Teachers Planet

All the users of interactive whiteboard must be familiar with the safety guidelines that should be followed during its operation:

1) Neither teacher nor students should look directly into the projection beam which is used to display contents on a whiteboard. The high intensity beam can cause an eye injury. It is advisable to avoid entering into the beam. Even if a user has to enter, he should keep his back to the projector. Use laser pointer or a stick, if even keeping back to the projector is not possible. The best way is to use an electronic panel.

2) Use rear projection-whiteboards instead of front projection-whiteboards. This is because in rear-projection-whiteboard, the LCD projector is placed behind the whiteboard. So there is no danger of even accidentally looking into the projection beam. Rear-projections are more expensive than the front-projections but than the safety of the eyes can’t be compromised.

3) Clearly instruct the whole class not to look directly into the projection-beam or touch any electrical appliance like the projector-lamp, which becomes quite hot after a long use.

4) A teacher must supervise the students all the time when he is using electronic appliances in a classroom. This also includes computers.

5) Use brightness settings judiciously. Most users increase the brightness above the safety limit (1500 ANSI lumens), just to get full image quality. Too much brightness will make the interactive whiteboard hard to read, which will put strain on the eyes of the viewers.

6) If you are a primary school teacher, then you should lock all the electrical/ electronic appliances when not in use at a safe place (away from the reach of children).

7) Paste safety notes on the electrical appliances and periodically re-train students about the safety norms that should be followed during there operation.

Solvent based whiteboard-markers should not be given to children specially primary school children. They should use only water based markers which are labeled as non-toxic.

Interactive whiteboards safety guidelines

Interactive whiteboard (also known as digital-whiteboard or electronic-whiteboard) is a touch sensitive-whiteboard which works in conjunction with a projector and a computer. All digital-whiteboards come with a software through which whatever you draw or write on the board-surface can be stored. The projector-displays the contents of the computer screen on the whiteboard-surface. The computer mouse is remotely controlled by touching the whiteboard-surface either by finger or through a special pen known as stylus. So you need a software (popularly known as whiteboard-software), projector and a PC in order to use an IWB. The cost of installing an IWB is approximately 500 pounds (US $ 980).

The other option is to make your ordinary board digital, by using: a receiver, software and a USB cable stylus. The advantage of such type of set up is that you save your money on the installation charges and don’t need to replace your existing-board with a smaller electronic-whiteboard. However you will still need a multimedia-projector and a desktop computer or laptop. There are many suppliers who sell-IWB in bundles (or packages) i.e. with projectors-and speakers. In this case the installation charges are included in the bundle price.

The cost of an-interactive-whiteboard can vary from 600 pounds to 3000 pounds depending upon the type of technology it uses and also on the size of the-board. For e.g. a rear-projection-interactive-whiteboard is more expensive than the front-projection-interactive-whiteboard. Similarly 78 inches (diagonal)-IWB is much more expensive than its corresponding 35 inches. The whiteboard-software is generally always included in the IWB-purchase-price. Mobile-whiteboards (which come with a mobile stand or desk-stand) are slightly more expensive than the wall mounted ones.

Things to keep in mind while purchasing an interactive whiteboard:

• i. Item Location i.e. the location from where the item will be shipped
  ii. Shipping location i.e. the location to where the item can be shipped
  iii. Shipping services provided (like courier, cash on delivery etc)
  iv. Shipping and insurance cost.
  v. Selling format (fixed price or bid price)
  vi. Payment modes (like credit card, debit card, online bank transfer, pay pal, money order, cheques, demand draft etc)
  vii. Currencies accepted for making payments.
  viii. Payment, shipping and insurance policies.
  ix. Policies regarding warranty, replacement, refund, cancellation and privacy.
  x. After sales services like free technical support, 24 hour toll free phone support, free online support and upgrades.
  xi. SSL secure connection or secure payment gateway.

1) Determine your needs .i.e. why you want an-IWB in the first place. Up to which extent it will be able to meet the teachers and school needs.
2) Decide how it will be used and where it will be placed.
3) Decide who will get access to the board and when.
4) Decide which type of-interactive-whiteboard will be the best for the school/class. What should be its size and whether or not it should be kept mobile?
5) Make sure that your -IWB is compatible with the technology you are using in your school. For e.g. if you are using say an operating system say Macintosh on your class PCs, then your-whiteboard-software must support the operating system.
6) Do exhaustive research on the internet on IWB-types, range, features, benefits, accessories, prices and product reviews. Then write them down in a tabular format for quick comparison.
7) Get quotations from all major suppliers-of -IWB. Then with the help of quotations and your own research work make buying decision.
Make sure that your supplier is local so that he can be easily contacted in case of any problem like hardware or software failure and provides warranty (of at least 1 year), after sales services, free upgrades and technical support.
9) In case you don’t have any supplier in your area and you decide to use internet or an out stationed vendor, then make sure that following things are absolutely clear to you before you place an order:

Purchasing an Interactive Whiteboard

1) Interactive-whiteboard is suitable for learners of all ages and allows them to work collaboratively.

2) It looks and can work like a conventional-whiteboard. Thus it maintains the familiarity one has with the traditional-whiteboard.

3) It is a better option than a computer monitor when its comes to classroom presentation. While through a PC only limited number of students can be given presentation at a time, with IWB entire class can be covered very easily as it is much bigger in size.

4) An-IWB allows integration of audio, video, graphics, text and animation (from wide variety of media like CD-ROM, Internet, intra net, multimedia projector, DVD, VCD, student response system, TV, radio etc) with the lessons. Thus it provides not only enjoyment and interactivity but also makes the learning process much more interesting and fun. It enables teachers to adopt different learning styles to meet the learners’ need. Thus it can also help in creating a personalized learning environment.

5) Anything drawn or written on the interactive-whiteboard-surface can be saved on a computer hard disk through a whiteboard-software. In this way teachers can save and share there work and re-used it subsequently in case a repetition is required.

6) Contents from websites, blogs, forums, newsgroups, wikis and other web based resources can be brought on the IWB-surface through a LCD projector. Thus it promotes e-learning.

7) It is an ideal tool for conducting brainstorming sessions and other group activities when used in conjunction with response-systems.

It is much easier to use than a conventional desktop-computer or laptop.

9) It is a very powerful teaching tool as: it enhances modeling and presentation, allows teachers to make effective use of classroom-resources, motivates learners, improve communication and can bring in depth clarity on a topic/subject matter.

10) It can also be used for video conferencing, impressive sales presentations, staff training, meetings, briefings, group discussions etc and is thus an excellent ICT product for corporate sector.

Interactive whiteboards benefits

Stage Level: Primary

Objective: To teach students numbers from 1 to 10

Preparation: Decide 10 activities which children can easily count like: jumping, clapping, stomping etc. Decide an area where you would like the children to perform some activity. Focus your visualizer or video camera on that particular area. Now turn it on for recording.

Ask students ‘do you want to play’. No doubt, they won’t say no. Now randomly pick one student and ask him/her to come forward and jump ten times. Ask students to count the number of times (loudly) the student jumped. Now randomly pick another student and ask him/her to turn around nine times. Again ask the class to count the no. of times the action is done. Do similar activities for other numbers. Randomly repeat the activities if there are more than 10 students in your class. If you come up with some new idea during the session, you can use that also. Make sure that you engage each and every student in the-activities. Probably by the end of the whole session the entire class will be pretty tired.

Now stop recording and give children some time (say 5-10 minutes) to cool down. In the mean while you will have to do little editing with the recorded video. Bookmark those points on the video from where a particular activity (like jumping) starts and give them a descriptive name. For e.g. ‘jumping 5′ for the activity in which a student jumped ‘5 times’ or ‘clapping 10′ in which a student clapped 10 times. Now you will have a small menu of all the activities you asked the students to do. Click on any menu item of your choice and display the video recording on the interactive whiteboard surface through a LCD projector (with ‘no sounds’ option turned on). Children would love to see themselves on the interactive whiteboard screen. Ask them again to count the number of times (loudly) a student perform some activity.

Interactive whiteboards lesson: Teaching numbers

Stage Level: Primary

Objective: To teach addition to students.

Preparation: Find images of an ‘apple’, ‘open basket’ and a girl holding a basket from the internet. Reduce the size of the apple in such a way, that the basket can hold at least 20 apples. Copy and paste 20 images of apple on the basket in such a way, they look like that they are inside the basket. You must be familiar with graphic software like ‘photo shop’ to do these things. If you are not familiar, than ask some one (probably a graphic designer) to do it for you. Now project the image of the ‘open-basket’ with apples on the left hand side of the interactive whiteboard and the girl’s image on the right hand side of the board with the help of a LCD projector.

Name the girl ‘Gina’ or anything you like. Ask students that the girl lives in a village and she needs help in putting apples in her basket. Right now her basket is empty. Move the image of one apple from the-basket and place it on the girl’s basket. Now ask students to count the number of apples they see (loudly) in the girl’s basket. Similarly move second-apple from the-basket and put it into the girl’s basket. Now again ask students to count the no of-apples they see (loudly) in the-girl’s basket. Move two-apples simultaneously into the-girl’s-basket and repeat the activity. Then move three or any random-number-of-apples simultaneously or one after the other and repeat the activity. Make sure that-the-open-basket is empty by the end of the entire session.

Interactive whiteboards lesson: Teaching Addition

Stage Level: Primary

Objective: To teach subtraction to students.

Preparation: Find animated images of different types of dinosaurs on the internet. Don’t use real pictures as they can be scary for kids. Find at least 15 different images of the dinosaurs. Find a large image for ‘ground’ (probably of 800X600 pixels or more). You will use this image as background. Now re-size all the-dinosaurs to similar size but not of exactly the same size. Put dinosaurs’ images on the ‘ground’ picture. Now your backdrop is ready. You must have good knowledge of graphic software like photo shop and specially ‘layers ‘to create the whole backdrop for your activity. Now project your backdrop on an interactive whiteboard with the help of a LCD projector or a visualizer. Project the backdrop on only a part of the electronic whiteboard and not the whole board. Use a digital panel so that the-whiteboard can be free for the whole class to see.

Ask-students your play-ground is occupied by a group of-dinosaur and you have to shoo them away if you want to play on it. Ask them to count the number-of-dinosaurs (loudly) on there play ground and say “Now-we will shoo the dinosaur one by one”. Ask them to shout ’shoo’ whenever a-dinosaur is removed. To remove-a-dinosaur select one dinosaurs’ image and move it out of the display screen. Ask students-to count the number of remaining-dinosaurs. Now remove two-dinosaurs or any number-of-dinosaurs at the same time and ask them to count the number-of-remaining-dinosaurs. Repeat the activity until all the dinosaurs-are-removed from the ground.

Interactive whiteboards lesson: teaching subtraction

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