When it comes to educating students, teachers have a lot of tools at their disposal. The ways in which you can engage students is also increasing every day, from using clickers to projectors and even tablets. As professionals at Vibe have found out, “Interactive whiteboards are becoming more common both in the classroom and the workplace.”
However, up until now there has been one piece of equipment that hasn’t changed much: the whiteboard. Sure, you may have heard of “digital whiteboards” but what are they exactly? How do they compare to traditional boards? And what can they do for your classroom? In this article you’ll be breaking down these questions while also demonstrating how digital whiteboards can be used by educators.
Digital whiteboards improve student engagement during class
The use of digital whiteboards creates a learning environment that encourages student engagement. Teachers can project their own notes, images, or videos onto the board for students to view and interact with. It also allows for the teacher to quickly change the information being displayed by simply pressing a button.
This allows for more effective use of class time as you don’t have to constantly erase your whiteboard or erase board marker writing (or have it erased for you).
The students enjoy interactive whiteboard for classroom because they are able to see everything projected on screen without having to strain their eyes trying to read from a piece of paper up close in front of them or far away from them at eye level.
Interactive whiteboards enable students to show their work
Interactive whiteboards also allow students to show their work.
- Students can show their work on the board and then erase it.
- Students can save their work on the board for future reference. This is especially helpful if you want them to revisit a concept at a later date, or if you want them to demonstrate how they derived a certain equation from scratch rather than just showing what was already given in your lecture notes.
- Students can share their work with other students via an app or website.
Interactive whiteboards promote collaborative learning
Interactive whiteboards promote collaborative learning in several ways. You can have all students work on a single whiteboard, or you could separate them into groups of two or three and have each group take turns working on their own whiteboard. These methods allow students to share ideas and feedback, while also giving them time to process information independently before sharing their thoughts with the group.
Whiteboards can be used for differentiated instruction
You can use the whiteboard to display a different lesson for each student. For example, one student may be working on building vocabulary while another is learning how to add fractions. This allows teachers to personalize their lessons and ensures that all students are receiving an appropriate level of instruction.
Digital whiteboards have resource libraries
You can use digital whiteboards to create a library of resources that you can use in your lessons. You can add videos, images and presentations directly to the board. From within these resources you can create quizzes, interactive games and surveys. You can also assign these as class polls or surveys where students respond anonymously to the question set by you or other members of staff.
As you can see, there are many benefits to using digital whiteboards in your classroom. They provide an engaging environment for students and help teachers meet the needs of different learners. If you’re not sure where to start, check out more on various websites.
