What's the latest on these, and has anyone had any training?
Uses one? Seems all the workshops I did on the things are now out of date. Do like them, but how do you integrate them into a lesson? A few useful threads I have searched here but no updates, thanks in advance.
I have had 4 lots of training on them ...They can have moments when they are handy but more than often I use them as a glorified projector as for delineating visuals... a white or black board is faster
Bugger I drew on one with a permanent marker once
They are awesome and can do basically everything that you need, although they are difficult to learn at first. I used one in America.
NotOriginally Posted by Warhammer820
It creates more participation by giving the students clickers to use to answer questions and keeping their interest with loads of movements through transitions. Using this type of technology, in my observation, attracts the students' attention be because it is not the normal boring white board.
Ever try it with 50 students in the class. Utter chaos. Also the other real issue is that the software really isn't up to speed with the technology. So when writing on it or drawing something it takes a few seconds to register. I have found that just typing things in word is faster and easier to manage. There are some excellent shockwave files that can liven up a lesson, but overall how much time is wasted with kids running up and clicking something. The transition between activities causes some serious issues when in large classes.
Personally, I would rather save the 100k baht and get better text books and other visual aids. An overhead projector and a computer are just fine for most presentations.
Never seen it with more than 30. Classes here can't have more than 40 students per teacher. The clickers can be done at the desks with the Promethean Board, so there isn't too much running.
at 3k baht per clicker, I doubt any school in Thailand is going to have one for each kid.
But if you think 5 months of your salary is worth having one of these in a Thai classroom with 50 students, no ac, no books (at best crappy books), then you and I have a different idea of value of education.
Reduce class size, increase salary for qualified and competent teachers, then spend on technology. Whereas a simple computer with a projector can be less than 30K baht. It still is a great resource with multi media. Interative is cool but often kids get lost in the activity and are not focused on the outcome.
If you teach with outcomes in mind, I doubt that you will see much more result with interactive whiteboards than you would with just simple multi media power points, videos, internet.
I think your problem WH is that you have never really been in a Thai classroom and are not comparing things that can relate.
At my school we have promethean boards, and they are good. I went through a 20 hour training. I do know how to make programs and materials in flash shockwave. But the 100 hours it takes to make an interactive lesson that will be used maybe twice isn't worth it. There are lots of things that are made and can be tweaked, but overall promethean software is still not up to the technology. It laggs, has some bugs with saving files and converting to typed script.
I am not against it by any means, but I do believe that there are other practical old school things that need to be in place before spending and rushing to technology to save our educational issues.
Don't get me started on touchpads for 6 year olds, when they don't even all have chairs in the classroom.
RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms - YouTube
clickers are good but this is better
Yeah, I was not sure how the Thai children would react to it. I think it would be interesting to see though. If you say it doesn't work in Thailand, then I believe you. The elementary school children here have a blast with it, but I'm not 100% sure if that's what the rise in test scores can be attributed to. I do however fail to see how an Ipad for an elementary school child would be a good thing.
There would appear to be evidence that the use of the internet, along with all of the other technological applications such as video games, TV, smart phones, texting, information on demand............is actually decreasing student attention spans. For sure there are studies into the affect it is having on cognition.
Modern students almost expect to have technology embedded in most areas of their lives now. Even elementary children.
Whilst smart/ketab boards (we use Ketabs in our school) can be an effective tool to keep students interest, it is doubtful of its positive impact on large class sizes.
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