Active Board - ICT resource in the classroom

Active Board

Active Board is an interactive whiteboard where you use a computer connected to a projector. You use a stylus that is specially prepared for the Active Board and when you write on the Active Board you convert your text into digital text. To the Active Board there is a software which contains many different things that are useful in a classroom and to various subjects.

There are many advantages of an Active Board. An Active Board can catch today's IT children living in a technology world. It becomes more visual for the pupils and they can work more actively together. It may include the use of educational programs in which the students can act together to solve problems or create something. There are many programs on the Internet that is free, which means that there are infinitely many possibilities to use an Active Board in a classroom. There is a greater sense for the pupils when they can be active by pick and pull out different things on an Active Board than it would have been if they sat on their own at a computer. With an Active Board you can do mind maps and one advantage is that you save it on your computer and can pick up the mind map again if needed to a whole class for a repetition or students who have been away at the time when you made the mind map. Everything that you write can be saved to be picked up for repetion or what ever purpose you may have. A good thing with an Active Board is that it is durable so you don´t need to be afraid to let pupils use it.

What you need to be aware of when it comes to an Active Board is that it can take quite a long time to start using it fully. You have to expect that it takes up to one year provided that you spend time to familiarize yourself with all the possibilities that exist with it and that you get the right education. It can also take a little longer to prepare lessons in the beginning but once you have your lessons saved you can use them again in another class after perhaps some changes. The most important thing about an Active Board is that the technology is with you. If there is something wrong with the technology when you are going to have a lesson you need to have a back up plan for the class.

Most children have used a computer and the Internet for several years before they start school. How can we meet these children when they come to the world of school? One way might be to have classrooms with Active Boards.

By Louise Johansson