out ideas and possible solutions.
Plenary
The day finished with an open question-and-answer session where delegates and presenters were able to discuss issues arising from the day. Without going into too much detail, it would be fair to say that we all agreed that the Interactive Whiteboard has the potential to transform English language learning, by creating new learning paradigms that are a direct result of the increased potential for interaction between the teacher, the learners, the English language and the actual technology itself.
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