Interactive Whiteboard Activities That Get Students Up Out Of Their Desks

We're moving into a new unit in my Educational Technology and Distance Teaching class - interactive whiteboards for higher order learning. In this unit I teach about how to use the most common interactive whiteboard software to create engaging presentations. But the real power of interactive whiteboards has always been the opportunities they provide for student interaction and higher-order learning. My students who are often new to teaching with an interactive whiteboard, often make the mistake of just presenting at the board while students just watch from their seats. They soon learn that the best presentations take advantage of the affordances of the interactive whiteboard and have students come up to interact with the board.

What are some of the activities that students can do at the board? My book, Educational Technology for Teachers provides several different types of activities that support student engagement and interaction and here are some of the types of activities with videos showing how to create them with interactive whiteboard software:

• Click to reveal
• Sort items into categories
• Color reveal
• Drag to target

These and other types of activities can be compelling ways for students to get involved in their own learning on an interactive whitebaord. Northern State University education students learn to create these and other activities so that they can successfully support higher-order learning and student interaction in the classroom.