RESEARCH UAB - PROMETHEAN SPAIN

•Research Team (and zone coordinators): Dr. Pere Marquès (director), Víctor Bermejo, Ramón Doménech, José Mª Izquierdo, Esperanza Marchal, Roger Rey.

•Suport Team of PRODEL (Promethean distributor in Spain): Jesus Sansegundo, Raquel Carballal.

It is carried out trough a collaboration agreement with the research group "Didactic and Multimedia" of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (DIM-UAB)

RESEARCH UAB - PROMETHEAN SPAIN

Systematic experimentation of the didactic applications of the Promethean interactive whiteboard (IWB)

in 60 primary and secondary schools. (December 2006 - June 2008)

INITIAL REPORT elaborated from the data of 347 questionnaires (May 2007) when the teachers had used the IWB for 2 months

<http://dewey.uab.es/pmarques/dim/promethean/investigacion.htm>

OBJECTIVES

1.- To identify the potential of the IWB for the improvement of teaching and learning processes.

- What are the advantages and challenges of the use of the IWB?- Do all teachers like to use the IWB? What training do they need?- Can the use of IWB improve also the academic results?

2.- To identify the most adequate didactic models to apply IWB taking advantage of its functions.

- What didactic models with IWB works and what doesn’t?

3.- To determine the IWB added value, compared to other technological resource alternatives as the digital WB not interactive

THE SPANISH EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMWhere are we experimenting the IWB?

- 0+23 Children Education (0 – 6 years)

- Compulsory Education (6 – 16 years):

- 4+23 Primary Education (6 - 12 years).- 7+36 Compulsory Secondary Education (12 - 16 years).

- Post Compulsory Secondary Education. At the age of 16 the students can study:

- 1+14 Vocational Training.- 6+33 “Bachillerato” (16 - 18 years); this open the door to the University.

There are public and private schools; most private schools receive subsidies from the State.

PEDAGOGICAL INNOVATION AND USE OF ICT IN SPAIN

- It is still frequent the old methodology where teachers explain lessons and students have to memorize.

- But there is a growing use of new methodologies centred in the construction of the knowledge by students (practice, creative activities, autonomous learning, collaborative work..).

USE OF ICT IN SCHOOLS

- After more than 20 years of gradual implementation of “computer rooms”, and to delivery many training courses, barely a 20% of the teachers use the ICT regularly with his students.

- At present, with the implementation of computers and specially IWB in the classrooms, more teachers use the ICT resources with his students.

OUR MODEL OF RESEARCH: ELEMENTS

- Introductory seminar of technical and didactic training to teachers, so that they can integrate the IWB in their teaching

- Continuous application of the didactic models in the classrooms by the teachers.

- Four monitoring seminars during the research, one every three months, providing reflections on the practice and complementary training.

- Three structured questionnaires, with some open questions, to collect information.

- Website of the research: on-line environment for training and communication.

PARTICIPATING SCHOOLS

- 400 teachers of 60 private and public educational schools. In general they have good technological infrastructures and experience in educational innovation.

- 10 pilot schools. The research covers all the courses of one educational level (primary or secondary) and they have one Promethean IWB in one classroom of each course. At least 15 teachers participate, and the seminars are carried out “in situ".

- 50 collaborating schools. They have two classrooms with Promethean IWB. At least 5 teachers participate. To attend the optional seminars they have to travel to the closest pilot school.

The schools are divided in 6 territorial zones. Each one has a "zone coordinator" that manages the seminars in the pilot schools of his zone.

INITIAL REPORT: INFRASTRUCTURES IWB’s USED

- Unfortunately there are not IWB in all the classrooms, therefore most of the teachers (84 %) need sometimes to move with their students to another classroom in order to use IWB.

- The ideal scenario is a IWB in every classroom. But in this research, only a 36% have been able to use the IWB in their classrooms, and only sometimes.

-7% of the teachers have used portable or mobile systems.

At the end of the research we will compare the experience of these three

type of teachers.

INITIAL REPORT: IWB FUNCTIONALITIES MOST COMMONLY USED

- 100% of the teachers have utilized the basic functions: to project information, to make annotations.

- Around 35% have used the didactic resources that come with the IWB and they have stored screen images. We expect this percentage will become larger as the training to the teachers improves.

- And only 24% has created learning materials with ActivPrimary and ActivStudio software. In general, and not only when we deal with ICT, the teachers tend to use learning materials already prepared rather than creating their own ones.

INITIAL REPORT: CHALLENGES USING THE IWB

- 46% of teachers say that they must dedicate more time to prepare lessons. But they consider this effort profitable in terms of improving the learning of the students?

- 40% of teachers have problems with the IWB: the pencil does not write well, it is slow when writing, little precision, problems with calibration, “the shadow”... We have verified that in most cases the problem is due to incorrect use of the equipment. All will improve with more training and experience.

- And in smaller measure are mentioned: the problems of Internet connection, the maintenance of the equipment (the light bulbs of the videoprojector) and problems with the software.

INITIAL REPORT: DIDACTIC MODELS OF USE IWB

The teachers initially integrate these instruments in their educational practice to improve the didactic models that they already use. Once the tool is being used with proficiency and good results are obtained, then new and innovative

didactic models are applied.

- Use of the IWB among the students to present their works, and other information that they have found on their study subjects (around 30% ).

- A small percentage of teachers use the IWB to make synthesis during the lessons, comments of digital newspapers, videoconferences…

- Explanations to the students (73% ).

- Make and correct exercises, and to search and comment websites from Internet (around 50% ).

INITIAL REPORT: ADVANTAGES OBTAINED WITH THE USE OF THE IWB

- Allows to use more resources in class (72%).

- Allows to carry out activities that promote the attention, motivation and participation of students (around 70%).

- Make easier the comprehension of the topics (69%).

- Make easier to do collective corrections of the exercises, involving the students (62%).

- Makes teaching and learning easier and that it is an enjoyable experience for them (around 65%).

Other aspects that are emphasized is the use of IWB in collaborative activities, in managing diversity, and in making the most of the time in the class.

SOME CONCLUSIONS

- What are the advantages and challenges of the use of the IWB?- More resources and easier comprehension of the topics (70%).

- More attention, motivation and participation of the students (70%).

- More time to prepare lessons (50%).

- Do all teachers like to use the IWB? What training do they need?- IWB makes teaching and learning easier and that it is an enjoyable experience (70%).

- For a basic use of the IWB the teacher only need to write with the computer, to navigate through Internet and a little training with the IWB

- What didactic models with IWB works and what doesn’t? - Explanations of the teachers (70%), correction of the exercises (50%).

- Presentation of the works for the students (30%)

And now we go on… and together with three more research: