Nowadays the progress is going very fast and we can’t stop this process. New young generation can’t imagine their lives without different gadgets. So we, teachers, have to be very confident if we want to understand them better. Also we have to remember that new educational standards require the use of modern technologies at the lessons. So the schools are provided with different new equipment. Interactive whiteboard is one of such modern technological devices. It helps us to create the teaching situation on the lesson which encourage students to learn something new and how to use this information in life.
Of course, Interactive whiteboard has a lot of advantages that influence the process of studying very much. If you read different ads about it, you can hardly find any cons. But nowadays there are a lot of different types of Interactive whiteboards, so if the teacher really wants to introduce this new sophisticated equipment at different stages of the lesson, she/he must first become very confident about how to use it effectively.
Firstly I’ d like to tell you about pros. According to psychological researches people apprehend information differently (слайд). Interactive whiteboard helps the teacher not only to demonstrate the information but the Students can take an active part at the lesson, Try to achieve better results, because they can compare themselves with other students.
The second advantage is that the teachers can include all the students in the class. You know that sometimes the groups are quiet big, and it’s very difficult to keep their attention.
So using Interactive whiteboard helps the teachers not only to achieve the goal of the lesson in a very interesting and creative way, but also to make different control tests. They make the process of feedback faster and easier for teachers.
Well, Interactive whiteboard is one of the best devices. But you shouldn’t forget that at present there are a lot of firms which produce them.. Of course, you can buy a lot of ready CDs for Interactive whiteboards. Don’t forget that most of them are made for particular Ss book, vocabulary and grammar rules. Also a lot of exercises are not the whole-class activity but individual, That’s why it’s impossible to use them effectively. And that is the main problem for the teachers. There is special programme for every type. Well, the teachers have to create their own exercises and presentations. And that’s the problem. There are no any courses where you can be taught to create these presentations at the advanced level, only for beginners. So the teachers need to improve the skills themselves, try to made necessary presentation by trial and error. It takes a lot of time. The second moment that you can’t use Interactive whiteboard more than 20 minutes.
To sum up I’d like to tell that anyway Interactive whiteboard gives the teachers of foreign languages a wide range of exercises (video, audio) that help us to create different situations, encourage Ss to work better at the lessons even if they are not motivated firstly. And of course all of it help us to prepare Ss for exams.