![\"CNN](\"\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/2009\/09\/CNN-IWB.jpg\")
\nA CNN reporter using an interactive whiteboard. [Image source: NYTimes] <\/div>\n
These interactive whiteboards are rapidly becoming popular in classrooms around the world. <\/p>\n
I recently conducted an email interview with math teacher Jacky Gruszka<\/strong> on her use of the interactive white board. Jacky is an enthusiast for such interactive boards and has reported that she's become much more excited about teaching math since she began using them.<\/p>\n The particular interactive whiteboad that Jacky uses is the SMARTBoardTM<\/sup>. This board allows her (and her students) to interact with objects (graphs, diagrams, Flash and java applets, etc) that are projected from her computer via an attachment that sits above the screen. <\/p>\n Jacky writes:<\/p>\n Dear Murray<\/p>\n Thanks for giving me the opportunity to talk about my use of the interactive whiteboard, specifically the SMARTboard, which I began using in February 2009. Using the SMARTboard has been an engrossing, new and exciting experience for me.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n On with the interview. <\/p>\n I teach mathematics at Taylors College Waterloo, which is a large international school in Sydney, Australia. <\/p>\n I really love what I do for many reasons. <\/p>\n I could go on and on with this question but I'll settle on one last reason that is very important to me - I have very rarely been bored by my job. I keep discovering new angles, new problems, better ways of doing things and new areas of interest.<\/p>\n There are 5 main reasons why I think IWBs are a great tool for teaching mathematics. <\/p>\n I can present beautifully drawn, clear and accurate graphs. Students have commented very favourably about the graphing work and their own graphs are noticeably better because they are always exposed to the correct shapes. I use fx-Draw3 and paste the graphs onto the Notebook pages. I can superimpose graphs on graphs and then move one of them around to demonstrate for example, phase shift of a trig graph or the effect of adding a constant to the equation of a parabola.<\/p>\n Jacky describes the asymptotes on her SMARTBoard <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It is easy to embed dynamic visualisations into the Notebook pages. (A "Notebook" is the SMARTBoard application that allows the user to create geometric objects, and to integrate these with images and text into a lesson.) <\/p>\n This saves me having to jump around the room clumsily attempting to mime some dynamic mathematical concept or entreating students to imagine this or that. For example, this simple Tangent animation<\/a> which I use for the introduction to differentiation was very successful. You can move the vertical slider at the right and show variable h<\/em> approaching zero. The students can more easily see how the secant appraches a tangent at the limit. <\/p>\n A male student came up to me after that particular lesson and with visible emotion thanked me in a very heartfelt way. He was trying to find the words to say how blown away he was by having maths ideas presented in this way and how he was starting to really see what Calculus and its underpinnings of the notion of limit was all about. These moments are so rewarding.<\/p>\n Some (not a lot) of the Gallery items (built-in interactive and multimedia items) in the Notebook software are useful for Senior maths lessons. For example, I can get coloured dice up on the screen (as many as I like and as large as I like) and they can be rolled. Random results are generated. No more having students noisily throwing dice on the desks and having half the class on the floor under the desks looking for the dice they lose. I have used the interactive protractor a lot and the electronic timer for quick quizzes.<\/p>\n I can make things fade in & out, spin, fly in... fly out ..although the novelty of this has faded somewhat for both me and my students. Fade in and Fade out have been good stayers.<\/p>\n Visually, interactive whiteboards are a huge improvement over a static whiteboard. The instructor can ensure more brightness, colour, clarity, movement and pictures. <\/p>\n I have a giant picture of the calculator which I can bring up at the click of the mouse for example. <\/p>\n When we did Rates of Change, we talked about an example where a swimming pool was "being drained for cleaning purposes". Showing the students a photo of a real pool being drained meant the meaning of the question<\/strong> immediately becomes much clearer. <\/p>\n Someone has actually attempted to put the grains of rice on the chessboard to show the power of a geometric sequence and photographed the result and I show that to my students too. (For background on this, see this Fairy Story<\/a>.) <\/p>\n Sometimes I incorporate classic art eg for a problem about maximising yield for an olive farmer I used one of Van Gogh's pictures of an olive grove. <\/p>\n I have Elvis Presley, one hand holding the microphone the other pointing out to his audience reminding them not to forget the "+ c" when they integrate! <\/p>\n I'm trying to get mathematics out of the sterile bubble<\/strong> students seem to put it in and into the flow of the world. So for non-English-background students and visual learners the SMARTboard has been wonderful.<\/p>\n My lessons are much better organised now that I am using the IWB. <\/p>\n Everything is there and more. I can skip pages if time is short. I can go back to previous pages again, even previous lessons from months ago at the click of a mouse or the touch of my finger. The examples are all up there. <\/p>\n I very rarely have my back to the class<\/strong> so I find that their attention is much more focussed (on me!) I have a page at the end of each lesson with the headings LANGUAGE, FORMULAE, HOMEWORK. Time is saved by having this all written out. I can be dealing with a student's question while the rest of the class is copying down that last page. I can run through the lesson privately with a student who might have been away sick or was late to class (for a legitimate reason). I can use any of the lessons for revision at any time. Students come up to the board after the lesson and scroll back to get material they might have missed. I can revise my lessons if certain things did not 'work' as I intended them and make them better and better. <\/p>\n I am enjoying using the SMARTboard so much. It really is fun! <\/p>\n There are some great interactive games such as:<\/p>\n But really, the main fun for me has been the creativity<\/strong> that this form of teaching has pulled out from me - creativity that I hardly knew I possessed. And for a maths teacher, being creative is a bit of a novelty.<\/p>\n IWBs are an easy to use device for collecting resources which can then be inserted and used appropriately throughout a lesson - a wonderful big toolbox for the teacher and student to pick and choose from.<\/p>\n For Senior Mathematics, I believe that the concepts of simulation and mathematical modeling are important ideas to get across. <\/p>\n Just yesterday I showed my classes your Current World Population Counter<\/a> because we are doing Exponential Growth & Decay. Of all the dynamic things I show these days with the Smart board, this got the most vocal response. They were rather shocked<\/strong>. One student said spontaneously "Oh, stop it. We have to stop it!". They asked “Is this real time? How can they get this information?” and this gave me the opportunity to talk about using an equation that models the real life situation using population data from previous years.<\/p>\n I have been using some really good dynamic simulations of rates of change<\/strong> lately such as a simulation of radioactive decay<\/a>.<\/p>\n I have not said much about videos, probably because its been hard to find good ones. <\/p>\n The quadratic formula song<\/a> took the students by surprise although it was a bit long <\/p>\n The trig video from your IntMath site <\/a> was good although the ideas came thick and fast and it is best used after the topic has been taught. <\/p>\n![\"IWB\"](\"\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/2009\/09\/IWB-real-life.jpg\")
\n Jacky Gruszka in action with the SMARTBoard.
\n Note the projector above the board.\n<\/div>\n\n
(1) Please tell us where you teach - and why you teach. <\/h2>\n
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(2) Tell us about some of the things you've done with your IWB. Why did they "work" better than an ordinary whiteboard lesson?<\/h2>\n
(a) Interactive graphs<\/h4>\n
![\"graphs](\"\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/2009\/09\/IWB-graph.jpg\")
<\/p>\n(b) Dynamic Visualisations<\/h4>\n
(c) Visually appealing<\/h4>\n
![\"rice](\"\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/2009\/09\/3216429791_f1ff84b202.jpg\")
<\/p>\n(d) My lessons are better organised<\/h4>\n
(e) Enjoyment<\/h4>\n
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(3) What are some of the best resources that you have found to use with your IWB? How did you use them? <\/h2>\n