Drumcondra Education Centre - Interactive Whiteboards

Go to content

Research on use of CBIs - International

Additional Resources

CBI Interactive Whiteboard Project - DEC, ICS, CESI

(In case you arrive at this page via an Internet Search, click here to get to the CBI Project Homepage)

Where to find more reading materials - this page is provided as being of particular interest to teachers engaged in research.

 

NCTE has an Advice Sheet at http://www.ncte.ie/ICTAdviceSupport/AdviceSheets/InteractiveWhiteboards/


On 3rd December 2007, we hosted a Research Seminar in Drumondra:

 

Start at the National Whiteboard Network http://www.nwnet.org.uk/


Some very interesting research from the University of Cambridge's Faculty of Education regarding Pedagogy and CBis can be read at http://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/research/projects/istl/

 

The Review Project http://www.thereviewproject.org/ is engaged in on-going research on the use of electronic whiteboards in U.K. classrooms: its findings were disseminated mid-February 2004: a CD (which installs itself fully on your computer) was available.


An interesting video debate, which puts the case for and against whiteboards, is “Whiteboards: Boon or Boondoggle?”. It may be viewed on eSchoolNews (http://www.eschoolnews.com/video/?v=207&c=10&f=320&cb=1186690277638 for the Windows Media version, http://www.eschoolnews.com/video/?v=207&c=10&f=321&cb=1186690277654 for the Quicktime version). Access to eSchoolNews is allowed in School’s Broadband ‘Option A’. These are part of a 24-minute (so you will need Broadband!) program.
The above included this comment from Doug Browne: “Overall the research, and we’ve done a considerable amount of research on this, identified that in terms of some of the use of the whiteboards, pace of lessons was improving, motivation was improving, student engagement was improving, and teacher preparation was improving. “If you look at some of the activity in the UK, you will find some appalling teaching using whiteboards. This is not about the technology. It is actually about the teaching. And the findings we have all through this is it really depends on the teachers and it really depends on the teaching. But interactive whiteboards can be transformative and standards can actually rise as a result.”

 

An excellent collection of links to Books, Journals and online media can be found at the NCEF - National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities http://www.edfacilities.org/rl/interactive_whiteboards.cfm

 

Another collection of Tips, Research and Whiteboard files can be accessed via Shambles - part of the Asia Education Project http://www.shambles.net/pages/staff/intwhiteb

 

Virtual Learning http://www.virtuallearning.org.uk/virtuallearning/index.html carries a range of research articles concerning ICT in education. John Cuthell's "Virtual Learning - The Impact of ICT on the Way Young People Work" is available for download. The IWB (CBI) section http://www.virtuallearning.org.uk/iwb/index.html has many links to articles which discuss the impact of CBIs on pedagogy. In addition, John is involved with Mirandanet : one of its projects has looked in some detail at CBIs in the classroom: see http://www.mirandanet.ac.uk/interactive.htm. See http://www.mirandanorth.org.uk/2003research.html for a number of interesting case studies.

 

Gage, Jenny, 2005: "How to use an Interactive Whiteboard Really Effectively in your Primary* Classroom", David Fulton Publishers; * there is a separate text "...in your Secondary Classroom" These books are a good read - they contain similar information to that which is found on this CBI website, together with sample files. I have abstracted material (in PDF format) relating to a Schema for whiteboard use ...ranging through five steps: familiarisation, utilisation, integration, reorientation and evolution: Jenny Gage.pdf


I would also like to add (my own?) three stages (I may have read this somewhere, but I cannot recall a link!): Presentation, Integration and Participation. The Presentation stage is just the Data Projector aspect (i.e. the teacher is still using the board in PowerPoint mode ...with more emphasis on the Projector hardware rather than the Whiteboard hardware and software). Integration ivolves more consideration and use of the whiteboard software tools (e.g. in Notebook, in Flipchart etc.) - integration of ICT by the Teacher may be easier (according to Conor Galvin) than by the pupils. Participation highlights the key actions of the learners (they, for example, should be coming to the board and moving things around; they should be authoring their own Notebook files, Flipchart pages etc. ...and then presenting these as peer-teaching tools).

 

O'Leary, Robbie: "Teacher, what's a Blackboard" - article written for InTouch magazine, April 2006, pp 30 and 31, available online in Acrobat format at http://www.into.ie/ROI/Publications/InTouch/2006/April2006/File,2654,en.pdf (Robbie quotes from this website and from a very useful article "Interactive Whiteboards and Learning: A Review of Classroom Case Studies and Research Literature" (in which SMART gathers together some research findings) available online at http://dewey.uab.es/pmarques/pdigital/es/docs/Research%20White%20Paper.pdf

 

"...it is relatively easy to achieve successful technological change by adopting digital whiteboards, but it is much harder to achieve successful pedagogical change, where the learning of pupils improves" according to Feature: White elephants? by Steve Higgins, in Times Educational Suppliment Online at http://www.tes.co.uk/search/story/?story_id=2221525


Teaching ICT - The Journal for ICT Specialists in Education (Volume 1, Issue 2, Autumn 2001) contains the article "Interactive Whiteboards - A Luxury Too Far?". The article presents a number of arguements and observations in favour and against CBIs. Its findings generally point to the importance of the creative use of the boards. See http://acitt.digitalbrain.com/acitt/web/resources/pubs/Journal%2002/whiteboards.htm The same journal also has a review of four types of boards at http://acitt.digitalbrain.com/acitt/web/resources/pubs/Journal%2002/whiteboards2.htm

Promethean hosts a number of stories, anecdotes, videos and research papers on its Promethean Planet website, in a section called The Digital Chalkface": visit: http://www.prometheanplanet.com/uk/server/show/nav.1246
(c) David Kearney | whiteboards@cesi.ie
Back to content | Back to main menu