1. Interactive Whiteboards in the Classroom: A Primary Teacher’s Perspective Dughall McCormick Primary ICT Consultant, Kirklees Local Education Authority, UK

2. Interactive Whiteboards in the UK 2004 - IWBs accounted for a fifth of the total UK budget for ICT in Primary and Secondary schools. 2005 - Pledge by Secretary of State for Education: ‘One whiteboard per school’ 2007- 200,000 IWBs in UK schools (7.5/school) 1 in 9 Classrooms to have a board by 2010

3. Foundation Stage (Age 3-5 years) Key Features Continuous provision. Girls and boys. Inherent ICT skills. Novelty Collaboration, negotiation, turn- taking. Access issues.

4. Key Stage One (Age 6-8years) Greater emphasis on teacher-led interactive activities. Use of visualiser. Increased use of classroom response system. Wireless slate introduced.

5. Key Stage Two (Age 8-11 years) Children have increased ownership of the technology. Children prepare and deliver presentations and learning materials on a peer-tutor model.

6. Key Features of IWB Technology A high degree of interaction and collaboration. Children have a highly participatory role in their learning. Children acquire generic ICT skills through interacting with the technology It enables quick, easy display and annotation of text, pictures, artefacts, children’s work etc.

7. Problems with the Technology Practitioners relinquishing control. Training and support for practitioners. Technical issues. Availability of software. Limited collaboration. ‘Touch sensitive’ surfaces. Failure to exploit the potential.

8. The Future Bottom-up product development. Building Schools for the Future. Multiple input solutions. Greater collaboration, remote and distance learning.Use of PDAs, EDAs, UMPCs etc.