image by Sean O’Sullivan

A recent study suggests that the use of interactive whiteboards (IWB) can improve learner achievement by 16%. This could be good news for those schools seeking to improve the number of learners achieving 5 A*-C grades grades, particularly the current crop of National Challenge Schools.

The study would suggest that by focussing upon the effective use of  a widely available piece of technology, schools and pupils can improve their performance.  This positive news, however, should be tempered a little because the study also shows that some inappropriate use of Interactive whiteboards may have a detrimental effect for some learners (see previous post). So, with appropriate staff training or CPD, schools could make better use of their IWBs and anticipate improved levels of achievement for their learners.

Training, CPD, of course, costs money but in this instance, it would seem to be money well spent. National Challenge Schools may already have budgets to help them improve the attainment levels of pupils. For all staff and schools, the upcoming ICT CPD for staff initiatives could help provide the necessary input.

So if you find yourself with an ICT CPD budget or an upcoming INSET day and you’re not sure what to do with it, spending part of it on improving the use of Interactive Whiteboards might be worthwhile.

For interactive whiteboard training in UK, you could do a lot worse than contact Danny http://www.whiteboardblog.co.uk/about/

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In a recent study, researchers found that in 23% of cases, learners achieved better results when interactive whiteborads (IWB) were NOT used.

Okay, this was not the main finding of the study but it is an interesting one and one which I feel some people will latch upon. We need, however, to look at why the research found this finding. On examining the evidence, the researchers discovered that there were potential pitfalls in using interactive whiteboards, these included;

1. Not organising  the content appropriately and/or presenting the content poorly – often the content was rushed through without allowing learners the time to interact or analyze the content.

2. Using too many visuals. Pages may be awash with imagery that it became difficult for the learner to identify the key content.

3. Inappropriate use of voting or feedback devices. These were often used to note how many students got the right answer without probing why wrong answers were given or explaining why one answer was more approriate than another.

So at first it migh be argued that this research suggests that inappropriate or poor use of the technology could be more damaging to learning than no use of technology. Even if the points above were corrected, however, I’d suggest that there would still be some learners who would learn better without the use of IWBs. The Interactive Whiteboard is essentially a visual medium or multimedia tool. There are some learners for whom a visual method is not the best method of presentation. I’m thinking here of those learners who may have a predominantly auditory or kinaesthetic learning style.

For learners with a preferred style of learning that is not visual, the use of interative whiteboards (or any predominantly visual tool) could be a distraction, a source of confusion or, at worst, a detriment to their learning.

I’d also suggest that there may be many learners who, though unrecognised or undiagnosed, are at some point along the Autistic spectrum. We know that autistic learners have difficulty combining senses and appear to learn better via one sense. Often this IS the visual sense but not necessarily so. For such a learner, a multi-sensory or multimodal approach could be confusing or detrimental.

So, the research suggests that at least a fifth of learners learn better without an interactive whiteboard being used. Their suggestion is that it is inappropriate use of the technology which underlies this. Correcting the inappropriate usage may reduce this figure. However, there may still be those learners for whom the IWB may not be the best technology to utilise because of their preferred learning style.

The research was carried out by Robert Marzano and reported in the paper Multiple Measures; Teaching with Interactive Whiteboards published November 2009.  An extract of which can be found here on the ASCD website. The study appears to have involved Promethean boards but should also be relevant to other manufacturers’ products.

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