IWB ala Marzano

The IWB is a great tool  and it has really created some excitement among students and teachers.  Be sure, as you use your board, that you take advantage of all the interactivity that it offers.  It is so much more than a projection tool.  Even with all of our new technology remember that good teaching is key. We need to be sure to avoid the trap of  using technology just for its own sake, and ignoring good teaching practices. It's important to remember that you are teaching students, not just content.  The technology helps present the content in  meaningful ways so that students will be engaged.  You have to reach the kids to teach the kids.  Just my two cents worth.  Here is an expert's point of view:

This is from the online publication Digital Directions, Feb 2, 2010 edition and written by Kathleen Kennedy Manzo.


Robert J. Marzano, a prominent researcher who is co-founder and chief executive officer of Marzano Research Laboratory in Englewood, Colo., studied teaching and student outcomes in some 200 classes where teachers conducted lessons with and without interactive whiteboards. He found significant benefits when teachers used the boards, particularly among those who had been using the devices for more than two years, were confident in their skill with the boards’ features, and used them for at least 75 percent of class time. The greatest benefits appeared to be in boosting student motivation and participation.


In Marzano's study, the Promethean boards were most effective when they gave students multiple opportunities to use the boards and the interactive features.  Nearly one-fourth of the teachers, though, were more effective without the whiteboards.

     That finding highlights one of Marzano's key conclusions from the study.  The teachers who were most effective using the whiteboards displayed many of the characteristics of good teaching in general:  They paced the lesson appropriately and built on what students already know; they used multiple media, such as text, pictures, and graphics, for delivering information; they gave students opportunities to participate; and they focused mainly on the content, not the technology.

     "These are things good teachers would do without technology," Marzano says.  "Technically, you don't need to use the technology, but it's just so hard to do all these things without it."

     The technology, he says, is a tool for making it easier to incorporate the elements of good teaching across content areas and among students with a range of academic knowledge and skills.