Week #3 Post: Interactive Boards (required)

I found an article titled "The Use of SMART Boards for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment in Kindergarten Science." You can access it from the Hurst library's EBSChost: http://http//web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=3&hid=6&sid=0bcfd552-9614-409b-a156-e37d313f91b9%40sessionmgr11&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=ehh&AN=32699193#db=ehh&AN=32699193.

This article is very insightful regarding interactive white boards. For the past five years, a kindergarten classroom at Abbotsleigh Junior School has been using a Smart Board to facilitate learning in the subject area of science. According to the article, the Smart Board has been used successfully during these years to "enhance teaching and learning and facilitate assessment in science" (1).

In reading this article, I gained a better sense of how interactive white boards work. The beginning portion explains in detail how Smart Boards function. I also realized the proficient roles that these teaching devices can play in creating a better learning environment, even for young children at a kindergarten level. Smart Boards enable teachers to easily display the information at hand as well as interact with it in the context of learning. The article asserts that learning is much more effective if it can be accomplished through multiple modes, because this appeals to multiple learning styles. Students whose learning styles tend to be visual-spatial, auditory, or kinaesthetic are greatly aided by the use of the Smart Board.

In addition, especially for young learners, interactive classroom boards encourage children to want to learn, mainly due to the fact that the board is interactive and thus exciting. I believe that inspiration to learn is the single most important function of these boards. The goal of educators should not be to simply teach children facts or satisfy their curiosity, it should additionally be to inspire students to want to learn more about the world through subject matter, such as science experiments--as this article details. If children can grasp the joy of learning from a young age, they will be inspired and better equiped to continue to pursue enlightenment throughout their entire lives. Since Smart Boards excite young scholars of this technological era to learn, they should be implemented in every classroom. As the article points out, "The Smart Board engages the child with what they are learning about and makes it both a personal and shared experience for them." This experience should ideally inspire them to continue to explore the topics (and others) in which they are engaged.

Smart Boards additionally enable teachers to make sure that their students are "really getting it" as concepts and strategies are being taught. Educators can quickly assess students' understanding by having them participate in interactive activities on the Smart Board. While limitations and distractions do exist in having a Smart Board in the classroom, I think that the overall impact of having one is positive, inspirational, and engaging for both the teacher and the student. Both parties benefit, for you never stop learning in life.