Effective practice in technologyenhanced learning: interactive whiteboards - Teaching with Technologies: The Essential Guide - page 55

• Howcanpupilsusetheinteractivewhiteboardtosharerelevantideasand
create new joint understandings?
Rudd (2007: 6) asks, 'how do teachers become critical agents in mediating technol-
ogy, to provide a more dynamic, interactive and appropriate learning experience?'
How would you answer Rudd's question? Importantly, consider how interactive
whiteboards can be used pedagogically to support 'exploratory talk'? (Mercer 2000;
Dawes 2008). Warwick et al. (2010: 352) state that exploratory talk is talk in which:
• allrelevantinformationisshared
• allmembersofthegroupareinvitedtocontributetothediscussion
• opinionsandideasarerespectedandconsidered
• everyoneisaskedtomaketheirreasonsclear
• challengesandalternativesaremadeexplicitandnegotiated
• thegroupseekstoreachagreementbeforetakingadecisionoracting.
Think about this definition of exploratory talk above and consider the ways in which
an interactive whiteboard can support this. Mercer et al. (2010: 201) identified a range
of dialogic strategies that the interactive whiteboard could help teachers orchestrate.
The aim is that dialogue ' should make reasoning explicit' and 'support the cumulative co-
construction of knowledge and understanding '. A teacher can use the interactive white-
board to support any of the following pedagogical intentions:
• scaffoldlearning
• supportthetemporaldevelopmentoflearning
• involvepupilsinco-constructingknowledge
• encourageevaluationandsynthesis
• developalearningcommunity
• developpupil-pupildialogue
• supportprovisionalityofpupils'evolvingideas
• guidelessonflow
• developpupilquestioning(fromMerceretal.2010:201).
This approach above concerns the use of dialogue as a way of creating collective
meaning. Look for effective ways of exploiting the interactive and multimodal fea-
tures of interactive whiteboards to support your pedagogic aims. See Mercer et al.'s
(2010) paper for more detailed suggestions in further reading and other papers written
by the Cambridge researchers, as well as their website listed at the end of the chapter.
Conclusions
Findings from the research to date are largely positive with respect to pupil learning
and have found interactive whiteboards enhance whole-class teaching. They have been
found to frequently have a significant impact in improving pupils' motivation and