Seeing the meaning.

Cuthell, J.P.,(2005), Seeing the meaning: The impact of interactive whiteboards on teaching and learning. BECTA. Retrieved September, 3, 2010 from http://www.virtuallearning.org.uk/whiteboards/index/html

This article by John Cuthell looks at the effects of Interactive whiteboards (IWB's) on the way students learn and the pedagogical implications of this technology. The idea of the study was to affirm that IWB's were being used as part of the suite of ICT tools and they were meeting the objectives of the schools. This study was a follow up to a (Becta, 2000) study that found schools with better ICT resources had better grades in english, maths, and science. The author uses research collated by himself over the last four years of working with educators along with research conducted by action programs looking at five schools across the UK on the implementation of IWB's as well as a range of international studies.The findings of this paper were not totally conclusive however it did suggest that these boards had great value in presenting information to students in new ways with differing learning styles. Students found that this technology had a ludic or fun element to it and that more of the lesson could be taken in with lessons providing powerpoint presentations.  Teachers from a constructivist approach tend to gravitate to this technology however only 35% of teachers are using IWB's on a regular basis. This article has been beneficial to my research as it has confirmed alot of the claims of the previous article however this article is from a more netural point of view.

Reaching learners: Immersive education through Interactive multimedia.

Marentette, L. & Uhrick, A. [n.d.] Reaching learners: Immersive education through interactive multimedia.
VP sales & marketing, Nextwindow. Retrieved August 19 2010 from http://www.presentationproducts.com/sites/pproducts.com/files/Infocom%20-%20ReachingLearners.pdf

This article by Marentette and Uhrick looked mostly at how we learn and the way imagery plays an important role in reinforcing verbal information. The authors of this article were informing their readers on the way we learn and the positive impact technology can play on this. This article quotes research from many various sources as well as giving ideas in which Interactive whiteboards (IWB)'s are being used in education.  The authors made good points and used quotes by academics and provided links to the studies or programs to support their points. However most of these studies were supporting the authors argument ie that multimedia presentations enhance student engagement and the author made the link to (IWB's). This article appears to be from quite reparable sources although I found it at a link on a product website (distributors for smartboards). This article has been a good place to start as it makes a compelling argument for the benefits digital media and the varying ways in which schools can accommodate this through (IWB's).

My first blog

This is my first post I have ever made in a blog. I have set up this blog as part of a University assignment to record my thoughts and research on the topic of Information, Communication Technologies and how these can be used or how they facilitate learning in the classroom. In this regard I will need to narrow my search down to two topics. Firstly I am thinking of looking at "Smart boards" and how they enhance learning and engagement in the classroom. This will be interesting as I know very little about this technology,of course I have seen them in the odd classroom I have been into but I wouldn't know a thing about how to use them or when to use them. For this research  however I will only be looking at how smartboards enhance the teaching and learning experience and  I look forward to seeing what the research says.