Robert Jones\’s Interactive Maths

What a great day! On the first day of my one-day-per-week secondment to “support the use of interactive whiteboards in maths to improve learning and teaching” I visited Preston Lodge High School in the morning and Knox Academy in the afternoon.

Callum and Linda (the Principal Teachers) were both most welcoming, and I got a chance to help out in quite a few classes over the day. Thanks to both of you, and to all the other colleagues I met.

Today impressed upon me just how skilled and professional the maths teachers of East Lothian are. I was particularly impressed with the way that formative assessment techniques have become second nature for many teachers. It was a somewhat humbling experience. What do I have to offer these folk? By and large I spent the day gathering up ideas and encouraging folk to share the quality resources they had produced. I did though, manage to offer a few handy hints of my own, and also to pitch in and deal with some questions from pupils about pie charts!

Unfortunately, I only got to see the ActiVote pads being used once. This is partly because they have apparently still not been set up in all classrooms yet. If this is the case then it is a terrible waste. In the lesson that I did see, the teacher made excellent use of them at the start of the lesson to do some recap/starter votes on simplifying algebraic expressions. The multiple choice options had been carefully chosen to pick up some common errors. Once pupils had voted, their teacher asked them to volunteer explanations. Once the correct answer had been identified, she asked “could anyone explain where they think someone might have gone wrong to get one of the other answers?”. I think that this opportunity for pupils to reflect upon where errors arise - without anyone having to admit to having made a mistake - is really powerful. This is, of course, down to the skill of the teacher rather than just the technology.

The first stage in the successful use of this technology is for us (staff and pupils) to become familiar with it. From what I saw today this is well under way. Sometimes we are doing this whilst working in new and different ways, sometimes whilst sticking to a more traditional style. These are both OK. As a speaker at SETT said several years ago, about the process of change brought on by the introduction of new technology, users often start by using the new technology to do things in the same way that they always used to. This is fine and normal. Then, as they become more confident, and provided they are given support and time, they begin to explore the news ways of doing things that the technology affords.

This is a model of change that resonates strongly with my experiences over the years. I therefore hope to be able both to help to develop confidence and to support the creative exploration of the potential of the boards. From what I’ve seen today, though, I don’t think that my colleagues are going to need me to give them ideas - the flow of ideas seems to be mainly in the other direction!