CPD

A recent Dutch study 'Engels met digibord of boek' [English with IWB or Book] aimed to research daily practice and added value of IWB-use in primary EFL education. To this end the authors (Marjolijn Hovius, Nico van Kessel, Meike van der Linden) compared the way teachers used the course materials 'Take it easy' (especially designed for IWB-use) with a recently published textbook 'Real English New' which is largely paperbased with some digital support.

Some first observations (from a really quick scan!) and driven by my interest focus on professional development.

1) Let's start with the learning results: not a huge difference in results between experimental  and control groups, but then the period between pre- and posttest was rather short!

2) Pupils loved the IWB supported materials. Teachers, too, are really enthousiastic about using the IWB. FYI, teacher education for EFL teaching in NL primary education is very basic so teachers appreciate very much that the materials can support educational activities such as oral presentation of new content and pronunciation training as they feel less comfortable with those themselves.
And for this reason pupils benefit as their learning space is much improved.

3) More teacher training is needed to actually use the opportunities the IWB materials offer to serve different needs within the pupil groups.

4) At the end of the day the teacher is still KEY, despite the support 'the digital teacher' definitely offers.

The observations on the potential of peer-to-peer learning for teachers match well with findings (Lewin et al., 2009) based on data from a longitudinal research study (the UK Primary School Whiteboard Expansion Project) reporting on the success of informal learning communities in schools.

Which means even more evidence for one of the arguments we put forward in our current application for a European project on IWBs in Language Education. (BTW deadline 31 March!!, I should NOT be spending time writing this post now, more possibly later :-))

Reference:
Cathy Lewin, Peter Scrimshaw, Bridget Somekh and Maureen Haldane (2009). The impact of formal and informal professional development opportunities on primary teachers' adoption of interactive whiteboards. Technology, Pedagogy and Education. Vol. 18 No. 2, July 2009, 173-185 

Invited by the ICT-coordinator of the LanguageCenter of Tilburg University I recently did a presentation on IWBs for the centre's team. A number of boards will be installed there shortly and the session therefore was meant as a warming-up session to present some features and their application specifically for language teaching.
I was pleased to hear that the implementation plan also involves further professional development. After all, as I also concluded  in my metastudy of research literature (Koenraad, 2008) on added value and effects of digiboard use, qualitative good training, closely related to the subject being taught, is of vital importance to enhance chances to create and optimalise added value of IWB use. Check out the pdf-version on SlideShare .

In conjunction with the Utrecht University Summer School

the Faculties of Education of Heidelberg and Utrecht Universities of Applied Sciences offer a 7-day, international course exploring WEB 2.0 applications such as Wiki and Web-logging, real-time communication (Videoconferencing and 3D Virtual Worlds) and the Language Quest format for integrating the World Wide Web into classroom teaching.
Besides, the course location in the brand-new building of the Faculty of Education in Utrecht, the Netherlands, allows for demonstration of good practices of and personal training in the use of Interactive Whiteboards.

Intended participants are practising (student) language teachers, teacher trainers and materials developers. Dates: 10-07-2010 - 16-07-2010
More information and registration at: http://www.utrechtsummerschool.nl/index.php?type=courses&code=S5
Persons eligible for EU Comenius Grants can apply at their National Agency for compensation of costs for travel, accommodation and fees for this course. The deadline for grant applications is January 15, 2010, but please confirm with your National Agency for country-specific deadlines.

N.B. Participants who would like to extend their visit to the Netherlands can apply for an additional period of campus accommodation at 135 Euro per week.

TESOL CALL-IS EVO Sessions

 Have a look at these excellent and free opportunities for online professional developement, offered by TESOL.

For IWB-related professional development I point to 2 courses in particular:

One on Interactive Whiteboards: the pedagogy, the tools and resources. More info on Smart Teaching here:

http://evosessions.pbworks.com/Smart_Teaching_with_IWB

Also useful in relation with IWB-use, IMO, a course on Images and Education. Sign up for the Images and Educaton  sessions  on Jan 4th, 2010 at http://images4education2010.ning.comhttp://images4education2010.ning.com