Going to school in the 60's and 70's was a chalkboard dominated classroom with textbooks, dictionaries and encyclopedias as our resources. We were a happy bunch. Today almost every classroom I see comes equipped with an Interactive Whiteboard (IWF)/SMART Board that provide teachers with technology resources from around the world. Firmin and Gelesi discuss the transition from the chalkboard to technological advancement through to the Interactive Whiteboard in use in the classrooms (History and Implementation of Classroom Technology, 2013). Levin shows four uses of technology as media: for research, for conversation, for building, and for assertions (as cited in Firmin & Genesi, 2013, p. 1604). The educator is cautioned to choose quality resources over quantity. I can only imagine the image of a child in a candy shop. What is the quality of material you are looking for? The question might be "will I use this regularly"? The temptation might be to gather as much as you can because it does not take up physical space. However, does the storage of extraneous technology make it difficult to access what is valuable to our students? Firmin and Gelesi encourage the inclusion of quality technological resources in the classroom as it enhances "both the teaching and learning" (History and Implementation of Classroom Technology, 2013, p. 1605). However, the article does discuss the hesitancy of educators to embrace technology to it's full potential and, instead to explore their pedagogy in relation to the successful integration of technology into their classrooms. Students found that the use of technology in their classrooms helped them to be more interested, more engaging, and "made the information seem more real" (Firmin & Gelesi, 2013, p. 1606). Without having to rely on one textbook learners now have quicker and more far-reaching access to many sources in which they might "seek evidence to support what they are learning" (Firmin & Gelesi, 2013, p. 1605). However, they did agree that, ultimately, it was the teachers, themselves, who make a successful learning atmosphere. This article, History and Implementation of Classroom Technology, extensively talks about what is an IWB?, the uses of an IWB, the advantages of an IWB, to a lesser extent the disadvantages of an IWB, and how teachers and students feel about them. Note: the article, History and Implementation of Classroom Technology.
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