Promethean research and podcast

Promethean Research and TechQuest Project

• Welcome to the summary of my research on Promethean boards and the effects of using ActivInspire to increase student achievement, especially in the area of creative writing.
• This podcast (see side bar) describes my Promethean board project, which I am currently implementing in a kindergarten classroom. It will also include an overview of the research on the effects of instruction using Interactive White Boards (IWBs) such as Promethean boards.
• On my own computer, I created a Promethean "flipchart" for an animal riddle project that I did with a kindergarten class of 20 students. I wanted to use the Promethean Board in a way that built on the students enthusiasm for animal riddles. We began by sharing animal riddles during group times, then I worked one-on-one with each student to type their animal riddle on the computer so that they could illustrate their riddles for a class book. We worked on concepts of print and basic editing skills while working one-on-one. Then, I created a "flipchart" with the students' animal riddles in the ActivInspire program. Each page of the flipchart included a riddle and a photo of the student holding the book open to their illustrated page. As soon as our Promethean boards are functional (we do not have the connector cords yet), I will use the "revealer" tool on the flipchart to have the students interact with their writing on the IWB. This will be one of the first IWB projects for the class, since the board was installed in early February. Since I am an instructional aide for this class, it was outside of the scope of my job to create an assessment piece that would provide feedback on student achievement results. When I am teaching in the classroom, hopefully next year, I will use formative assessments as a key piece of my projects so that I can provide specific feedback to students and plan for the next step in their learning.
  
• I recently attended a day-long training on the new Promethean board software, ActivInspire, at the Alaska Society for Technology in Education conference. The presenter, Mr. Sawyer, gave his view of the levels of interactivity that most teachers move through when they begin using a Promethean board. First, teachers build on what they know and get comfortable with the board in a "teacher use" phase of low interactivity. Then, the teachers allow students to use the board and pen at a basic "student use" level. Eventually, the class reaches the "student anticipation" level with full student engagement and a high level of interactive learning.
• After reviewing the research on IWBs, I understand why our local middle school principal and the teaching staff had implemented Promethean boards to the greatest degree possible, yet had never prepared reports on the effects of using this technology for the last 3-4 years. Because this school adopted a number of innovative programs at the same time, such as one-to-one computing, block scheduling, etc., it was impossible to determine which innovation had contributed to the positive effects on student achievement. Another challenge is deciding how to measure the effects of the IWBs. In a blog post linked to the Promethean Planet site titled "Quantifying the Unquantifiable", Mark Robinson asked the question, "Can you really measure things like enthusiasm, commitment, passion, fun and engagement and use this as additional 'evidence' to help all stakeholders evaluate how learning is actually happening in order to improve it?" Sometimes it is hard to select what evidence to use when measuring the impact of a new technology. Finally, as we all know as teachers, there is never enough time to accomplish all of the necessary tasks in a day, so lack of time is a roadblock to conducting and reporting on classroom research.
  
• For a great overview of research on IWBs, I recommend the report by Cisco and Metiri Group titled, "Technology in Schools: What Does the Research Say: 2009. I have included a table from this report that summarizes the research findings for both experimental research and "correlational/ descriptive" case studies. The findings were mixed for experimental research, yet case studies had positive findings.
• While conducting research on Promethean Boards, there were times that I was concerned about the lack of extensive, peer-reviewed studies. I have included a screen shot from the Promethean World website that lists 10 research articles. Out of the 10 articles, there are only 4 reports that directly relate to the effects of Promethean IWBs. I will discuss these articles in depth in my TechQuest paper. The other studies were either about related technologies (such as sound systems) or about the general trends in educational technology. I spoke with a Promethean representative at the conference I attended and expressed my concern about the lack of research at this time. As I stated earlier, I understand the reasons why it is very difficult to conduct classroom-based research on IWBs, such as the challenges of time, the competing effects of other innovations, and the challenges of deciding how to measure the overall effects.
  
• Overall, I am very excited about the potential for student engagement and achievement with the Promethean ActivInspire program. I am hoping that our school will be able to purchase multiple sets of the ActiVote component, which is a hand held device that allows for multiple opportunities for interaction and immediate feedback. In Mark Robinson's blog about "Quantifying the Unquantifiable", he wrote that the ActiVote system included "pre-set scales for getting feedback on confidence and agreement...and the resource library was stocked with a variety of response scales and templates designed with the purpose of providing contexts for self-reflection." He goes on to say that, "there is some great evidence that making use of these meta-cognitive questions can have profound impacts on student learning."
• My tech quest paper, which will be available on my website in early March, will go into greater detail about the research on IWBs and the specific ways in which the Promethean company has used research to evaluate impacts on student achievement and engagement.
• The screen shots on this blog are from the following sites: http://www.prometheanworld.com/server.php?show=nav.19203 http://www.metiri.com/