Increasing numbers of teachers are using interactive whiteboards to teach children the basics of literacy and numeracy. One of the most important aspects of teaching children the alphabet and how to count is getting them to instinctively recognise the shapes which represent individual numbers and the letters of the alphabet.
Many of us will remember from our early school days the time we spent repeatedly copying out the numbers one to 10, and the letters of the alphabet.
Now, this early learning stage is greatly helped by the use of interactive whiteboards. This can be used to encourage children, not only to grasp the basics of numeracy and literacy, but can also give them some sort of context by which to remember them, which is all-important in early learning.
Many people argue that there has been a substantial drop in literacy and numeracy in our society in general. This not only puts individuals who are not given the chance to grasp the basics at serious risk of falling behind in their studies, but also affects the productivity of the country as a whole, as further and higher education, and indeed businesses, are often forced to pick up the pieces, and give people the basic knowledge which they should have acquired at a much younger age.
It has been strongly proven that, as our brains start to develop, they are much better at assimilating information. The analogy of the brain being like a sponge is widely used. Of course, a sponge is far more absorbent when it still has plenty of capacity, and as that capacity starts to be taken up through learning, its ability to take in information at the same speed is compromised.
At this vital, early stage of learning, it is essential to establish links between form, sound and meaning, and this is what literacy is all about.
An early years teacher's job of forming these links is greatly helped by the use of technology in the classroom. Getting the links between the shapes of the letters of the alphabet and the basic integers established in children's minds is crucial to their future development. Children repeat the word which is represented on the board, they create the shapes of the letters or numerals which represent that word or number, and they can at the same time be given an illustration which makes practical use of that number of letter. They then repeat the strokes which form that numeral or character, and so the shape becomes firmly established in their mind.
An interactive whiteboard is ideal for bringing to life numeracy and literacy lessons. This form of classroom technology is great for giving children the kind of hands-on learning they will certainly remember.
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1 in 7 classrooms worldwide are predicted to have an interactive whiteboard by the end of 2011, and as the number of classrooms with interactive whiteboards increases, so does the debate over their usefulness. Below I offer a list of the main arguments against IWBs and my responses. |
