The philosophy behind e-gadget based learning is that the idea of providing direct access to a large collection of granular chunks of content in the form of e-gadgets is much more use (to the teacher using an interactive whiteboard) than having a smaller amount of inflexible sequential content.
This approach suits the way in which teachers use the whiteboard in a non-linear way within the classroom.
The granular e-gadgets can be manipulated in a very flexible and personalised way to suit different learning styles within the classroom cohort.
The e-gadget resource can support teacher's pedagogical development envisaged by Glover and Miller* in progressing from a 'supported didactic' approach through 'interactive' to 'enhanced interactive' use of the Interactive Whiteboard.
Supported Didactic:
It is a major benefit to the teacher to have a large resource of available interactions, animations, activities and images that are directly relevant to the primary curriculum. Particularly so as they are available on a random access basis through the use of thumbnails, located using a filtered search (online e-gadget workshop) or QCA structure. Teachers can rapidly locate and use e-gadgets as and when they see fit on an ad-hoc basis if they wish. For example e-gadgets can be used as reminders of past work for revision purposes.
Interactive:
e-gadgets have been designed with classroom interactivity in mind - for example one Design and Technology i-gadget about 'pivots' shows a pair of animated swings in a playground. Text at the top of the screen says 'Select the pivot'. The teacher can either ask the pupils to tell her where to touch the board to locate a pivot or to come out to the board to select it for themselves. Correct location of a pivot results in feedback showing an enlarged animated view of the pivot. Another example is an i-gadget in KS1 Science which asks pupils to identify the part of a plant that we eat - including a potato plant, carrot plant, pea plant etc. Touching the correct part of the plant results in feedback naming whether it is a fruit, a root or a stem.
Enhanced Interactive:
The teacher can extend the activities described above to bring pupils into a greater degree of involvement. Technology is developing to support greater involvement with the introduction of voting systems to allow structured interaction and progress monitoring and e-gadget design supports certain forms of this. The use of handheld computers by pupils in Primary Schools has been successful in trials in Wolverhampton and elsewhere and selected e-gadgets have been successfully incorporated into a 'handheld' e-gadget workshop. The e-gadget factory sees a future with interactive whiteboard based e-gadgets being linked to pupil devices that interact directly to support enhanced interaction.
