MANAGING ICT

Senior leaders Kevin

Bennett and Paul

Ainsworth offer their advice on how to choose the best interactive whiteboard for your school

I

T IS very likely that following the election, funding in schools will be ever tighter. This means that there is added pressure on all teachers to ensure that any money spent is effectively targeted. ICT is a major expense in many schools and the most visible purchase is likely to be an interactive whiteboard (IWB). These are the new chalkface in many classrooms. A

huge change from the first school we worked in with an IWB where the teachers nicknamed it the “£7,000 grand white elephant”. Even recently I visited a secondary school where there were IWBs in every classroom, but I only saw them being used in one classroom. So how do you go about making the right decision

about which type of board to choose, especially when a whiteboard, projector and installation can cost around £3,000? There are several different manufacturers of IWBs, including Smart, Promethean and Hitachi. This article considers the differences between the types of IWB and what you should consider when making the selection. The right choice can go a long way towards ensuring that the IWBs in your school become as irreplaceable to teachers as the humble blackboard was 30 years ago.

Types of IWBs

Interactive whiteboards broadly operate in three different ways. There are infrared and ultrasound kits, passive membrane whiteboards, and active or hard boards. You need to decide which type of IWB will be most suitable in your school. You may decide that you

Choosing the right

whiteboard

Learning in 3D

In the first of a series of weekly articles, Kieron Kirkland from Futurelab explores new technologies and their potential in education. He starts with 3D printers

A

10

3D PRINTER can be used to produce components designed in 3D software that would traditionally be made by starting with a solid block of material and then machining away the excess. Instead, the

printer creates a solid object by building it up in slices with thin layers of material being deposited on top of each other. 3D printing has been around for some time in industrial design but now, thanks to advances in technology and falling costs, it is finding a place in education. Most schools run 3D computer-aided design

(CAD) software, and so students already have data that can be used with 3D printers. There are two different routes for schools and colleges who want to print in 3D. The first option is a commercial, off-the-shelf

3D printer that is easy to operate and can print high quality products. However, these printers are expensive to buy, costing upwards of £15,000, and with high raw material costs of around £300 per kilogramme. The price has made them too expensive for most schools to purchase but a government- funded network of 3D printers has been established across the country. The printers are available in nine regional support centres, and schools can use them for one-off projects or on a regular basis. The support centres have a brief to encourage use of the printers so they are generally free to use, and a range of advice and training is also on offer. John Lee at Sheffield Hallam University manages

one of the support centres. He says that offering the 3D printer to schools as a central resource works well. “Printing a product in 3D very quickly gives students a sense of feel, fit and sense,” he said. The second and more affordable option

for the schools is to use the RepRap (short for Replicating Rapid-prototyper); a machine that can largely reproduce itself by printing most of its own component parts. The RepRap was developed at Bath University by Dr Adrian Bowyer and

instructions on how to build it yourself for less than £500 are available free online via open source software. Ready-built versions are available at around £750 and the cost of the raw material is only £40 per kilogramme. “We wanted as many people as possible to have

access to the technology and the first generation of the RepRap machine offered affordable 3D printing to all sorts of people. You have to buy a few standard parts like electronic chips but once you have, you can create a new machine,” explained Dr Bowyer. Engineering company, Bits From Bytes, has taken

the RepRap design and offers both a self-build option and a ready-built machine, the RapMan, to schools. It is targeted at those who want their own 3D printer but are short of funds. Dave White, head of design technology at Clevedon School in North Somerset, is using RapMan on a project with year 12 design students about product analysis. Mr White warns that the technology does require lots of effort and enthusiasm from the teaching staff. He makes use of web-based forums to share information with other teachers and has created a set of teaching resources to use the printer with Pro/Engineer software. A second generation RepRap machine is about to

be released by Dr Bowyer and his team. The machine will be easier to build, smaller and more portable but with the ability to print bigger objects. And of course the new machine will be printable by the old machine. It will work with more raw materials, mix materials to create different characteristics, and print in silicone rubber as well as plastics to create rigid plastic objects with rubber parts embedded. But, most exciting of all is the fact that it will be able to print products with embedded electrical circuits.

• Kieron Kirkland is a learning researcher at Futurelab, a charity dedicated to transforming teaching and learning by using innovative practice and technology. Visit www.futurelab.org.uk

Further information

RepRap: http://reprap.org

need different IWBs according to the room they are installed in, or go for the same across the whole school for consistency.

Infrared and ultrasound

Examples of these IWBs are those produced by Mimio with the claim, “with a mimio bar, a computer, and an LCD projector you can convert a standard whiteboard into an interactive whiteboard”. Infrared boards tend to be add-on kits which attach,

often with suckers, to any hard surface and use special pens (these can even be attached to standard dry wipe marker pens). This type of IWB is a very flexible solution as it

can be moved around and used in different places more easily. They can often be a cheaper alternative, but some teachers find the setup and accuracy can be more hassle in the long run than a more standard installation. If space is an issue though and you want a cheap,

flexible solution, or if you are concerned about theft or vandalism in an isolated classroom, these IWBs could be worth a look to get you started on the interactive road.

Passive membrane

Passive boards are also known as soft boards, as they have a membrane over a hard board which senses touch and movement. An example of a passive board is the Smart Board. Passive IWBs can be more fragile as if the membrane

is damaged the board may no longer work correctly. However a benefit is that they can be used with your finger or any pointer, rather than a special pen or stylus. So if the pens provided go walkabout all is not lost. This can be useful if the classroom is shared by a number of staff. With Smart Boards, the intuitive nature of picking

up a different coloured pen and board rubber makes this type of IWB a good choice for staff who may have never used an IWB before.

Active or hard boards

The IWBs produced by Promethean are active boards. They use a hard board with a supplied stylus to operate. They are more robust than passive boards, although this needs to be balanced with the cost of replacing a lost stylus. They tend to be more accurate than passive boards, and may allow writing on the board with normal dry wipe markers – check with the manufacturer first though.

What to consider?

Once you have decided on the type of whiteboard, you need to choose the manufacturer. For any given type of IWB, they will all use a projector to show the image and a computer to run the software. In addition, the majority of third party interactive software will work with all boards, as this is simply run on the computer and the board basically acts as a large screen and mouse. You should consider the board’s own software. Most do the same thing; allowing you to manipulate

shapes, write on the screen over all sorts of regular software, and create interactive resources. It is the finer points and extras that might help you

to make a decision about the most appropriate software, such as libraries of clip-art and interactive examples. So take time to look into what you can do with the software and what comes as standard. How easy is it to use? Can you find clip-art or

examples that can start you off quickly, or will it take some time to get into the swing of it? Does this software mean more staff training or is it something simple that most staff, with a bit of time and support, would pick up relatively easily? Consider what the different installation options are.

Most offer a portable solution, and there can even be different options here, such as interactive frames which attach to a television or rear projection screens. With the introduction of short-throw projectors (a projector with lens allowing it to be mounted close to the board), the permanent installation can be far simpler and take up much less space in the classroom. Some boards can be raised and lowered for teachers and pupils of different heights. Promethean has a clever solution for this making it popular in primary schools. Add-ons are available for most IWBs, such as

speakers, pupil voting systems and tablets allowing pupils to control the board without leaving their seat. These can be useful additions, or equally a rarely used gadget. Think carefully about how or whether these add-ons will benefit learning and teaching.

Conclusion

Our advice is to play around with different types of IWBs and see which one fits best. Do this when you have plenty of time and no pressure. Just as you would be unlikely to buy a car at the motor show, a trade show is not the ideal place to make a careful decision. Speak to suppliers and find out if they have loan equipment that you can have on-site to allow staff to try them out. Are there teachers in a neighbouring school, who

can show your staff what they do with their board in a lesson? Could you select a few willing members of staff who would work together to research the different types of IWB? Could they make their recommendation of which IWBs are most suitable for the school you are in? These colleagues could help to take the project forward in your school by working with other staff to develop their skills. Finally, remember IWBs are tools to help the

learning and teaching become even more effective. Keep this in mind during any decision-making process so there is a clear goal to be achieved from your IWB purchase. Then it will be the whiteboard of choice in your school and not a white elephant!

• Kevin Bennett and Paul Ainsworth are senior leaders in a Leicestershire secondary school. Paul Ainsworth

is the author of Developing a self-evaluating school: A

practical guide (Continuum International Publishing, 2010). Email kevin.bennett@belvoirhigh.leics.sch.uk and paul.ainsworth@belvoirhigh.leics.sch.uk

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