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Interactive whiteboard suppliers help schools & colleges get more from technology
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| Date: 11/17/2008
Source: Global Projector |
Becta, the government's education technology agency, is working with interactive whiteboard suppliers to tackle the barriers that prevent lessons being shared between and within schools.
Interactive whiteboards have revolutionised teaching in classrooms worldwide and research shows that when used well they have a significant impact on results¹.
But with the rapid growth in use and in the number of different suppliers, issues have arisen over the creation of content that can be read on all systems. The lack of a common file format prevents a user from developing content on one platform and presenting it on another.
Feedback from organisations representing teachers and tutors confirms that a common format would bring huge benefits to education.
For instance, individuals would be able to:
create content for one product and save it in a file that can be used again in another product
share resources with their colleagues and use content created by others
take resources with them when they move to another school or college.
Organisations that provide ready-made resources could provide them in a single format rather than many, therefore allowing more time and money to be spent on the quality of the resources. Schools and colleges would have more freedom to choose the whiteboards most suited to the needs of their learners.
Steve Lucey, Becta's Executive Director for Strategic Technologies, said: "We know that this technology is capable of bringing lessons to life, motivating learners to participate with enthusiasm and helping them to achieve better results.
"Becta is working to help the education sector get better value from investment in technology, which is more important than ever in the current economic climate. Sharing resources and ideas is one of the ways to stimulate more effective use of technology and make the most of that investment.
"Becta is encouraged by the support it has had from the industry for the project to develop an interactive whiteboard file format that will meet the needs of teachers, lecturers and tutors. We have been spurred on in this work by the level of interest of user representatives in England and internationally."
Becta has received commitments to adopt the common file format from the following providers of interactive whiteboard technologies:
eInstruction
Hitachi
Luidia
Mimio
RM
Sahara Presentation Systems
Smart Technologies
TeamBoard
Steve Lucey added: "We are keen to do what we can to ensure all providers understand the benefits this specification has to its users. We therefore intend to work towards adoption of the specification by other providers and continue to encourage their involvement in the project."
KeyWord: Interactive whiteboard,technology |
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