IWB's 7/1/09

I think the first thing that really caught my attention in this article was when the authors were talking about how teachers ask their questions. The authors said that teachers are asking more questions so the quality of answers are becoming worse and worse. I definitley believe this is true. I can recall sitting in class as a student and also at my job as a teacher's aid, when the teachers were asking questions and then just expecting a short quick answer rather than giving the students the necessary time to come up with a more thoughtful answer.

The second area that really caught my attention was when the authors discussed national test scores and how there have been gains in the scores. The authors believe this is due to teaching to the test instead of the kids actually learning and understanding the material. I also find this to be a very true statement, and it is also something I see every day in my job. Math teachers in our building are supposed to have PSSA Friday's where they review questions that students might have on the test. English teachers also were given PSSA books that they were supposed to take time once a week to go over with the students. I know in our classroom we tried to use the PSSA math book, but it was different from what the teacher was teaching through the regular curriculum, and by the time we were done with the PSSA book our students were completly lost.

The third thing that I thought was very interesting was the chart they showed in the article and how it displayed different teaching techniques as well as how it matched up high teacher control or low teacher control. When I saw this chart it made me think back to Bloom's Taxonomy. The lower levels of Bloom's Taxonomy mean high teacher contorl, and the higher level of Bloom's Taxonomy mean high degree of pupil participation or control. This then goes back to our education as we moved from secondary to post secondary. In high school and the early part of college there was a high degree of contorl by the teacher and professor, but as we moved on it changed from a high degree of contorl by the teacher and professor to the students having the control.

I do not believe that interactive communication tools lead to interactive learning because, if the teacher does not let the students participate and try out the interactive communication tools that the students are provided with, then it is not interactive learning for the students. I believe this depends a lot on the teacher. If the teacher is willing to let the students use the interactive communication tools then it would be lead to interactive learning. But if the teacher does not let the students use the tools, then it would not lead to interactive learning. The article brought up a good example of this when they discussed teachers falling into the trap of using powerpoint all of the time. Yes, it is an interactive communication tool if they are using a IWB, but if the teacher is just lecturing from the powerpoint slides and the students are not doing anything, then the interactive communication tools did not lead to interactive learning.

I think the first thing teachers have to be willing to do is learn how to use the interactive communication tools. If they do not have the desire to learn how to use them, then they will not put forth their best effort in learning how to use them to the best of their ability. If they are just going through the motions to say they are using interactive communications tools, then the students will not benefit from them at all.

The second thing I believe teachers have to be willing to do is let the students use the interactive communication tools. If the teachers do not let the students use the interactive communication tools, then the tools are not being used to their full potential. The teachers have to let the students use the tools so they know how to use them and also the students can then feel that they have an active roll in the class.

The third thing I believe teachers need to be willing to do so that the interactive communication tools are used to their full potential is to take the time to build their lesson plans around the interactive communication tools. If the teachers have all these great tools but do not take the time to build their lessons around them, then there is no point to even having them in the classroom.