Interactive Whiteboards in everyday teaching

Course details

On completion of this course, participants will know how to use appropriate educational focused techniques to fully utilize the whiteboard to create an effective and engaging presentation. They will be able to add audio, video and animation to their lessons to encourage whole class participation across all subjects. Participants will also learn how to connect to other schools both locally, nationally and internationally using the whiteboard. As part of the course, they will search and source resources to be used in the everyday teaching of the curriculum for use on the interactive whiteboard.

Course Modules

Module 1:

• Learn the basics of an Interactive Whiteboard, the types of Interactive Whiteboards, how they work and the benefits of using them in the classroom
• Have created a lesson plan for use in a Geography lesson
• Have started to gather and analyse the evidence required for the self-evaluation of their teaching

Module 2:

• Source educational Open Source and free software
• Gain practical skills in Free Mind – Mind Mapping for all the Class
• Use Tux Paint and apply it to everyday teaching
• Create a presentation using Open Office Impress - Presentation Software
• Create a lesson plan for a History lesson
• Write a short document outline the weaknesses and strengths of your current teaching method

Module 3:

• Learn how to use NASA World Wind for a lesson in the classroom
• Source and use educational games and activities for the Interactive Whiteboard
• Create a lesson plan for use in a SPHE lesson
• Write a short self-evaluation report

Module 4:

• Integrate Audio, Video and Multimedia with your Interactive Whiteboard
• Gain the skills to share live audio and video between classes within the school, nationally or internationally with an Interactive Whiteboard
• Create a lesson plan for SPHE dealing with the ‘Knowing your Body’ strand
• Devise a development plan to improve on the weaknesses identified

Module 5:

• Gain practical skills for Numeracy lesson plans - two sample classroom projects for numeracy lessons using the Interactive Whiteboard
• Created a lesson plan for Maths
• Gain practical skills for Literacy lesson plans - two sample classroom projects for literacy lessons using the Interactive Whiteboard
• Create a lesson plan for English
• Create a lesson plan for Science
• Create a lesson plan for Music
• Read best practice examples for the Senior Classes - two sample classroom projects for senior classes using the Interactive Whiteboard
• Outline the implementation and monitoring plan that you will use during the next academic year to ensure you improve on your teaching

Assessment

Each module will require participants to contribute a post to the course forum in response to a question posed by the course facilitator. Each question will require critical thinking and stimulate discussion among the community of learners, all of which will be discussed using the moderated forum and will in turn develop a community of practice. During the course, participants will answer multiple-choice questions to encourage knowledge retention.

To complete the course, each participant must undertake a significant assignment based on all modules. This exercise will take the form of a reflective exercise, creation of a lesson plan to be used in the following academic year, which will provides an opportunity for the participant to analyse:

• Their key learning points from the course
• The subject of the course in terms of their own experience
• Practical examples of how they will apply what they have learned in their classroom in the year ahead