Interactive whiteboards were introduced to the French education system in 2010. In 2017, an average of four out of five schools were equipped with Interactive Whiteboards (IWB)1 , which are now being gradually replaced by interactive display. This entry into the digital age extends all the way to kindergarten. Teachers, captivated by this opportunity, see several advantages to the arrival of new boards in schools.
It’s now a daily routine for many school teachers: enter the classroom, put down your belongings and switch on your interactive display. This is also the case for Christophe Kirchner, a kindergarten teacher, who is delighted with the use of his Speechi screen in the classroom: “It saves me time in material preparation, while adding interest to my classroom practice”. With his report for Primàbord, we’ll come back to a user case that is becoming more and more frequent.
A high-tech whiteboard for all classroom activities
Iolaos whiteboard software, developed by Speechi, is ideal for smaller children and workshops. In the morning, for example, a ritual is set up to ensure that pupils feel listened to and included in the class. First thing in the morning, each pupil expresses his or her mood: “You can tell how you’re feeling, based on Anna LIenas’ album, The Color of Emotions”, explains the teacher. Equipped with his IWB, he creates colored shapes to stick on the characters from the album. Each character symbolizes an emotion. The child moves his or her first name to the character symbolizing his or her feelings.
It’s more than just a board, it’s a way of illustrating songs. With the aim of enhancing pupils’ imaginations and creating a musical awakening, the teacher turns to his interactive touchscreen and illustrates the nursery rhyme “Five leaves on a tree”. To do this, Christophe Kirchner imports an image of a tree, places it in the background and locks it so that it cannot be moved by pupils. Next, he imports images of leaves. These are placed on the tree or hidden by directly imported complementary icons.
The teacher’s favorite assistant
The reduction in preparation time is important to note. “It allows me to put an end to color printing, laminating, cutting and sticking magnets, which saves a lot of time”, says the teacher. According to the French Ministry of Education website, the average primary school teacher spends eight hours a week preparing lessons2. Speechi’s Iolaos whiteboard software therefore offers significant savings in preparation time.
A tool for inclusive education
In addition to the benefits demonstrated in the report, education professionals and students alike perceive various advantages associated with the interactive screen. One notable feature, available on the Iolaos whiteboard software, is handwriting recognition. Children write freehand, and the word appears on the screen in typewritten form. Pupils with handwriting difficulties are thus encouraged and gently taught to hold a pen.
What’s more, even children with attention problems remain motivated and attentive in front of the screen. Aurélien Poncelas, a primary school teacher and youtuber, validates the use of IWB in his classroom, “We’re talking about pure interactivity. It’s not the kind of passivity you might experience on a screen, for example in front of a YouTube video or a cartoon.” This enables tailor-made teaching.
Teachers appreciate interactive trouchscreens, whatever their level of teaching, because they enable them to adapt teaching materials to students. Audrey Kistler, a private teacher, also appreciates this collaborative tool. “I can create two different pages and they’re both on it,” she explains. There’s a wide range of functionalities, enabling a better approach to learning at any age. Discover our different ranges of interactive screens on our speechi website .
