Bob Marzano’s Comments on Interactive Whiteboards and Voting Technology

“This technology is the future of education.”

“The books I wrote on teaching will be obsolete in the next 5-10 years based on the technology available now.”

“This technology has a way to get every student involved – we simply can’t overlook it.”

Grounded in Good Instructional Practices

Good instruction can happen without these technology tools, but they are a catalyst for good teaching practices, namely:

Individualizing instruction for all students

Collaborative team work

Engaging students with quality content

Providing teachers with data for improving instruction

Technology is No Silver Bullet

It is essential to address the quality of what is being

presented to students via these technologies through

On-going professional developments on effective use

Exemplary models

In fact, in 23 percent of the cases, teachers had better results without the technologies.

What the Research Found

In general, using interactive whiteboards wasassociated with an immediate 16 percentile pointgain in student achievement. This means we canexpect a student at the 50th percentile in a classroomwith the technology to increase to 66th percentile in aclassroom using whiteboards.

What the Research Found

The “sweet spot” for improving achievement was when the interactive white board was used by an experienced teacher who had had the board for 2 years, using it 75% of the time in the class, and supported by extensive training. In these cases, student achievement shows an impressive 29 percentile improvement.

Research Findings . . .

Three features inherent in interactive whiteboards were

shown to have a statistically significant relationship with

Student achievement:

1. Using handheld voting devices: Effective use of these devices was associated with a 26 percentile point gain in student achievement

2. Using graphics and other visuals to represent information was associated with a 26 percentile gain

3. Using whiteboard “reinforcers” (applications that teachers can use to signal

that an answer is correct or to present information in an unusual context) was associated with a 31 percentile gain

Potential Pitfalls . . .

Using the voting devices but doing little with the findings

Not organizing or pacing the content well (running through graphics too quickly, giving students no time to interact with each other around the content, etc.)

Using too many visuals, making it hard for students to identify what is important

Too much attention to reinforcing features (virtual applause, literal bells & whistles, etc.)