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I didn’t think I’d actually see it.

I drove past a public primary school yesterday, only to see the message board out the front read:

INTERACTIVE
WHITEBOARDS K-6

Clearly this school sees it as its selling point.  I suppose there were schools that marketed themselves on the fact they had computers, or later, how many they had.  Some now even push that they have 1 to 1 laptop programs.

I suppose this also says something for the growth of the tool in Australia over the last few years.  It now looks like a boat that at least some schools don’t want to miss.

Now we can almost boast the same claim (I bet the school in question didn’t have 25 classes to install them in to!), but I’d rather boast about the learning that is achieved using them as a tool.

Not so easy to put up on the message sign, though.  I think we’ll stick with “Students Return Tuesday 14 October”.

Today I’ve arrived in Melbourne for the 2008 Interactive Whiteboard Conference at Firbank Grammar School in Brighton, Melbourne.  It was a fairly last-minute decision to come, along with two other colleagues from my school; a decision helped by the recent increase we now have planned to our IWB rollout for 2008.

For me, this is my 2nd IWB conference, the first being two years ago at Castle Hill when we knew little of the tool and were looking forward to installing our first one in the library.  I’ve now worked with an IWB for about a year.

The hope for myself then, is that I can take myself further and go away with ideas to use the IWB to encourage even deeper and more effective learning in my classroom, rather than get the starters (although that’s where my colleagues are at, and we’re taking some different workshops accordingly).

I also hope that this conference is also about more than just the board.  Castle Hill was great two years ago because it had a broad spectrum of content that looked at a range of applications of technology in the classroom.  It was in a workshop led by John Pearce at that conference that I signed up to Edublogs and started up what is now Learning Curve (it didn’t have such a catchy title then; which means you’re now thinking “good grief, what on earth was it?  Surely it couldn’t have been worse!”).  I was introduced to blogs, wikis and podcasts - things I have used since and seen the difference they’ve made in the classroom.

Finally, I hope I can continue to stregthen existing, and make some new connections out of this experience.  I’ve already met up with colleagues I was introduced to at Castle Hill, and hope to meet some more people sharing the same journey.  The networks are what really helps us as professionals in feeling supported, encouraged and motivated; not to mention broadening and extending our own learning.