Did you know that the first interactive whiteboards were designed and manufactured by PARC in 1990 for office use? The boards were used for group meetings and round-tables. But the true value of interactive whiteboards was understood and leveraged by the education industry and since then interactive whiteboards have revolutionized the way we teach and learn, moving from a teacher-centric setup to a more student-centric learning experience.

According to Futuresource Consulting one of every seven classrooms in the world featured an interactive whiteboard by 2011. By 2004, 26% of British primary classrooms had interactive whiteboards. By 2007/2008 according to the Becta Harnessing Technology survey 98% of secondary and 100% of primary schools had Interactive white boards. There are numerous researches that have been conducted across the world that evaluated the degree of effectiveness of interactive whiteboard on education standards. We will look at the top 3 such researches and studies conducted across the world.

1. The DfES Primary Schools Whiteboard Expansion project

This study and research commissioned by BECTA (UK) to study the impact of interactive whiteboards in classrooms over a two-year period is the largest and longest study conducted on this subject till date.

Led by professor Bridget Somekh and his team at Manchester Metropolitan University, The DfES Primary Schools Whiteboard Expansion project (PSWE) studied the impact of interactive whiteboards across 97 primary schools, using data for 7272 learners between 2003 and 2004.

The key conclusion from the project was that Interactive whiteboard technology led to consistent and significant learning gains measured in “months progress” against standard measures attainment over the two-year study across all key stages.

Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactive_whiteboard

2. Beyond the ‘wow’ factor: developing interactivity with the interactive whiteboard by Gary Beauchamp and John Parkinson

In this paper published under School Science Review in March 2005, Gary Beauchamp and John Parkinson suggest that the use of interactive whiteboards has the potential to transform the way science lessons are taught. This article provides a reference and guide for teachers to evaluate their practice and suggests a number of best practices to promote greater interactivity and to create a positive learning environment.

Some of the key benefits for pupils listed include:

1. Greater motivation

2. Greater Opportunity for pupils to participate and collaborate

3. Ability to cope with more complex concepts due to clearer, more efficient demonstrations

4. revolutionary capacity to cater to different learning styles

5. Teachers can access wide range of teaching tools that enable them to use distinctive teaching strategies that have hitherto been impossible

Ref: http://karsenti.scedu.umontreal.ca/archives/tbi-recherches/Beyond.pdf

3. The Interactive Whiteboards, Pedagogy and Pupil Performance Evaluation: An Evaluation of the Schools Whiteboard Expansion (SWE) Project: London Challenge

The objective of this research project was to assess the impact of interactive whiteboards on teaching and learning, teacher/pupil motivation, and attendance and behaviour, and effectiveness of improving standards at KS3 and GCSE. Driven by mixed methods including Case Studies, survey of departmental IWB availability and usage, and statistical analysis of pupil performance data the outcome was an increased adoption of interactive whiteboards in London Secondary school core subject departments.

Successful CPD is most likely to be effective if it supports individual teachers ín exploration of their current pedagogy, and helps identify how IWB use can support, extend or transform this. Discussion of the relative strengths and weaknesses of different ways of using the technology for particular purposes should be part of the on-going work of a department.

Ref: https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/RR816%20Report.pdf

We have looked at the top 3 researches and studies conducted on the effectiveness of Interactive whiteboards on improving education standards, there are numerous other literature reviews, findings and papers on the use of interactive whiteboards in the classroom. We leave you with a list of some more significant studies and research projects conducted to evaluate the impact of interactive whiteboards

• McCrummen, S. “Some educators question if whiteboards, other high-tech tools raise achievement.”
• DCSF & Becta (2007). Evaluation of the DCSF Primary Schools Whiteboard Expansion Project.
• Glover, D., & Miller, D., Averis, D., & Door, V. (2005) The interactive whiteboard: a literature survey. Technology, Pedagogy and Education
• Moss, G., Jewitt, C., Levačić, R., Armstrong, V., Cardini, A., & Castle, F., Allen, B., Jenkins, A., & Hancock, M. with High, S. (2007).
• Painter, D., Whiting, E., & Wolters, B. (2005). The Use of an Interactive Whiteboard in promoting interactive teaching and learning.
• Smith, H.J., Higgins, S., Wall, K., & Miller, J. (2005). Interactive whiteboards: boon or bandwagon? A critical review of the literature, Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 21(2), pp. 91–101.11.
• Thomas, M., & Cutrim Schmid, E. (Eds.) (2010). Interactive Whiteboards for Education: Theory, Research and Practice (Hershey, PA: IGI Global).
• Dostál, J. Reflections on the Use of Interactive Whiteboards in Instruction in International Context. The New Educational Review. 2011. Vol. 25

Interactive whiteboards have evolved to be much smarter, intelligent and a driver of the biggest revolution in education. We call it intelligent interactive panels and today over 700 schools that have evolved to intelligent teaching and learning and use Senses IIPs in their classrooms. Click here for a free demo.