Students Perceptions of the Smartboard

When reading the students' feedback about using the Smartboard, the general trend was that they liked using it. Very few of the students said that they did not enjoy it, or that it did not help them. Most students said that they liked it because it was fun. There was one comment that said that it was nice to use one computer that everyone could look at, rather than each person having a computer and all asking the same questions. There were comments that praised the format of the Smartboard. For example, some students thought that it being in color helped them remember and that they understood better because they could see the examples. Visualization was another main reason that the students enjoyed the Smartboard. They said that being able to see the steps and see the problems helped them. Many students commented that they were able to understand concepts that can be quite difficult (e.g. working backwards, solving algebraic equations) to visualize using the Smartboard. Other benefits included focusing the students attention and making them excited to learn math.

I thought it was interesting that some of the students did not enjoy using the Smartboard. One student said that he was unable to see it and needed to be closer. This could be a drawback for someone using the Smartboard in a small classroom. Another student said that he still didn't understand math. This would be an instance to which a teacher would have to pay particular attention. I think that a consequence of using the Smartboard may be that the teacher is not able to always ensure that each student is understanding. It may be easy for some students to avoid participation and get away with not understanding because of the excitement of all the other students. I think that you run the risk of decreasing participation when using the Smartboard because you have all of your students focused on one thing, as opposed to having them each doing their own thing. To avoid this pitfall, you could ensure that your lesson was fast paced and had each student participate at some point on some level. Also, you would have to make sure that at some point in time you were assessing each student to make sure that they all understand the concept. If they do not understand, then it needs to be taught again in a different manner.

In my classroom, I think that I will find the Smartboard especially helpful when teaching math. It seems that the Smartboard really helps students to visualize math concepts, which is something that is sometimes difficult to represent on a chalkboard. Also, for games, such as jeopardy, I think that the Smartboard would help keep the students engaged. Showing websites or games from the internet would be useful too. There are a lot of websites that provide free math games. Doing these games as a class, instead of individually, may ensure that everyone is doing it correctly. After modeling the game as a class, you could even move to playing on individual computers. Because the Smartboard can show things from the internet, it makes things like PBS videos more accessible because they can be shown more easily to the class as a whole. For me, the main benefits of the Smartboard include student engagement, visualization of concepts, and accessibility of online resources.