Interactive WhiteBoard PD & User Groups November 9, 2006
Posted by Joseph Papaleo in AGQTP/AISV, IWB, UserGroups, podcasts, wiki.trackback
Today, a group of our staff (Primary and Secondary) got together and had Jeremy Radkovic demonstrate the SmartBoard software. I have been using one for some time, but as it ties in with the Australian Government Quality Teachers Program I am leading, I attended anyway. Although it was aimed at “beginners”, I was still able to pick up a few tips.
It was interesting to see how some staff members could see how they could use the technology in their classrooms. In the past, it didn’t matter to them, but as we will be getting a few more SmartBoards as of next year, more staff will have access to them and therefore, the interest levels increase.
Jeremy’s knowledge of the product is excellent and I would recommend anyone in Melbourne to ask for him if they are organising a PD session for their staff. He is able to take an idea and show how the resources contained within the board can be used.
A way to ensure our staff keep the interest levels up was to form a Technology User Group. So far, our school and 4 or 5 others have shared PD sessions and we hope to continue similar sessions in the future. We hope that through this User Group, teachers with similar interests will develop and share resources with each other. Also, having meetings once a term and sharing resources via a wikispace with each other means lessons can be designed for our Victorian curriculum.
In the near future, we will be having our first Podcast User Group meeting. If you would like to join us, please let me know. Again, the idea would be to share ideas with interested teachers, rotate the meeting venues, and develop resources with other like minded people. Something like social networking, only in the flesh.
Has anyone out there in the edublogosphere had success with developing and sharing resources with others in your district instead of working on their own? I’d love to hear how it went.
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Hi Joseph
just wanted to let you know that I have been using SMARTBoards for about 6 years now and we have one in every classroom at school. They were installed 3 years ago.
Let me know if there is anything I can do to help your development.
By the way – let me know how you have customised your edublog so much.
We’ve had ACTIVEboards in our school for 2 years now and a really effective T&D idea is a simple, low key sharing session each term. At the start, teachers with an iwb just showed the rest of the staff one thing they had done with the iwb. Because everyone came from different starting points and directions/interests many interesting ideas were shared, quicker or alternative ways of doing things were suggested and a community of learners was developed.
Even now, we still hold regular sharing sessions – many teachers have taken off in various directions and are truly inspiring. They give valuable insights and help to others who are not as confident or who need to “see” what can be done. Because everyone knows each other questions and comments fly thick and fast and these sessions are looked forward to each term.