Interactive Whiteboards

Interactive whiteboards make learning very interesting for students. It involves students in ways that teachers never could have before, or at least without a lot of prep work. Students are able to check their work without the teacher saying "yes" or "no". It creates different ways to present things, and can open a concept or they can conclude a concept. It can be used as a teacher's tool or as a student center.

I found it really easy to learn how to use the smart board. I watched Professor Place use it all through math and science methods and I could have taught myself the basics, but learning it in class showed me a lot of the detailed things that I never would have been able to figure out. I really like the online forum for lessons, because teachers do not have much time and they can edit lessons that are already made.

Pros of having one in the classroom

• students have another way of learning
• teacher can use it in lessons
• student centers
• can watch movies on it

Cons of having one in the classroom

• expensive
• having to teach teachers how to use it
• distraction to the students

Ways to incorporate it into past lessons

• concept map in science methods
• graphing data in my communications lesson
• inserting movies into the smart board software instead of using youtube or a link
• games and activities

Software Skills

I think that it is beneficial to learn these skills because it makes using technology a lot easier. It will save teachers time when they are creating different documents for the classroom. I knew a lot of the things that we did with Microsoft Word and Microsoft Publisher, but I had never used Inspiration before. I think this program would be really helpful in the classroom. Microsoft Publisher will be really helpful when creating newsletters and quickly creating certificates for different achievements. I actually just used Microsoft Publisher to create certificates for my sorority for academic achievement. All of the things that we learned will help make different things in the classroom more efficiently.