What did I learn this week and how can I use it in the future?

This week I learned about interactive whiteboards. I have not had much experience with interactive boards in the classroom. When I was a substitute teacher some of the classes I filled in had them. The extent of my use was using them to show videos the other teachers would leave for me. Now I've learned how I can really use the different kinds (because they are not all the same, and they are not all SMARTBOARDS!) in order to teach--not just show Daddy Day Care. I especially enjoyed how teachers can allow students to come up to the interactive whiteboard and actually interact. I know a lot of my students find class boring because they are mainly interacting with a textbook or our educational software. If I could get them moving, get them standing up and actually engaging the information, I know that they would start to become more motivated to work in class.

I can take this information and directly transfer it to my classroom. There are so many ways to use technology to the benefit of learning. I would never have thought just having a PC in the classroom would allow me the type of freedom interactive whiteboards can provide. Being able to control the PC from the board would make life 100% easier, because you can maintain the flow of your lesson and you don't have to waste time walking over to your PC and possibly losing everyone's attention.