Evaluation of the Use of Interactive Digital Whiteboards in Early Childhood Education

Author(s):

Antonia Cascales(presenting / submitting)María Isabel Laguna-Segovia

Conference:

ECER 2012

Network:

16. ICT in Education and Training

Format:

Poster

Session Information

16 SES 05.5 PS, General Poster Exhibition

General Poster Session during Lunch

Time:

2012-09-19

12:30-14:00

Room:

FCEE - Poster Exhibition Area

Chair:

Contribution

Interactive digital whiteboards (IDWs) can be described in technical terms as "touch screens that function in conjunction with a computer and a projector" (SMART, 2006, p. 5). The use of these whiteboards in education is becoming more and more widespread (Tatar and Erduran glu, 2009; Lan & Hsiao, 2011; Levy, 2002, Murcia, 2008). In fact, their use in education "is not just a trend, but also an important educational policy" (Lan and Hsiao, 2011, p. 172).

The literature reveals interest and positive attitudes on the part of teachers and students towards the use of IDWs in general (Hall & Higgins, 2005; Levy, 2002; Morgan, 2008, Smith et al, 2005). Students and teachers think that their use in education makes lessons more entertaining and interesting (Ates, 2010; Beeland 2002, Kaya and Aydin, 2011; Levy, 2002), exciting (Elaziz, 2008) , motivating (Tatar and Erduran glu, 2009) and enjoyable (Hall & Higgins, 2005; Levy, 2002).

Much research has been done in primary education pertaining to the use of IDWs in classrooms. In an experimental study, Ekici (2008) found their use in mathematics with 6^th grade students to have positive influences. Lewin et al. (2008) also found positive effects from using IDWs in math and english classes, and test score increases were significant after only having worked with the whiteboards for a period of 2 years.

Despite positive feedback and investigation regarding the use of IDWs in primary education, there is not sufficient evidence from systematic research that takes into account the impact of such use on student performance in early childhood education (Levy, 2002; Smith et al, 2005). We believe that, from a perspective of curriculum evaluation, it is necessary to investigate whether this relatively new and expensive technology generates the desired pedagogical effects.

That is why the objective of our research was to evaluate the impact of the use of IDWs on student performance in early childhood education. Therefore, this study sought to use IDWs as methodological resources for developing early childhood curriculum, and evaluate the results obtained from an experimental group and a control group of 4 year-old students. Four groups of students in their second semester of their second year of early childhood education at CEIP Virgen de los Desamparados and CEIP Costa Blanca participated in this study.

Method

The study was conducted within an evaluative research, using quasi-experimental methods of cutting, given that the intervention took place in a natural environment, without assigning randomized grouping. Due to the nature of the study, and with the goal for students of both schools to benefit from the use of IDWs, we designed two different didactic units in which all of the groups were able to act as both experimental and control participants in alternating phases of the study. To carry out the study the following instruments were used:  For the students participating in the study: Pre-experimental tests were used to measure knowledge. Post-experimental testing indicated the degree of objective achievement once the didactic units had been implemented  For the teaching staff: A questionnaire was given to assess the impact of the use of IDWs in student performance. The questionnaire contained the following dimensions: document structure, usability, consistency and feasibility.  Evaluation by external agents: Through triangulation, we found that it gave greater reliability and validity of the results. We sought the convergence of information from different data sets, taking into account different points of view.

Expected Outcomes

The conclusions are as follows:  In relation to self-discipline, students working with interactive whiteboards improved their performance.  We detected that the students were able to use the interactive whiteboards to perform tasks related to their curriculum, providing more functionality to the technological instrument.  The contrast between the initial and final results, showed a clear improvement, which could be seen both in the differences of student performance as well as in the quality of student responses.  Regarding the data obtained from teachers, we can conclude that IDWs improve the performance obtained by students who have used it.  According to the results obtained by external evaluators, the importance of IDWs to achieve the pedagogical objectives was positively valued, and it was determined that student motivation was such that it was a guarantee of success. Therefore, the students were able to achieve the goals easily. Concerning the limitations of this study, it would be interesting to enlarge the study sample. Also, it would be very interesting to study and to analyze the awareness of early-childhood faculty in using IDWs as resources to improve not only student motivation but also student performance.

References

Álvarez Rojo , V., García Jiménez, E., Gil Flores, J., Martínez Clares, P., Romero Rodríguez, S., Rodríguez Santero, J. (2002). Diseño y evaluación de programas. Madrid: EOS. Armstrong, V., Barnes, S., Sutherland, R., Curran, S., Mills, S., & Thompson, I. (2005). Collaborative research methodology for investigating teaching and learning: the use of interactive whiteboard technology. Educational Review, 57(4), 457–469. Beeland, W. D. (2002). Student engagement, visual learning and technology: Can interactive whiteboards help?. Retrieved 07. 06. 2011. http://chiron.valdosta.edu/are/ Artmanscrpt/vol1no1/beeland_am.pdf. Creswell, J. W. (2003). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Elaziz, F. (2008). Attitudes of students and teachers towards the use of Interactive whiteboards in EFL classrooms. Unpublished master thesis, Bilkent. García Sanz, M.P., (2003) La evaluación de programas en la intervención socioeducativa. Murcia: DM Hall, I., & Higgins, S. (2005). Primary school students’ perceptions of interactive whiteboards. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 21, 102–117. Lan, Tian-Syung, & Hsiao, Tsung-Yen (2011). A study of elementary school students’ viewpoints on interactive whiteboard. American Journal of Applied Sciences, 8(2), 172–176. Levy, P. (2002). Interactive whiteboards in learning and teaching in two Sheffield schools: A developmental study. Retrieved 10. 12. 2011 from. http://dis.shef.ac.uk/eirg/projects/ wboards.htm. Ley Orgánica 2/2006, del 3 de mayo, de Educación. Murcia, K. (2008). Teaching for scientific literacy with an interactive whiteboard. Teaching Science, 54(4), 17–21. Real Decreto 1630/2006, de 29 de diciembre, por el que se establecen las enseñanzas mínimas del segundo ciclo de Educación Infantil Smart Technologies Inc. [SMART]. (2006). Interactive whiteboards and learning improving student learning outcomes and streamlining lesson planning. White Paper, Retrieved 20.01.2012. http://downloads01.smarttech.com/media/research/whitepapers/int_whiteboard_research_whitepaper_update.pdf. Torff, B., & Tirotta, R. (2010). Interactive whiteboards produce small gains in elementary students’ self-reported motivation in mathematics. Computers & Education, 54(2), 379–383.

Author Information

Antonia Cascales (presenting / submitting)

Universidad de Murcia. Facultad de Educación

Métodos de Investigación y Dignóstico en Educación

Murcia

María Isabel Laguna-Segovia

Universidad de Alicante. Facultad de Educación. Spain

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