Active Student Engagement with i3TOUCH at the British College of Gavà

Introduction

In this case study, we delve into the experiences of four educators at the British College of Gavà (BCG). Each of them has incorporated i3TOUCH interactive whiteboards into their teaching practice, transforming their teaching methods.

From overcoming the limitations of outdated projectors and standard whiteboards to adapting how they deliver lessons, these educators reveal how beneficial interactive whiteboards can be in the modern classroom.

Watch the interviews of the teachers at BCG below. In their own words, the teachers tell how these tools have enriched their teaching and positively impacted student learning.

Zoe Mellar - Year 6 Teacher

"Since having this board installed, with all the interactive features that it has, it's been a lot better. They can physically move the numbers on the screen. They can see what's happening and how the numbers need to change as they're moving them across. Which is a lot more beneficial than just everything being still images, that they can't interact with."

Zoe Mellar, a Year 6 teacher, balances teaching diverse subjects while focusing on innovative learning solutions. Having started the academic year with a basic projector and whiteboard setup, she rapidly embraced the i3TOUCH interactive displays. The new tools brought about significant improvements in image, video, and sound quality, made lessons more enjoyable and improved teaching and student engagement levels.

Nina Pilcher – Year 4 Teacher

"The children often use their mini whiteboards to get the ideas down, but there's nothing quite like coming up and pretending to be the teacher and underlining words...Just being engaged in the lesson using the technology."

Nina Pilcher brings a dynamic teaching style to her Year 4 students at BCG. The new technology eliminated the inconvenience of switching back and forth between screens, which has been a pain point for her in the past. Now, Nina aims to maximize student engagement and interactivity, something that is now within reach through these recent technological upgrades.

Lewis Bromfield – Chemistry Teacher

"The benefits are enormous because, especially with chemistry, many of the lessons I have involve using molecules and also simulations, especially at the IB level, because it's good with molecular geometries that I can actually put the molecule on the board and then annotate on top of it. So, it's a big advantage as I can have the tools readily available to me to use pictures and videos."

Lewis Bromfield, a chemistry teacher, marries his love for the subject with the latest teaching techniques. His transition from traditional teaching tools to the interactive i3TOUCH display has resolved poor image quality and projector glare issues. Lewis continually explores new ways to use these enhanced tools, fostering active student engagement and creating meaningful learning experiences.

Matthew Prosser - Secondary English Teacher

"The one stop shop ability to be able to show a video, pause it, get out the magic pens, write little annotations, screen capture, and then immediately put that into things like Google Classroom...there's really no limit to the things you can do when it comes to visual display. It kind of meets the students in their world, which is getting more and more touchscreen...I'd say they're probably better than the majority of teachers when it comes to being neat on this type of board."

Matthew Prosser, an English teacher at the British College of Gavà (BCG), is passionate about utilizing innovative technology. Since the school was recently outfitted with i3TOUCH interactive displays, the new technology significantly transformed his teaching methods by providing more advanced features, boosting interactivity, and offering an improved writing experience. His insights are invaluable to understanding the benefits and implementation of edtech in the classroom, since he played an active role in this transition.

What Challenges Do Interactive Whiteboard Solve?

The traditional classroom setup posed several challenges that have been addressed by introducing i3TOUCH interactive whiteboards. Matthew Prosser found that the picture quality of mid-room projectors was inadequate due to abundant light in the classrooms. However, the interactive whiteboards have offered excellent picture quality, and their capability to integrate multimedia resources and screen capture functions has improved student engagement.

Nina Pilcher benefitted from the more authentic writing experience of the new whiteboards, which were instrumental in delivering handwriting lessons. The ability to display different backgrounds during lessons has streamlined her teaching process and also made student more engaged in her lessons.

Zoe Mellar, who previously faced difficulties in smoothly transitioning between slides and interactive games, found that interactive whiteboards provided an ideal solution, particularly enabling physical interaction during lessons.

Lewis Bromfield discovered a drastic improvement in his teaching methods with the interactive whiteboards, which offered an easy way to display images, videos, and simulations essential for chemistry teaching. Moreover, they facilitated collaborative learning, allowing students to share documents and interact with the whiteboard in a more natural way.

How teachers use interactive whiteboards at BCG

At the British College of Gavà, teachers have upgraded their teaching methods by leveraging the advanced features of interactive whiteboards.

Matthew Prosser integrates the whiteboard with Google Classroom, sharing resources directly into the platform. Lewis Bromfield uses the whiteboard to draw chemical bonds, enhancing student understanding and interaction. Nina Pilcher seamlessly blends online resources like White Rose Math with Google Slides, PowerPoints, and Google Docs, projecting them onto the interactive whiteboard to visually engage her students.

Likewise, Matthew and Lewis use interactive tools such as Kami, Kahoot, and Blooklet, transforming learning into an engaging and competitive activity.

The Future of Interactive Whiteboards

The teachers plan to continue exploring the potential of interactive whiteboards in their classrooms. Nina Pilcher aims to understand more about the board's functions, and Zoe Mellar is eager to explore more features. In terms of future development, there is an intense desire for more integration with digital platforms, such as Google Classroom. This direction seems inevitable as teachers continue to uncover the potential of this technology. Lastly, additional training was suggested to fully equip teachers with the skills to utilize this technology.

Acknowledgments

A big thank you to the British School of Gava for welcoming us on their campus and to our trusted Technology Partner, AVD Pro, for providing and installing our products to the BCG.