Interactive White Board Use in a Second Grade Classroom During Content Area Lessons

Technology is quickly finding its way into each and every aspect of our lives, including in the elementary classroom. Many students have grown accustomed to having computers in their classrooms and now newer technologies, specifically IWBs, have entered the classroom and have the potential to help them to be successful. Because technology is constantly advancing and taking on a bigger role in the classroom, I believe that it is imperative that teachers are able to effectively integrate its many uses in ways that will benefit our students. Too often in the classroom technology is used in its most basic form and students are not given ample opportunities to reach their potential through the use of technology. For example, students use the computers to play games or word process a document or teachers use a projector or document camera to simply display information rather than using the available technology to create interactive lessons. By using technology, such as IWBs, teachers can create interactive lessons and students can become a part of the lesson and gain a better understanding of the content. Conducting this study will, I anticipate, reveal the positive role technology, in the form of an IWB, can have on student engagement during content area lessons