eflclassroom

"This section of the blog is for anything connected with the educational technology element of our work at Manchester. These postings are managed by Gary but anyone else can also add relevant postings. We particularly welcome postings from current and former students."

Two years ago, at the start of the project, I said I wanted iTILT to help teachers to use the IWB judiciously - not everywhere, but in a number of situations.  I hoped teachers could integrate the IWB into their working environment and see it as one more tool to support classroom pratice.

I also hoped the project would allow us to explore other, non-teacher fronted ways of using IWB, so it is not just a glorified presentation tool.  My experience of the IWB showed me that it does open up the computer screen to classroom, allowing learners to participate.

For example, when you're at the board and having trouble with a specific tool, these little errors are great contexts for learning, because these very practical problems can be resolved in target language.  Everyone sees and everyone can participate.  In this way you get "two for one" - working on your exercise, but more language work as a bonus.

I argued that the IWB can dramatically improve learner opportunities for to use the language in the classroom in a meaningful way.