Week #12 - Dr. Robert Marzano

Today in an article by Dr. Robert Marzano called "Teaching with Interactive Whiteboards," I read amazing statistics stating that there is an average 16 percentile gain in the achievement of students who are taught with an interactive whiteboard as opposed to students who are not taught with this technology. The large figures in this fact surprised me. However, something that surprised me more was another fact: in 23 percent of the case studies, teachers without the interactive whiteboard technology had better results. Dr. Marzano looked into this fact, and he discovered that teachers who are not confident or familiar with how to thoughtfully and thoroughly incorporate this type of technology into their classroom actually have better success without it. Dr. Marzano offers some basic tips for teachers when using interactive whiteboards.  His first tip is for teachers to organize their information well - to think through their organization strategy before they even begin making their slides or flip-charts. His second tip was to keep digital flip-charts simple. Although it is always important to have visuals, too many and too much information on one slide can be overwhelming. Another tip he offered is for teachers to use student feedback well. When teachers incorporate feedback like virtual applause on correct answers, the teacher needs to spend sufficient time explaining why the answer is correct. Although interactive whiteboards can be a huge help in teaching, they can also be a hindrance if the teacher does not know how to use them well.