The Interactive Whiteboards, Pedagogy and Pupil Performance ...

PART ONE: THE USE OF IWB RESOURCES
This section outlines the variation in IWB use observed in the case studies and
focuses on the range of texts and peripherals which seemed to influence teacher
and pupil interaction with the board. It considers the extent to which IWBs were
being used to support, extend or enhance existing pedagogy.
5.1 Realising the Potential of IWBs: Variation in Use
There was considerable variation in the use of IWBs in the classrooms observed
during the project. This variation can be represented along a continuum from the
use of IWBs to ‘support’ or ‘extend’ existing approaches to teaching and learning to
innovative uses of IWB technology that ‘transform’ pedagogy. (See Literature
Review Annex B.)
Our findings show that at this stage in the policy cycle, IWBs were primarily being
used to support existing pedagogy. There were some examples of teachers using
the technology to adapt and ‘extend’ aspects of their pedagogy and some teachers
did make innovative use of IWBs and peripherals in ways that appeared to
‘transform’ their pedagogy. By and large those teachers who were most innovative
in their use of the technology had also been using the technology the longest, and
had had access to boards prior to the SWE rollout. This is in line with the findings in
the broader literature on the introduction of ICT to educational contexts and
substantially reinforces the basic premise that adaptation of the technology to
existing practice precedes any transformation in that practice through use of new
technological features in innovative ways.
Analysis of the case studies suggests that three key factors underlie the extent to
which the potential of IWB technology was recognised and exploited in the
classrooms we observed:
• The teacher’s pedagogic aims and practices;
• Their choice and use of texts in the classroom;
• The availability, choice and use of peripherals.
The variation that we saw in the pedagogic use of the IWB and peripherals and the
variation in texts that we observed in the classrooms is discussed and illustrated via
examples from the case studies in the sections that follow.
5.2 How the Available Resources Shape Technology Use: IWB
Texts
Analysis of the teacher survey found that the majority of teachers (78%) report that
they have created their own resources to use on the IWB (see figure 1). Roughly
two-thirds of teachers (64%) reported that they used Internet websites as a resource.
Less than half of all teachers (45%) are sourcing their IWB resources from other
23