I coordinate three peer tutoring labs at a huge Florida university (did I just give which school away?) where I oversee 40+ student tutors who work in these learning labs. We were very fortunate to recently acquire three new interactive Promethean smartboards (or activboards as they are officially called). With every blessing comes an adjustment period and while we are loving having these new amazing boards in our lab, we are also having to adjust our tried and true tutoring techniques, as well as our physical space, to incorporate use of this new technology. This adjustment period has come through a lot of group and individual training on these wonderful boards.
Thankfully, Promethean Planet online has a ton of great resources and we also had a k-12 expert from the College of Education come by to give us an overview. Training since has been fairly organic with one tutor helping another and me providing paid training time for the tutors to practice learning more on their own.
Before I proceed to let you know how my staff feels about these new boards, it is worth discussing the incredible range of possibility an Interactive Whiteboard brings to a learning environment.
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| Source |
You can read an overview of the pros and cons of Interactive Whiteboards (IWB) from circa 2010 here and here. The jist of what IWBs are, is these are giant whiteboards that can written on with a "pen" or your hand. They can be used to bring to life web content, write over images or websites, play videos, create interactive powerpoint slides known as FlipCharts, poll your students and generally engage them in the process of using a whiteboard. Of course, with all of this newness comes a time of learning to USE the newness to support learning outcomes.
So far, the majority of my student staff have enjoyed using these new tools, though there are certainly a few of my tutors who prefer good old whiteboards and dry erase markers. As I mentioned above, there have been a few interesting turns in our IWB experience. The worst being, despite giant signs indicating not to do so, a few students (non tutors) commited the cardinal IWB sin of writing on one of our boards with a dry erase marker... the board no longer responds to an electronic pen or to touch but is now merely an expensive computer monitor. We have also been fortunate to use the IWBs for various non-educational purposes in the learning lab such as movie night and to play our holiday fireplace dvd during our Thanksgiving party last week. :)
I asked a few of my peer tutors to share their thoughts on the new learning lab technology after a recent independent practical I asked them to complete. As it is always best to hear the story from the horses mouth, here are a few of my staff's feelings on our new technology:
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| We're on FIRE! |
I asked a few of my peer tutors to share their thoughts on the new learning lab technology after a recent independent practical I asked them to complete. As it is always best to hear the story from the horses mouth, here are a few of my staff's feelings on our new technology:
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| Old School and New School Tutors... Side by Side |
Chelsea
"I think
ActiveInspire is a great program. I enjoyed learning new
ways to test student understanding and to present concepts. As I continue to
create more flipcharts I believe the programs will be easier to work with. The
first 30 minutes of my time was spent getting used to the program
and figuring out where everything was but after that I was able to
come up with an idea and make it come together with ease. The program for free
download definitely lacks some tools that we are able to use through the paid software at work. If I plan
to create any future flipcharts I will be sure to create them on campus just so
I am able to take my creativity to its full potential. All-in-all I really like
ActiveInspire and I am very glad that I was given the opportunity to figure out
the program as a training, otherwise I may have been discouraged from
spending the time. Hope to hear the other tutors enjoyed the training as much
as I did."
Sarah
"Pros: They
are extremely versatile: they connect to the Internet, they have a program
called Active Inspire that allows you to use it as a regular white board
or use pre-made materials that gives a session structure /
organization, and their touch screen (which gives a tutor session that Razzle
Dazzle / Star Trek / Futuristic appeal). Cons: They
require a significant amount of practice and individual time with someone who
knows how to use it. I was lucky to have Manny who volunteered his own time to
help. The layout of the Promethean boards is awkward. In General: Overall,
I think having the Promethean boards gives tutoring sessions structure and
"appeal". I think whatever class you're tutoring
for, the Promethean boards by default make the material seem
more interesting."
Chad
"I had trouble getting magic ink to do what I want... I'm still not really
sure how it works. The training was helpful but I think it'll be an ongoing
process of learning this. I've got everything else down pretty well though. I
liked the way the objects come together nicely with the ability to move work
easily around on the board."
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| My staff during our recent training |
Ana
"For me, Active Inspire is a work in progress. I learn new
things about it all the time; though, it definitely takes some getting used to.
My biggest challenge is when I'm using it during a session and it starts to
have a mind of its own. For example, when I am writing a problem on the smart
board and it automatically changes my writing into print. Since it doesn't know
I'm writing chemical formulas, my writing changes to something that is
incomprehensible. Overall I feel that I understand the basics of it and it
helps my sessions be much more productive."
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| The best trainings there are... students showing student samples of Flipcharts! |
In all, it seems to me a positive to expose my tutors to this new hardware to use in their sessions and to feel comfortable going out of their zone of comfort. Though most probably would not have used the system if I hadn't required them to complete a training, I now see tutors who were previously timid to try anything new in their sessions radiating toward this new tech. I see at least one of our three boards in constant, daily use and this makes me confident that the tutors are not only learning and growing but are keeping up with the technology that their students are a lot of times already familiar with from their high school classrooms.
Mentoring my tutors is the highlight of my job at the university so tough loving them into use of this new tech has been a fun experience for me. I have a lot to learn still about IWB but I am pleased my tutors can assist me along the way and I can do the same for them.
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| I love my tutors and cry when they graduate! |
