Things that go together:
peanut butter and jelly
popcorn & movies
Jedi & Lightsabers (my geek is coming out)
SMARTBoards & Special Education
Maybe this last one isn't much of a stretch for you, I know it isn't for me. So what reasons would I suggest a SMARTBoard be in every special education classroom.
1. It's big!
Students with special needs frequently respond well to visuals. So what's better than a really large visual? I personally can't tell you how many times I've wanted to project a worksheet, a picture for background knowledge, or anything that I've wanted to share with the entire class but have no easy way to do it.
2. It's flexible
A SMARTBoard give you the opportunity to change what you are doing on the fly. You can create an activity and change it as the students watch. You can have them edit a document using the pens, or just pointing out the mistakes. There are so many different ways to use it.
3. It's interactive
Students with special needs require different modalities to learn, but also to access technology. Traditional methods using mice, keyboards, etc... are limiting to some segments of our population. The touch and click ease of a SMARTBoard allows many students the opportunity to interact with a computer like never before.
4. It's easy
While you may require a little bit of training, most people can walk up and start using a SMARTBoard right away, it's very intuitive. You don't have to use any special software (although there are some nice features in the Notebook Software). You don't have to use it. You can use any piece of software currently installed on you computer and it will work seamlessly!
5. It's FUN!
So maybe this is my inner geek coming out (actually I just have an outer geek!), but it's fun to use. Who would want to create a giant Jackson Pollock Painting? or race the giant timer? Or what about doing a giant number race? or what about having your entire calendar time done on the SMARTBoard? There are so many fun activities you can do with the SMARTBoard.
These are my thoughts, do you have any thoughts on why SMARTBoards should be in more classrooms?
Patrick
Photo courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons User: Adwriter
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8 comments:
Our SE teachers are getting SMARTboards installed soon, and I think they are great for Elementary classes as well for similar reasons. For High School Science and Math I think that tablets (Wacom or others) are just as good and a lot cheaper.
Of course I do know a number of Science and Math teachers, including my sister, who make good use of SMARTboards for interactive lessons. I guess it depends on your teaching style.
Yikes - third try to post this - I keep coming up as Jim (my husband) this time I think I have it right...
I too am having great success using my Interactive Whiteboard with the students I work with. I am especially excited about using it with my students who have autism. The ability to present things visually, and the ease to which I can make and then alter activities in order to gradually release control of the learning to the student. Traditional materials such as manipulatives frequently become distractions to my students.
Another thing for all our students with special learning needs. I am currently testing in order to update IEPs. We have Interactive Whiteboards in many of our classrooms. Many of our students with diagnosed learning disabilities have made huge gains since I last tested them. Not sure what we have done to make this change but I suspect teaching with multimedia using an interactive whiteboard has contributed to the success we are experiencing. Very exciting that this is happening within the classroom setting.
There are some conversations going on about the cost vs the benefits. At the elementary level (K-5 for us) we have not found a better way to present information to the group in such a visual way or to create and maintain joint attention.
I would agree with both comments. As for MS or HS students, I'm sure there are many ways they could be used. I know that we have at least 5 in our science classrooms at the MS. I've not heard of the Wacom, but after looking them up, I think you are riht from a cost perspective they would be very good for a MS or HS classroom.
I'm so excited to hear about students with LD making gains. I'm not surprised since our students have such a digital experience in their personal lives. I'm glad that the experience with SMARTBoards is positive. I can't wait to get my own!
I use the smartboard in my classroom on a daily basis.I create flipcharts with pictures and graphs that help evoke the prior knowledge of my students before we start a reading assignment. It is also nice to have access to differet graphic organizers that I can display for my students while I am teaching different strategies and techniqiues for them to use in their regular education classes.
Jerry I agree completely those are great uses for the SMARTboard and hope I can get one for my classroom (still waiting to hear!). I those uses alone would be worth it for the students I teach, but the interactive part will really draw them in too. I also put a comment over on your blog, an idea for your problem!
Patrick:
No question the smartboards are awesome! There are just so many things you can do with them. I recently to a training using the active votes, which are indiviual vote pads the students have at their desk that allows us to play test review jepordy and they can login there answer from their desk. It is pretty cool.
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