Our staff has a briefing every Tuesday morning, and this morning I considered it timely to start briefing teachers on the installation of their interactive whiteboards (they’re going into 4 grades, projectors only in 1 for now, the rest already have them); especially given that installation will start next week.

The briefing prompted a question on how high up the wall we install our IWBs.  Listening to the experiences of other schools further along this road than ourselves, we’ve based installation heights on how high the children in the specific grades can reach.  There was some conjecture this morning that this can be too low for the teachers to use effectively.  I have seen when IWBs are too high and steps and platforms have had to be built so students can reach – something which can be potentially dangerous, in my opinion.

I, being the glutton for punishment that I am, decided to express my own opinion through a potential teachable moment, responding with the question of “who are we installing the board for?”

Now I have no doubt that teachers can and do use the IWB.  I disagree with the notion that it should be completely built and installed to suit them.  In my opinion, it’s really not any different to why we put computers in classrooms – for the students to use.

The way I see it, putting the IWB up at “teacher height” (remembering that some primary teachers aren’t much taller than their senior students anyway) encourages a teaching style that is the “chalk and talk” of the 21st Century.  As for adapting for teachers when they do legitimately need to use it, there are several customisations within software nowadays (including the IWB software) that will put things in easy reach for teachers as well as students, including the Start Menu in Windows.

Hopefully, this is the beginning of some of my colleagues beginning to rethink how they teach and how their students learn in the 21st Century.