Interactive white boards are an example of a technology that represents a rhyme of history. In the school district where I teach, we use SMART Boards specifically, therefore, I have become a SMART Notebook v.10 certified trainer and a SMART Exemplary Educator (SEE). SMART Boards rekindle from the past the need to display information for an entire classroom of students to see at one time, rather than the teacher having to write something on each individual students' slates or chalkboards, capturing lost teaching time, as did the inventor of the first chalkboard, James Pillans, a school headmaster in Scotland in the mid-1800’s (http://www.ehow.com/). How ironic is it that today, the teacher still only has to write something once on the SMART Board, but with other emerging technologies such as the interactive response system (clickers), iPods and iPads, it can also be shared individually with each student on a personal technology device just as the original student slates or chalkboards were used. I would also like to emphasize as Dr. Thornburg pointed out in his vodcast, “It’s not the technology, but the affect of the technology, that is rekindled," possibly coming full-circle.
Kevin Kelly paints an incredible picture of what life might be like in the next 5,000 days of the Web through “one machine” composed of three unique components: (1) embodiment is where humans are the extended senses of this machine, rekindling all previous forms of how humans communicate; (2) restructuring links data and all things, rekindling how everyone and everything in our environment effect each other in some way; and (3) codependency has everyone relying on everyone else, because we become the web, rekindling the need for socialization.
References:
http://www.ehow.com/about_6458935_slate-chalkboards.html
http://www.smarttech.com/
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/kevin_kelly_on_the_next_5_000_days_of_the_web.html
LeAnn,
ReplyDeleteOur classrooms have interactive boards created with Wii system and most teachers enjoy the flexibility they bring. I love to see technology enhance instruction and make the art of teaching more enjoyable.
Cassandra
LeAnn,
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love the smart board and I am hoping to have one in my classroom when I go back to teaching again in another year. They make teaching easier and whole group interactivity is easy to do with them.
Sherry
LeAnn,
ReplyDeleteI love my SMART Board and don't know how I got along without one at my old school. Cassandra I never heard of a interactive board through Wii systems how does that work?
Shauna