What is a typical week in your life?
There isn’t one! This job is so varied it swings wildly from task to task. A good deal of my time is spent in classrooms up and down the country, delivering training and providing guidance on how to get the best out of schools’ interactive solutions. I might do this as a face to face meeting with a single teacher, or as a small group exercise. Sometimes I’ll come into a lesson to give teachers confidence in using the board with the children participating. It can help to show how their new technology skills can be practically applied to teaching.
Promethean TLAs also spend time advising at a local authority level, assessing their current capabilities against what they are trying to achieve, consulting with them about where they see the technology going, and making recommendations about how to roll out systems or advise schools in their area. Promethean is committed to education on a global basis, so we all travel fairly extensively – I’m going to Malaysia this month to do some work in support of a pilot study the Ministry of Education is conducting. Like I do here, I’ll be assessing their progress and advising on how to make the most of the technology.
Working on individual projects is another important element of my role. For example I am involved in a DfES-supported initiative called the National Low-Attainers Pilot. It takes low-attaining secondary schools from ten local authorities and looks at how the Key Stage 3 curriculum can be changed. The idea is to see what’s possible when the schools are freed from the constraints of the traditional programme. It’s about identifying the learning needs of the pupils and then it’s up to the individual school to reengineer the curriculum to suit them. My role is to advise schools on how to integrate interactive technology into their vision of personalised learning, and then support them in terms of training. We’re now in the third year of a four year project, and the interim results have identified that the interactive whiteboard is motivational and leading to improvements in pupil attainment.
What are the most common problems schools face?
Often there is a technical cloud hanging over schools, usually about network access or administrative rights, so first and foremost we work with ICT technicians to lift the fog. The really rewarding part comes in convincing teachers who haven’t grabbed the technology by the horns to invest the time to get to know it. At first it certainly seems like there’s a lot to learn, and I sometimes find myself having to hold back my enthusiasm and talk through it at a basic level. We are all teachers at heart and we understand what it’s like in the classroom. There are pressure points and we understand why sometimes it falls down. Part of the training is to say to those teachers ‘look, the pupils will benefit, but let me show you how to save yourself time too’.
Is training important?
Technology on its own doesn’t make the difference – it’s about coming together and sharing ideas. A whiteboard without training won’t transform learning, and when I talk about training, I mean the wider pedagogy. How does being able to use Activote make us change the way we think about engaging children? How does interactive technology make us think more about the way we teach? It all comes down to training and support. If teachers don’t get the technology, they won’t use it and the investment goes to waste.
In your experience, how has the UK progressed in using interactive classroom technology?
The biggest indicator for me is that teachers in the UK now ask about pedagogy. People here are past the ‘wow factor’. We still show them tricks but it’s about explaining how those techniques can be applied to a practical maths problem, for example, or how using your software in a certain way can facilitate inspired class discussions. We also warn about the pitfalls teachers can fall into if they just rely on the tricks.
What are your top three tips for getting the most from your interactive whiteboard?
• Firstly, play with the software. Promethean offers an institutional license, which means that if your school has bought the software, you can take it home and get to know it on your home computer or your laptop. Get the software installed somewhere accessible and then just play around – enjoy it!
• Secondly, access the training and support that’s available to you, whether that be calling on a TLA like myself, logging onto a user-led advice and tips forum like Promethean Planet, taking an online training course, or a combination of all three.
• Thirdly, persevere! The board is incredibly durable so just keep banging away at it. Swallow your pride, tell the children ‘I’m not sure where we’re going with this but we’re going to learn together’ and start out on your journey. You have to get over that fear of failure and put yourself in a learning position like the children. More often that not, you’ll find the children, who are generally less afraid of technology, will enjoy helping you out.
For more information:
• Teaching and Learning Advisers: www.prometheanworld.com/uk
• User-led tips and advice forum: www.prometheanplanet.co.uk
• Online training: www.prometheanlearning.co.uk
