One of the things I regularly find when working in schools is the lack of interactivity in the interactive whiteboard. For many teachers, they could work with a computer and a projector and not be much worse off (they might have to click a mouse instead of touch the board to move the powerpoint on a bit, but that's about it). Some of the software that the board manufacturers provide allow for a reasonable amount of interactivity in certain lessons, but not all. A resource looking to expand that range that is developing along nicely is the tes iboard (go to www.iboard.co.uk).
So far I have only used it for doing some transformations, but I have been impressed. The translation tool allowed me to explain well the use of vectors - the tool doesn't use vectors itself, but it does allow pupils to move the shape around and therefore to see the results of the translation. Showing pupils the result as a vector wasn't difficult from there. I have also used the reflections and rotations tools, which again are limited for KS3 because they are primarily designed for KS2, but the reflections tool allows for some real interactivity along the common lines of reflection (horizontal and vertical lines, and the 45 degree diagonals) and the rotation tool allows for real exploration of 90 degree (and technically 45 degree) rotations around the origin. The thing I really like is pupils can operate it at the board, and we can explore simple questions that lower attaining pupils might come up with.
The tes iboard is a resource that is well worth keeping an eye on as it develops - particularly for those teachers who want to use their interactive whiteboard as more than just a fancy display projector.
So far I have only used it for doing some transformations, but I have been impressed. The translation tool allowed me to explain well the use of vectors - the tool doesn't use vectors itself, but it does allow pupils to move the shape around and therefore to see the results of the translation. Showing pupils the result as a vector wasn't difficult from there. I have also used the reflections and rotations tools, which again are limited for KS3 because they are primarily designed for KS2, but the reflections tool allows for some real interactivity along the common lines of reflection (horizontal and vertical lines, and the 45 degree diagonals) and the rotation tool allows for real exploration of 90 degree (and technically 45 degree) rotations around the origin. The thing I really like is pupils can operate it at the board, and we can explore simple questions that lower attaining pupils might come up with.
The tes iboard is a resource that is well worth keeping an eye on as it develops - particularly for those teachers who want to use their interactive whiteboard as more than just a fancy display projector.
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