Tech Thursday April 8 Interactive Whiteboard Technologies

1. Tech Thursday April 8Interactive Whiteboard Technologies Ronnie Ancona Using the Interwrite Pad to Annotate Text in Latin 201

2. Latin 201 is a fourth semester intermediate-level Latin class in which students begin to study Latin poetry. The class involves the reading of selections from Ovid’s epic of connected tales, Metamorphoses, as well as the study of Latin meter. Students increase their reading knowledge of Latin through attention to issues of grammar, vocabulary, figures of speech, and meter, while learning to appreciate Ovid’s poetic techniques and the value of the Metamorphoses as literature.

3. From 2009 FITT grant • Professor Ancona’s goal was to make students more active learners by engaging them in collaborative text annotation...  She will use the Interwrite Pad, a wireless, pen-based input device, to support in-class text annotation. 

4. From FITT grant (continued) • Using this pad, Professor Ancona can annotate, highlight, and make notes over PowerPoint presentations, Word documents, or any content that appears on the computer screen.  The computer screen is projected so that students can view the annotations.

5. From FITT grant (continued) • This device will allow Professor Ancona to demonstrate noun/adjective agreement, highlight figures of speech, and frame lines of poetry.  Since the device is wireless, it can also be passed to students, so that they can participate in marking up the text.

6. How does this enhance learning? • The class and instructor can focus TOGETHER on the material on the screen. • MARKING text makes points easier to see (literally) and to understand. Better than TALKING and HOPING students “SEE” what you want them to see.

7. Enhancing Learning (cont.) • Increases attention to Latin word order • Increases student attention to Latin text • Allows for student annotation • Allows for student viewing of class annotation outside of class (if work saved)

8. Results (preliminary) • Projecting text and annotating it helps in achieving goal of close reading of text • Steep learning curve for me in learning to use the Interwrite Pad, getting all relevant files onto my school laptop, learning to pack up and operate the school laptop, projector etc. in class

9. Results (cont.) • Have just begun having students use the device – too early to evaluate that other than to say they find it fun • Have not yet used the feature of saving the annotation for later viewing (related to steep learning curve). Hurrying out of classroom for next class leaves little time to save files etc. before packing up…

10. Conclusions • I find the device effective. I will continue to use it. • I need more practice using it and incorporating the student in-class annotation and saving of annotation features. • Learning curve for me much steeper than I expected. Time needed for learning and practicing logistics of equipment considerably greater than expected. • Still feel less than optimally comfortable holding and using the pen.

11. Who could use the Interwrite pad? • Any instructor looking to project text and mark it in class. • Any instructor looking to save in-class annotation for later reference. • Any instructor looking to involve students physically (taking device, writing with it) in in-class annotation. • Any instructor looking to incorporate group in-class annotation (sharing device).

12. Let’s use the Interwrite Pad! • We will look at the beginning of the Daphne and Apollo story in Blackboard. • I will use the pen to: • write, highlight, erase Scribamus! (That’s Latin for “Let’s write!”)

13. Addendum …later on April 8 • After my Tech Thursday presentation, I took the plunge and had EACH student in my class use the Interwrite Pad to answer a question I posed about the text. I should have moved to this stage sooner! EVERYONE was enthusiastic and picked up the technique much more quickly than I had anticipated. I look forward to further development of the collaborative dimension of the device.