Deployment Of Ict: A Case For The Interactive Whiteboard

Malaysian Online Journal of Instructional Technology (MOJIT) Vol. 3, No.1, pp 78-84
April 2006
ISSN 1823:1144
Deployment Of Ict: A Case For The Interactive Whiteboard
Raja Maznah Raja Hussain
SMARTedu@UM Center
Curriculum and Instructional Technology Department
Faculty of Education
University of Malaya
rmaznah@um.edu.my
Abstract
The presence of information and communication technology (ICT) is increasingly prevalent in
schools today. The roles of teachers and school leaders are inevitably changing. They have to
continuously improve on what they are doing, especially in managing the ICT infrastructure and
resources, the curriculum, assessments and the community of learners. This paper will explore
some of the issues of concern to teachers and stakeholders when deploying new technology such as
the interactive whiteboard (IWB) in schools. It will look into an overall class learning environment
using the IWB in the present United Kingdom scenario, where teachers are changing the way they
present concepts, engaging the learners and getting them to really interact. It will also take a look at
the enabling factors that support teachers in deploying the IWB technology successfully.
INTRODUCTION
The interactive whiteboard (IWB) has become one more necessary tool for teachers to keep their
students engaged and involved in their learning. The IWB is helping teachers to create a learning
condition that motivates and stretches learners’ imagination in their classrooms. How does the
IWB support this type of learning? What type of support do teachers need to effectively use the
IWB in the classrooms? What issues are of concern to teachers and implementers of the IWB?
These were some of the questions that I set out to find answers for during my sabbatical leave in
the United Kingdom (UK) in 2005.
During my six month visit to UK, I was able to take a look at the UK information and
communication technology (ICT) initiatives for teaching and learning through my attendance at
seminars and conferences and visits to schools and learning centres. In most schools that I visited,
I could see at least one IWB in the school, if not one in each classroom. The seminars and
conferences I attended made me curious about what the British are doing that makes the
deployment of ICT in schools, especially the use of the IWB, a “success.” What I mean by
“success” here is that the deployment of the IWB is high, with about 63% of primary schools
having one or more IWBs (Kelly, 2005). I cannot compare this to Malaysian schools since we
have very few schools with IWBs. There is a plan to bring IWBs into Malaysian classrooms.
Currently, the Malaysian Ministry of Education (MMOE) is doing a pilot test on IWB usage in
eight schools. If the MMOE is going to deploy IWBs in our schools in the future, we hope to
learn from other countries’ best practices.
We have taken our own initiative at the Faculty of Education, University of Malaya (UM) to bring
the IWB into our teacher training programme. The faculty is one of the earlier adopters of the
IWB in Malaysia. We have experienced the “magic” of its use since July 2004. We purchased four
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SMART boards in November 2004 and have since partnered with the IT industry to carry out
research related to their use in teaching and learning through our SMARTedu@UM centre. We
have also developed an academic link with the SMART Education at the Canterbury ChristChurch
University which hosted my UK sabbatical. This paper however, is not about our work in UM
since we are still new to the use of IWB technology. It is about my quest for knowledge and an
exploration of some of the issues and concerns faced by schools and stakeholders in managing the
changes related to deploying IWBs in teaching and learning. The article is based on my visits,
experience and attendance at seminars and conferences and my interactions with teachers and
other stakeholders in the UK.
THE IWB AND LEARNING
The IWB is a tool that can help teachers to create a desired condition for learning in the classroom.
With it, students can also get access to Google and Internet at their fingertips and can stretch their
imaginations through sound, the visual medium and hyperlinks, thus making learning very
engaging. Whether IWBs can affect student learning or not depends very much on the teachers’
creativity to ensure that learners are motivated, engaged and are learning seamlessly. With the IWB
placed in the classroom, some teachers are of the opinion that they are expected to perform
miracles, where they are demanded to create lessons and learning experiences creatively. The onus
is on the teachers to make sure that the learners are motivated to learn, to construct and
deconstruct knowledge. Teachers who are excited about the IWB as a tool are suddenly becoming
more interested in teaching and learning theories because they realise that the use of the IWB
requires a different approach to designing lessons.
Teachers have to set learning in context and be guided by learning objectives in order to take
advantage of the many capabilities of the IWB. They can be easily seduced or discouraged by its
use while being concerned, at the same time, about providing equal opportunities and experience
to all learners in the classroom. Although the IWB is being hailed as a tool where the whole class
can be involved in learning. there are still questions that teachers are asking, such as, “When the
IWB is being used by one child, what do the other children do?” Teachers want to know how to
ensure that all learners are engaged in a lesson. This issue is related to pedagogy and the
preparation of teachers to use the IWB as a tool.
Pedagogy and preparation are two of the many factors that enable a teacher to use ICT effectively
in a classroom. In the next section, I will explore some of the enabling factors which have been
discussed in UK, such as the implementation, teacher preparation, school commitment and the use
of the IWB in the classrooms.
ENABLING FACTORS
Implementation
I posed a question to an IWB distributor at one of the conferences on education technology in
London. My question to him was, “What is it that makes the IWB implementation successful in
UK?” His answer was that the IWB was deployed because there was a need to improve the core
subjects of literacy and numeracy. According to him, “We had an ICT training programme which
was not successful before.” The reason was related to the professional development of the users,
especially teachers, whereby according to him, “… training was given but teachers have no access
to PCs or laptops.” So the solution was to create a balance by providing laptops or PCs and IWBs
in the classrooms for class learning.
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The UK government has made major investments on ICT in education over the past eight years.
From 1998 to 2008, it has pledged to spend 400 GBP per student; this year alone will see
expenditures of 90 GBP per student (Brown, 2006). The majority of UK schools now have IWBs
and most are connected to the Internet. Brown (2006), the Divisional Manager of ICT in the
School Division, UK, recently reported that ICT is currently embedded in about 11-20% of UK
schools, which means that these schools cannot function without ICT. About 40-60% of UK
schools are on their way to embedding ICT, followed by 36-40% of schools which use ICT, but do
not know how to embed it within the learning process. According to Brown, less than 13% of
schools in the UK have yet to grasp the idea of using ICT in the classroom.
The deployment of ICT is a national project that recognises the importance of ensuring that
teachers are engaged in the “National Driving Licence” initiative with government recognition and
certification. Teachers are provided with access to ICT through laptops, PCs and IWBs. The
project ensures that there is a programme of support – which is related to national recognition.
However, there is still a weakness in the system and according to the distributor, “UK did not
make it a condition of their funding that schools must commit to the nationally recognised
certification” which he feels would strengthen the programme even more. He feels that teachers
should be given the training with the purchase of the IWB. Since the deployment of IWBs in
schools requires a change in the role of teachers from being a dispenser of knowledge to being a
facilitator and a guide, it is acknowledged that teachers require professional development to embed
ICT within all lessons and not teaching ICT as a separate course (Knowlton, 2006).
Teacher Preparation
Beginning to teach with an IWB means that there is yet more demand on teachers who are already
in an overloaded profession (Haldane, 2003). According to Haldane, the demands include skills
training, revisiting lesson plans which are already seen as successful, designing new approaches to
learning, resource development, etc. She cautions that we cannot assume that all the staff in a
school have the expertise needed to make the best use of all the facilities made available to them,
simply because IWBs have been installed in classrooms. There is also a danger that the IWB is
perpetuating 19th century teaching with gadgets (Hayes, 2005).
The key challenge in UK is to ensure that the workforce is competent. There is a need to facilitate
professional development, which includes pedagogical competence with ICT, the spreading of
effective practice with peers, the development of communities of practice (cultural change) and
rewarding effective innovation (Pittard, 2005). The Local Education Authorities (LEA) established
a group of leading ICT practitioners who have received nationally accredited training to enable
them to support other teachers through training and modelling the use of the IWB in the
classroom (Morgan & Linton, 2005). I was fortunate to attend two LEA conferences related to the
IWB in Kent and London.
At a “Leading ICT teachers” annual conference organised by the Kent Education Authority, a
paper on the impact of the IWB on teaching and learning was presented by the Regional Advisor,
Tara Kelly. In her presentation, Kelly (2005) stressed the need for teachers to develop the
following four abilities to use ICT to support the curriculum:
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• Subject knowledge – knowing what to teach.
• The way to teach – knowing how to structure lessons, and what interactions to build into
the lessons, especially when using the IWB.
• Attitude –- knowing that it is alright to make mistakes.
• Fluency in the use of ICT – learning one good skill then moving on to learn new ones.
The confidence is built into the training provided by the LEAs. At each phase of the training,
teachers are taught skills, shown contents and programmes. They are given opportunities to
discuss the best practices in the use of technology. Although teachers have been happy with the
training, issues related to the technical aspects of the implementation continue to be raised.
Inevitably, teachers need more technical support in an ICT rich environment.
I was fortunate to attend a two-day conference organised by the National Whiteboard Network
(NWN) in London and participated in discussions with teachers, literacy and numeracy
consultants and ICT consultants. From the sessions and forums, I understood that teachers were
trained to embed technology by improving their pedagogy and technology skills. Teachers were
trained to adopt, adapt and innovate available resources through “Embedding ICT training”
programmes.
Resources for the IWB are available online and on CDs. Most of these resources are provided by
government agencies, such as the NWN, free of charge. Some resources have been purchased by
the LEAs and learning centres from courseware developers and individuals. However, teachers are
wary of commercially available courseware and “made to measure” resources because of the danger
of “hidden agendas”. Nevertheless, there is a need for them to adapt and innovate..
Teachers are of the opinion that they are already burdened with too many resources, which they
have yet to come to grips with. Therefore, the training provided to them are hands-on sessions
which prepare them to adopt the resources which are often accompanied with lesson plans and
worksheets. The issue of adoption is of concern to the authorities, such as the NWN, in that
schools must be made clear that adoption is beyond adopting a resource. Beside training teachers
to adopt available resources, teachers are also taught how to adapt the resources to meet their
needs and to creatively develop innovative lessons based on the resources given.
Teachers’ opinions and concerns do have implications for their training, whereby they need to
prepare to do the following
• Help children transfer the learning from what they see on the board into knowledge, skills
and understanding.
• Ensure the continuing use of the resources provided to them.
• Effectively integrate the use of the IWB in the lessons and to avoid being “seduced by
technology”.
• Keep an appropriate balance between technology and content.
• Deal with technical unreliabilities and lack of technical support.
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Preparing teachers to use the IWB effectively is an important element in bringing about change and
innovation to schools. We have witnessed successes and failures in past ICT initiatives in schools
which depended greatly on the commitment of the school leadership and management.
School Commitment
Head teachers or principals play very important roles in ensuring the success of ICT deployment in
schools. According to Moss (2006), profound change can trigger a defense mechanism in head
teachers, classroom teachers and parents. “We need to engage with all these stakeholders to
overcome mental barriers”, he said. Head teachers have to be very clear of the vision for ICT
deployment in schools in order to ensure that the technology is embedded successfully into
teaching and learning. It is important for schools to focus their energy and to understand their
vision for teaching and learning using ICT as a tool and to put learners first. Embedding new
technology is, however, not without its problems. Hayes (2005) advised head teachers not to be
constrained by all the problems which they might encounter. Most important is to keep the focus
on teaching and learning. Thus, head teachers must lead by example, by also using ICT tools in
their work.
Besides having the ICT vision, schools should ensure their commitment to the certification
programme. As part of the purchase agreement, some local districts and states require that fully
funded schools participate in this programme. Before purchasing IWBs, schools are advised to ask
these important questions:
• Why are we buying the technology?
• How will we support it? Do we need to sign a contract for training and measure the
results?
• How will we measure the results of the improvement, and whose improvement do we
measure beside that of the students?
• Will the technology purchase be included in our school improvement programme?
• How will we pilot the programme?
How Teachers Use IWBs
IWBs were placed in selected schools in UK about ten years ago. Over the last five years, the
government has spent about 50 million GBP to equip schools with IWBs. Besides the
government initiatives, the LEAs and schools are instrumental in bringing the IWB into the
classrooms. To date, studies on the impact of the IWB have been anecdotal and not statistical.
However, the Primary National Strategy team has developed a continuum which helps to describe
the five distinct phases that teachers pass through when they begin to use the IWB:
1. Familiarisation – teachers have received training but have not yet put this into practice.
2. Utilisation – teachers begin to use the technology either as a replacement or to supplement
existing methods e.g., the flipchart, overhead projector or traditional whiteboard.
3. Integration – teachers plan the use of IWB technology into their everyday schedule and the
IWB becomes an indispensable tool.
4. Reorientation – teachers begin to change their teaching strategies by using the IWB
dynamically and drawing children into its use; teaching and learning become shared
activities using the IWB as a medium for sharing.
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5. Evolution – the use of the IWB becomes an irreversible part of everyday classroom
practice and begins to significantly improve children’s learning. Additionally, through using
the technology as an assessment tool, teachers use the boards flexibly to differentiate
learning and to access a wider range of children’s different learning styles (Morgan &
Linton, 2005, p.5).
A study by Moore (2005) on IWB use by teachers in the Windsor and Maidenhead Council
reported that 50% of the teachers are now at the integration phase. Teachers are using IWBs and
are focusing on delivering learning objectives to students. The study also sought the opinions of
students who are reported to be happy to talk about the IWB, saying that learning is fun and the
pace of lessons is faster. Students like the visibility and say that they can see what is going on in
the class and like the fact that they spend more time with the teachers (Moore, 2005).
Teachers are finding different ways to enhance teaching and learning by using the IWB in their
classrooms. Depending on their confidence, the teachers’ usage range from using the board to
display the timetable at the start of the day to the use of placing pre-prepared notebook pages on
the IWB that children can use to record their own behaviour and learning responses. Teachers are
moving away from the materials provided to them and developing their own in partnership with
other teachers. This reduces the amount of work required by individual teachers to build a bank of
relevant resources. Teachers are also creating resources in the classroom with the pupils and are
modelling high quality conversations with the use of the boards.
SUMMARY
I have learnt that the successful use of the IWB is not about technology but about embedding
technology within the curriculum to create personalised learning experiences for each pupil and
transform the classroom into a collaborative learning environment. Embedding ICT begins with
small steps and can be a challenging journey for some. To get there, investments must be made in
teachers and new approaches developed for learning in a 21st century classroom. The future
scenario for the IWB in the 21st century classroom is bright. Teachers are excited about the new
technology and students are finding that they are more engaged with their learning which becomes
more personalised because of the new pedagogy required to embed ICT into teaching and learning.
From my own research experience of training pre-service teachers to use the IWB, I find that they
are very involved and motivated to design lessons for use with the board. By teaching them the
tools and the pedagogy to make lessons interactive, my students are singing praises of the IWB and
they are designing creative ways to use it. The teacher trainees are commenting on how fortunate
they are to be the pioneer group to be trained to use the IWB by us. They are excited about the
acquisition of new skills and it is hoped that a transfer of the lessons learned in the training room
into the classrooms will occur in the future. They have learned that creative teaching requires that
teachers have secure subject knowledge and effective pedagogy following which ICT can add
flexibility, innovation and creativity to teaching and learning.
One very important aspect of embedding ICT into the education process is the support from all
stakeholders. In UK, the “ICT in Education” initiative is supported by the government, led by a
national body – the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta) – that
oversees, manages and monitors the “ICT in Education” progress. Such an organisation is needed
in countries where the initiative is to succeed.
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REFERENCES
Brown, D. (2006). ICT in Educaction – Policy in the UK. Paper presented at the
seminar on Implementing Education Technology successfully, organised by SMART
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Haldane, M. (2003). Lesson observation: using technology in teacher training to
learn about technology in the classroom. Real-time, 2(3), 15-18.
Hayes, M. (2005). Working with headteachers to develop a vision for ICT. Paper presented
at the Leading ICT Teachers Annual Conference, Ashford International Hotel, Ashford,
Kent, 29 September 2005.
Kelly, T. (2005). Impacts of interactive whiteboard on teaching and learning. Keynote
address at the Leading ICT Teachers Annual Conference, Ashford International Hotel,
Ashford, Kent, 29 September 2005.
Knowlton, N. (2006). Overview of the Seminar on Implementing Education Technology
successfully, organised by SMART Technology (Canada) at Hilton London, Kensington, 13
January 2006. Retrieved on 13 January 2006 from
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Moss, S. (2006). Transforming Secondary Education. Paper presented at the seminar on
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