Webinar: Using an Interactive Whiteboard for Communicative Language Teaching

Using an Interactive Whiteboard for Communicative Language Teaching

Date:  Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Presenter(s):  Sarah Withee, Instructional Technologist, Colorado College

Interactive whiteboards combine the best features of the old and new technologies — an image of the computer’s screen is projected onto a whiteboard (an actual whiteboard in the case of the MimioTeach, or a proprietary whiteboard in the case of the SMARTBoard™) where people can then interact with the projected image using a dedicated stylus (MimioTeach) or via touch (SMARTBoard).

When people think of interactive whiteboards, the first use that often comes to mind is as a presentation tool. Indeed, the ability to annotate documents, images, and web pages in a way that can easily be seen by everyone in the class is a definite improvement over a computer and data projector alone. Using the bundled software to save these annotations and refer to them later is an additional bonus. But this sort of presentational use only scratches the surface of the possibilities for using the interactive whiteboard in the communicative language classroom.

With properly designed activities, an interactive whiteboard can be a valuable tool for facilitating pair and small group conversational interactions, learning and practicing vocabulary, and teaching reading strategies. This webinar will focus on how instructors can develop interactive whiteboard activities with a communicative focus. Activities appropriate for beginning, intermediate, and advanced level language students will be demonstrated, and the process of creating those activities will be described.