INNOVATIVE ICT PROJECT REPORT

School Contact : Mrs C. J. Lewis - Headteacher

Aims of the Project at Little Chalfont
To introduce interactive white boards into the school as an extension to our teaching strategies with particular reference to Maths.

Placement in the school
Initially we placed a mobile board in the computer suite to help with the teaching of ICT skills.
The other board was placed permanently in KS1 in the Yr 2 classroom where the maths co-ordinator is based. KS1 teachers swap around classes to use the board.

Training
Two teachers, the ICT and maths co-ordinators, attended the initial half-day training and all staff had further training from an ICT consultant. We have also carried out some in-house training as part of NOF training.

Cost of setting up and running
We purchased two notebook computers from RM, one with software similar to that in our ICT suite. The machines did suffer from some problems of compatibility. (Ensure notebooks have a serial port to take fittings of the interactive board or any interactive device. Additional adaptors/USB leads were a great stumbling block for RM and us!)

Wiring Wiring (i.e. fixing of projectors in ceiling cradles compared to keeping them mobile) requires careful thought. We had quotes of approximately £1,400 to £1,800 for this work. Neither of ours is fixed as yet. At one time we moved the boards to fixings in other classrooms - this led to a board falling off the wall and a £250 repair. After that we bought a trolley!

Evaluations
We needed the extra training from Matrix Education, to make the technology more user friendly, but our own sessions with teachers having a go, discussing use in lessons etc was invaluable. Probably finding a teacher who is keen to use the technology and experiment as well as demonstrate to others would be a useful 'way in'.

In terms of the board's use, it has the potential to enhance a teacher's range of teaching strategies. Our children loved it and were very keen to participate. In maths it challenged thinking and widened the strategies that children used. RM Easiteach was our best software resource for the board and we quickly realised that we should plan this in as only part of the lesson. We have looked at other software by Kartouche and LTS and see potential there. RM has just upgraded Easiteach which also looks very good. So far we have used the boards for English, maths, science and direct ICT teaching.

As a school we are in the early stages of development with interactive boards; the problems we experienced with portables to run the boards has unfortunately set us back by several months. However, I think that as a staff we are very much in favour of the technology and can see the potential benefits it can bring to a teacher's teaching and children's learning.