Hi Josh. Nice picture. That could almost be used as a poster to promote the MTeach course!
I agree with this post about interactive whiteboards because I think they can really increase the engagement and interaction with the students. As a teacher I haven't had much opportunity to use them yet because my placement schools didn't have them, but during a recent presentation for ALT I found it so much easier to scroll through the power point simply by tapping the screen. I think such as simple thing can make a huge difference to a presentation, as it just seems to flow much better and the focus of the audience remains on the screen and the teacher.
I agree that the potential for the use of the interactive whiteboards is huge, and it seems that as student teachers we almost have a responsibility to bring their use into teaching, as I get the feeling that many experienced teachers see them as foreign and don't use them as much as they could, instead sticking to their more traditional methods of whiteboards and the odd use of a projector.
I think more focus could have been placed on their use in this MTeach course. One of the major things that I believe was lacking in the delivery of this course was basic practical classroom teaching, and if these interactive whiteboards are going to become the norm (which I hope they do), then there should have been more focus on how to actually stand up the front of the classroom and incorporate their use when delivering a lesson. I think the university overlooked the fact that as diploma of education students, we are experts in our field, but generally speaking have little to no experience in a classroom setting, particularly teaching. I think overall, more focus on the basics like where to stand, public speaking, behaviour management, and the use of technology such as this would have been extremely beneficial.
http://joshbrun-ictblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/interactive-whiteboards.html?showComment=1321487774818#c5687077397351146506
