The interactive whiteboard: a literature survey

Abstract

There has been an increasing awareness of the need to understand the match between technology and pedagogy in the development of interactive learning supported by the interactive whiteboard in schools in the United Kingdom. There is evidence that teachers are seeking some understanding of the research background and to this end a team from Keele University has been working on three aspects of interactive whiteboard use – the management of change as the technology is introduced, the learning processes as teachers become more fluent with the hardware and software, and the development of interactivity as a feature of enhanced pedagogy. There is comparatively little background or research literature available but the team have sought this out and offer an analysis of findings from a broad sweep of sources. These confirm that enhanced interactivity requires an understanding of the way in which both teachers and pupils gain from the use of the technology and demonstrate that there is a progression at all levels in learning to use the equipment and associated software to educational advantage.