IWB Teachers tips

Thinking about some aspects of tech in class today.

1. Engage with Content, don't be content just to engage them !

2. Trial, Plan and deliver.

3. When it goes wrong, move on.
 [Have an analogue 'lo-tech' plan B]

4. Trial, Plan and deliver some more.
 [Remember we're all learning here]

5. Share.

Mathew Dollisson.

Action Research - Quality Teaching and the beauty of invisible tech.

Technology functions best for educators when it is 'invisible'. That is, when it is working.

The delivery of lessons needs to be enhanced, not hampered or completely waylaid by incompatible technologies, faulty hardware or lack of time and support. A teacher at any school needs to be able to go to the IWB and trust that the lesson that they want to pull up is available within the attention span of the student. Teachers at SSPs need to have this capacity in spades !

High support special needs students benefit from routines that deliver their priority learning needs at call.

A Quality Teaching action research project at Halinda this year looks at delivering Higher Order Thinking skills to the capable student through appropriate technologies and carefully prepared teaching materials. It is a steady task. Teachers assess the needs of students and consider how IWB content can be tailored to deliver replicable results.

We have focused before on the delivery of engaging materials via technology, and this is almost a given with students of the 'online' age. Now we turn to encapsulating a mode within IWB delivery that fosters higher learning and experiences.

2009 the rise of the Intra Net !

This year technology continues to complement the hard work of the staff and students at the special school that is Halinda.

The School Intranet is in growth madoe this term [term 1] and new content is added each day. There are over 70 Smart files in place already which provide lesson for classes equipped with IWBs. Classroom teachers can now access support materials for their hands on lessons in the class room with the speed of logging on to their class computers.

Mass learning and rehearsal opportunities are vital to SSP outcomes. Students benefit from being able to practice lessons from desktop terminals in classgroups, in the school library and at their own desks if they have access in their rooms.

Learning can be delivered at the IWB then students can be assisted to carry on at their own pace at PCs!

Sturdy computers with access to an increasingly tailored Intranet environment presents continuing learning opportunity for our students.