The Advantages of Having a Smart Board in a High School Classroom

The interactive whiteboard -- Smart Board is one brand -- is a technological advancement that has significantly affected teaching and learning in the high school classroom. A Smart Board or generic version provides quick and easy assess to online resources and enables teachers to reach more students by addressing a variety of learning styles. Graphics, music and other instructional resources can be called upon at the push of a button. Additionally, their interactive nature provides the opportunity for students to become involved in the instructional process.

Immediate Access to Online Resources

Using interactive whiteboard technology enables high school teachers to integrate the lesson with a variety of instructional modalities quickly and easily. A teacher can call upon a segment of an online video or news headline to help reinforce a social studies unit. A virtual field trip becomes possible. Higher level math teachers can use a Smart Board graphing calculator to not only work a problem, but also to demonstrate graphing the process.

Interactive

Smart Boards are interactive, providing the opportunity for high school students to take part in the instructional process. Students who are engaged in the instructional process tend to learn more. Interactive whiteboards provide the ability to touch, write or draw to demonstrate understanding, and students' work can be saved to be used later. The interactive whiteboard also provides an avenue for quick assessment with immediate feedback. Students can complete multiple choice assessments using clickers that communicate with the whiteboard. This provides immediate feedback to improve instruction by quickly identifying areas that need to be reviewed.

Multiple Technologies and Diversity of Software

The possibilities of integrating other technologies and a variety of software packages are impressive. A video camera, camera or document camera can be attached to the whiteboard for instruction. In a high school science class, the dissection of a chicken can be projected onto the whiteboard. Through even greater technological advances, the viewing lens of a classroom microscope can be connected to the interactive board. It presents the same technological possibilities as a computer. Students can access or contribute to the presentation via a notebook or tablet.

Data Storage and Retrieval

Interactive whiteboards make possible for the data generated during the class lecture to be stored and later retrieved for review or to email to an absent student. Everything that is done in a high school class, whether student or teacher generated, can be saved and later altered. Portions of the data can be redacted so that during review, students can test their understanding by attempting to replace the missing information. Teachers can share examples generated in one class with the next class. Instruction becomes comprehensive for across classes, and material can then be downloaded, printed or even emailed to absent students.