Teaching with Wikis, Blogs, Podcasts, and More (Ch 3)

This chapter focused on teachers can appropriately incorporate interactive whiteboards into their classrooms. This is rather valuable, because I think teachers often have the technology in their classrooms, but they are not quite sure how to use it. The book first suggests to simply acquaint your students with the interactive whiteboard. This can be done by having students give presentations using the whiteboard. I thought this was a good way to instruct students on the interactives use, while at the same time supporting other subject areas through the presentation. Next the chapter gave a list of uses for the classroom. They listed multimedia presentations, video, notes, critical thinking, and special needs students. The first three options I was fairly familiar with , but I don't believe i would have thought of the last two onmy own. The author suggest using an outline to organize a classroom brainstorming session. The teacher can then use concept mapping software and graphic organizers to better present the information. I thought this was a really great idea that will help to engage the students in the learning process. The author also discussed how the interactive board is capable of producing larger fonts and brighter colors, so it would accommodate some vision impaired students. I really like the fact that technology can help to better our special needs students. It truly is a great tool to use for ALL students in the classroom. The whiteboard can also be used for a number of classroom response systems, such as : taking attendance, student feedback, classroom voting, student surveys, etc. This chapter was full of helpful suggestions to help better employ the interactive whiteboard into the classroom!