In Response to My Showcase

I started out to present my Showcase on February 5 confident that I had something to teach my fellow students about SmartBoard use. I had used a SmartBoard in my practicum and was quite used to navigating the technology. There were a couple of things that I didn't expect, however.

1. I forgot that the SmartBoards at the University of Calgary come as a board, projector, and computer with all the required pieces and cables to connect it all and make it work. Setting this up actually requires a lot more thought than just turning on a SmartBoard that has its own projector and is all set up and calibrated. Despite my comfort with Smart technology, cables are my nemesis. I never seem to be able to figure out where they are suppose to go, likely due to a blind panic that ensues when presented with the problem, usually in front of a group of people with some sort of time restriction. Luckily, I had cable-competent partner to work with. Darren helped me conquer my fear of cables and I know now that I could set up any SmartBoard, anywhere, anytime.

2. It's one thing to know how to use the technology, but after several classes in Technology and Inquiry I realized that how you use and what you use it for are often more important. I was reminiscing about an experience I had where a teacher invited me to see him use a SmartBoard in his class. He was very excited about it, and I was thrilled to go and experience his classroom. Sitting there, I quickly realized that the SmartBoard was truly being used as a plain old whiteboard in this situation. The class was not terribly interesting, and the students didn't appear to be gaining anything from the SmartBoard. Having been in the Inquiry in Technology class for several weeks now, I realize that technology shouldn't be used to do something that you can just as easily do without it. Instead, the students should be pushed to think in new ways. That became the focus of the showcase. We wanted to show how teachers can use Smart technology, but more importantly how students can use the boards and engage in inquiry.

To accomplish this, one of our main goals was to get the class up using it in our presentation. The scrambled photos that Darren found were perfect for this, and they ended up being more than just a way for the class to get comfortable with the board. As I watched the two groups work, I realized just how powerful it could be having a problem that needs to be solved where every student can help but only one student can actually touch the board at a time. I think this could be very useful in a lot of areas of cooperative problem solving. In addition, I think that the group felt comfortable working at the SmartBoard because they were in a group, which is something to utilize for shy groups who are not comfortable working at the board in front of their peers. We tried to emphasize how programs can be used interactively by the students as well, including interactive animations and concept mapping software.

Overall, I believe the presentation went well. We were asked some excellent questions about the meaningful use of the technology, and I developed many ideas about my future use of SmartBoards through the preparation and presentation of this showcase. A few things that I would change if I were to do it again: I would have like to foster class discussion and questions a bit better, and I would have liked to have even more opportunities for my classmates to use the SmartBoards. I am glad that I took on this task, and it just shows that even as a presenter who has used the technology there is always something to learn.