Primary school students' perceptions of interactive whiteboards

Abstract

Students involved in the interactive whiteboard (IWB) evaluation, sponsored by the Centre for British Teachers (CfBT), were interviewed in regard to their perceptions about IWBs. Twelve group interviews (72 students) were conducted between January and Easter 2004 with Year 6 students (between 10 and 11 years of age) in six Local Education Authority (LEA) areas located in the North and South of England. Students were very enthusiastic about particular aspects of IWBs, such as their versatility in the classroom, multimedia capabilities and the fun and enjoyment they brought to learning. Students also highlighted, however, technical problems, teacher and students' information and communication technology skills and students' lack of access to the technology as negative aspects.

The Use of Interactive Whiteboards to Support the Creation, Capture and Sharing of Knowledge in South African Schools

“…Throughout the study, teachers integrated numerous multimedia sources in their teaching, including: static images; Microsoft Encarta; Online sources such as governmental websites; Flash-based story books; PowerPoint Presentations; Microsoft Excel; and Geometer's Sketchpad. These findings are similar to those suggested by Hall and Higgins [7], who found this to be one of the major advantages of IWBs in learning environments cited by primary school students. In addition, we found that learners often referred to the fun and thought-provoking content when using the eBeam in the classroom.…”

“…But when you teach without anything that would make them see, it becomes very difficult.' These findings are similar to previous research work where it was reported that the visual aspects of the IWB helped learners to understand content, making the teacher's explanations more effective [6,7,9,10,11]. Learners "most commonly associated the IWB with visual ways of learning.…”

“…However, on the whole, learners seemed to enjoy the use of IWBs in the classroom [6,7,8] and found them easy to use [6]. Learners also commented that they enjoyed the multimedia content that could be presented using the IWB, finding these lessons more interesting than traditional content [9].…”

Teaching Turkish as a Foreign Language with Interactive Whiteboards: A Case Study of Multilingual Learners

“…Thus, it is essential for particularly foreign language instructors to design a learner-centered, constructivist instructional environment in which students can actively use the IWB. In addition, overuse and misuse of the IWB by teachers may lead to a decrease on students' motivation and attention (Hall and Higgins 2005). Regarding this issue, one student commented that IWB make teachers job easier, they can use the existing materials on the board and do not have to lecture much.…”

“…Today, researchers from various disciplines are seeking alternative ways and solutions of using information and communication technology (ICT) to achieve more effective, interactive, and enjoyable instruction in schools (Hall and Higgins 2005;Smith et al 2005;Türel 2010). Interactive whiteboard (IWB), as an ICT, has been a growing trend to design more interactive learning environments in many disciplines including language learning (Tozcu 2008).…”