Sixth.. IWB What?

Special day. We were introduce to another tool in learning. I’ve seen it for weeks, though I’m also curios how that thing function. There came Ms. Fenny; an expert in SMART Board (yes I would call her an expert because she sure knew a lot on how to use that thing). SMART Board a.k.a Interactive White Board (IWB) is something new for me, something you would not see in IPIK. Ok, so basically Ms. Fenny showed us how to integrate IWB into the lesson, how to operate it, what are the basic features in SMART notebook software, how to use the software and so on.

What is Interactive White Board? The most interesting part about IWB is that we can operate it like computer, but more interactive as this device projected the display from computer on a large display. It is a presentation device that interfaces with a computer. The computer images are displayed on the board by a digital projector, where they can be seen and manipulated. Users can control software both from the computer and from the board. Also, we can write and erase our writing, just like when using white board and marker-pen, by using a pen and highlighter tool. Of course it is not an ordinary pen and highlighter, it is specially provided to interact with the IWB. Well, to know further, you can always Google it, mate! There are a lot of information about IWB available on the Net.

Alright, so Ms. Fenny taught us what the basic things we need to know about IWB. Her presentation was about how to use it; how to click and drag the picture by using a finger, how to clone a text and picture, how we can use the SMART notebook software and many more. To make it simpler, she taught us how to use IWB. Later, we were required to create a simple lesson for kids using IWB. In group, we need to come with our own idea on how we are going to design an English lesson based on what we have learned on this day. In my opinion, my group did well. Only that it was the first time for us to know about the software and time given wouldn’t allowing us to further explore the software. However, we came up with the idea of conducting a lesson under the topic ‘Parts of the body’ and used the main functions of the software that have been showed by Ms. Fenny previously.

As I mentioned above, we chose ‘Parts of the body – Human face’ as our lesson. We designed the lesson for Year 3 pupils. At the first stage of our lesson, we chose a human face from the SMART notebook gallery. We labeled the parts of the human face; by using highlighter and in different colours. The idea was that the teacher are going to introduce the parts of human face to the pupils, such as eyes, ears, mouth, nose and so on (see Figure 1). At the second stage of the lesson, we decided to make something unusual. With the interesting functions of the software, we chose another human face picture from the gallery, separate the parts of the human face and scrambled the parts (see Figure 2). The idea was that the pupils need to click and drag the parts of the human face and put them together to form a ‘complete’ face (see Figure 3). In order to complete this task, the pupils of course need to know the position of each parts. Although we only used the basic features of the software, however we realized that with the interesting features of the IWB, we can create a more interactive lesson. That’s is what I like about IWB the most. I think that young learners would be more interested to engage in the lesson as the lesson provides them tasks that are different and for me, it’s fun and interesting enough for the pupils. Then, Soddiq did a job well done to explain our activities to the rest of the class.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Lastly, we need to make reflections about our activities. Here’s what we need to reflect:

Do you understand the basic knowledge of using Note book function in SMART board? If yes which part that you understand most? If not why you did not understand?

So far, I understand. After all, Ms. Fenny explained well about how to use the software. And also thanks to Ms. Fenny for assisting my group to complete the task. As it was the first time we were being introduced to the software, I know how to do clone, click and drag, cut the picture and the function of group and ungroup. I need some time to explore the software though, to improve the knowledge of using the software.

Do you understand the basic knowledge to use gallery feature and attachment picture in SMART board incorporate for teaching English vocabulary for standard 4 students?

Yes. Easy. Not too different with other software that I know. The gallery provided various pictures and well-organized in their own topics. So, there should be know problem for teachers to teach vocabulary as the pictures in the gallery are sort by their topics. Furthermore, we still can attach other pictures from the computer into the software.

Do you find that SMART board a useful tool to support in teaching and learning? If yes, why it is useful? If not, what is the problem?

Certainly yes. I think that using IWB is good for demonstrations. The software enable us to use finger like a mouse to point out some important features of the lesson. Besides, the colourful features can definitely attract the young learners; we can customize the presentation of our lesson by using both the pen and highlighter features to display a number of different colours. And its usefulness would enable teachers to design various lesson activities. For English teachers, they can maximize the use of the tools to create lessons that based on various language skills; listening, writing, reading and also speaking. It’s good for teachers to gain the skills in using this tool as it would give more variety for teachers to practice in teaching approaches. Though the availability of this tool, perhaps, is limited in most of the schools, however to acquire the skills and knowledge to use it is appropriate. I believe there are pros and cons in everything. There’s still practicality and reliability issue in integrating IWB in the lesson, but with proper preparation and planning, IWB can be an effective instructional tool to adapt. To use or not to use IWB is all on teachers. After all, it is a tool that would assist the teachers in delivering their lesson.