If you have been to an educational technology conference recently, you probably noticed all of the interactive whiteboards. You may even have one in your classroom. How do you use it beyond a simple projection screen and delivery mechanism? How can you use it to change your instruction and to improve student learning?

If you are already familiar using Pixie as a student learning tool, using it for instruction with an interactive whiteboard is easy. Using Pixie on your interactive whiteboard helps you model its effective use to communicate ideas and information. Having students interact on the whiteboard gives them the chance to practice using the tools and locating resources in Pixie before embarking on their own projects.

Assess for Understanding
The easiest way to begin using Pixie on your whiteboard is with an activity. You can use Pixie activities to assess prior knowledge on a topic or assess for understanding after you have completed a unit of study. For example, if you open the Living or Nonliving activity, you can work together as a class to sort the objects into the correct category. Start by asking one student to come up to the board to sort an object into the correct category and then explain his or her choice. A student might respond, “We learned that living things breathe, eat food, and make noise. A dog barks, pants, and eats treats.”

Pixie contains a wealth of activities you can use in this way. You can open a life-cycle activity and have students drag stickers into each box to show the life cycle of an animal and use the text tool to add labels to each stage in the life cycle. Some activities allow for a more open-ended approach. For example, using the Trees in Season activity, you can have students use their hands on the board to paint what a tree looks like in each season.

Build Knowledge as a Class
You can also begin projects from a blank screen. If you are studying insects, work with the entire class to brainstorm and define the characteristics of an insect. Open a blank Pixie document and add a text box. Ask students to think about the characteristics of an insect. You may even want to start by adding a few stickers. The class can participate by adding words to the text box or by drawing several different insects and comparing them.

In a slightly different approach, ask students to list characteristics such as three body parts, six legs, hard exoskeleton, or antennae; add it to the list; and then draw it on the whiteboard. Ask another student for an additional characteristic, add it to the list, and have them draw it on the existing insect. At the end, the entire class will have created a new insect species they can color and give a scientific name. You might even have the class work together to write a descriptive paragraph to introduce this new insect species to the scientific world.

Page 1 , Page 2