Abstract
The interactive whiteboard (IWB) is a technical digital medium for multiple forms of interaction - technical, physical and conceptual. It is a point of departure for this article that the IWB has the potential to support learning, given that the teacher has a dialogic teaching style. Our research is embedded in a social constructive learning philosophy implying that interaction between learners as well as learners and teacher will lead to increased insights for everyone. Dialogue is seen as a characteristic of education, but not all learner talks are dialogic; there are different types of pupil conversations - competitive, cumulative or exploratory. It is in particular the exploratory talk that has the ability to increase learning through interthinking and thus create a dialogic learning space. The article reports findings from a study of 7 primary school teachers and their use of the interactive board. The main findings are that they do not use the full potential that the IWB gives to support collaborative learning. We discuss what teachers need in order to develop their practices to exploit the potential of the IWB for creating a supportive dialogic learning space.
Highlights
Whole class learning is back on the educational discussion scene in Norway (Klette 2004)
Through their studies in science Mercer et al (2010) show how, under certain conditions, the use of interactive whiteboards has a potential for creating a dialogic space through the support of exploratory talk
In the following our findings are presented according to the different types of interactivity with the interactive whiteboard (IWB); technical, physical and conceptual
Summary
Whole class learning is back on the educational discussion scene in Norway (Klette 2004). Mercer et al (2010) are studying learners’ opportunities for learning in interaction by interacting with others, and they note that certain forms of digital technology can be the instruments for such learning They use dialogic space (Wegerif, 2007) as a term to describe the arena for the common learning activities. Some researchers find that cumulative talk is important because it allows a variety of opinions to be expressed, and, in the case of classes with special needs children in particular, this might be the most one can achieve (Warwick, Hennessy & Mercer, 2011) Through their studies in science Mercer et al (2010) show how, under certain conditions, the use of interactive whiteboards has a potential for creating a dialogic space through the support of exploratory talk. It is essential to have a school culture that supports dialogic learning, teacher training is important, and time is important - it turns out that it takes two years before a teacher can fully exploit the interactive potential of the technology (Hennessy, Mercer &Warwick , 2011; Deaney, Chapman & Hennessy, 2009; Warwick & Kershner, 2000)
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