EXPERIENCE OF LITHUANIA’S TEACHERS WORKING WITH INTERACTIVE SYSTEM ACTIVINSPIRE

Abstract

New technological tools and solutions, which nowadays are becoming more widely predominant, change the traditional approach to teaching and learning (in terms of both education content and selection of forms and application of methods). Lately the teachers were offered a new system in Lithuania – ActivInspire – which was primarily oriented towards the teaching process of mathematics and science in the 5th classes. The problem analysed in the article – the experience of Lithuania’s school teachers in using new technologies (ActivInspire system) in educational process. The subject of the research is a school year’s teaching experience of teachers who use ActivInspire interactive whiteboard in mathematics and science lessons in the 5th classes. The purpose of the research is to summarize one school year’s teaching experience of teachers in terms of work with the interactive teaching tools (ActivInspire system). The research was carried out in the 2013–2014 school year. Teachers using ActivInspire interactive whiteboard for teaching mathematics and science in the 5th classes participated in the survey. The research character – qualitative. During a school year, the teachers were writing reflections about their experience in using the interactive teaching tools in lessons: interactive whiteboard, electronic textbooks and student response system. The reflections were written from September to May (inclusive), once a week, in free format describing experience in working with the interactive teaching tools. At the end of the article, the conclusions are provided. The teachers who participated in the survey, in principle, give positive opinion about the use of new technologies. The teachers find work with interactive tools interesting, useful (in various aspects), effective and handy. As regards negative experience, most remarks are related to the fact that use of the interactive tools in lessons and preparation for such lessons require more efforts and time; moreover, it is not always clear how to use these interactive tools – due to lack of competence and skills, difficulty. In any case, work with interactive teaching tools change teachers’ work pattern and the centre of gravity of their activity by giving more attention for the detailed preparation for a lesson.