The increasing installation of the SMART Boards (electronic interactive whiteboards - IWBs) in education is an issue that cannot be ignored. South Africa is not an exception in this issue. The IWBs are gaining popularity amongst schools and educators in South Africa. With the growing number of users of IWBs in South Africa, this modern technology might have brought challenges and new opportunities to education and instructional methods at all educational levels. The purpose of the study was to investigate the use of the IWBs in the teaching and learning science in high schools. The selected schools use modern technologies that enhance teaching and learning such as the IWBs. This study aimed at developing an understanding of educators’ experiences on the benefits and challenges posed by utilizing the IWBs in their current practice with a view to drawing implications for possible recommendations for this type of technology. The study adopted a qualitative research design and followed case study methodology. It employed qualitative data collection techniques such as semi-structured individual and focus group interviews and classroom observations with purposively selected science educators in two public high schools in the Durban metropolis. The participants were six educators and eight learners from the two schools. It also followed a guided analysis based on the principles of both Connectivism and Engagement theories that informed the study. The findings revealed both benefits and challenges on educators. The most prominent benefits which educators recognized included multimedia features of the IWBs; their capabilities in learning; and their support for different learning styles. Alongside these benefits, educators also perceived challenges which involved low level of educators’ ICT skills related to insufficient professional development and training, and lack of planning. Generally; the study revealed that the IWBs can be generically beneficial tools provided some major problems are rectified. Recommendations relating to these findings are also provided, with an emphasis on technology planning and professional development as prerequisites to proper implementation of the IWBs in schools. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

This research examines hospital length of stay as a feature of contemporary health care reforms. The ideas of Michel Foucault on governmentality enable length of stay to be studied, not as numerical values of hospital use, but rather as one of the social and political processes through which certain concepts are made susceptible to measurement and part of practice. In this study length of stay is examined as a programmatic rationality, evident in the reengineering of the modern hospital. However, the focus of analysis is not the ‘effect’ of this reengineering, as seen in the substantial changes to hospital treatments and the shifting burden of responsibility for health and ill-health care to individuals and communities. Rather, analysis is directed at understanding how such rationalities make possible reengineering or shifts in the local contexts of hospital care practices. (For complete abstract open document)

Master's thesis - - State University of New York College at Cortland, 2007 - - Department of Mathematics. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 27-8).

This report describes a case study, in which the researcher investigated the integration of electronic interactive whiteboards (IWBs) into classrooms at a well-resourced South African high school. Consistent with the findings of other studies conducted to date, learners and teachers at the school generally believe that IWB technology enhances various aspects of the teaching-learning process. The frequency and nature of IWB use across the school was found to vary greatly between subject departments and from one user to the next within subject departments. In comparison to IWB use in schools overseas, as reported in the literature, general IWB utilisation was found to be relatively infrequent and superficial in nature, with only the basic features and capabilities being widely utilised. In terms of the progression models that have been proposed for IWB integration, it appears that, overall, this school has not advanced beyond the initial stage of integration described in each of the respective models. This study attempted to determine why such a well-resourced school has not progressed further with the integration of IWBs in the five years that have passed since IWB technology was first introduced there, in spite of the fact that the teachers appear to recognise the value of the technology and express the desire to improve their use of the IWB. Results suggest that the major factors responsible for retarding progress are inadequate training and the lack of time available for teachers to explore the potential of IWB technology and build up a bank of useful resources. These issues appear to be linked to inadequate research and strategic planning on the part of the school management team. In conclusion, this report proposes a strategy for the integration of information and communications technology (ICT) into South African high schools, with a view to promoting the integration of IWBs in the long term. The essence of the proposal is that teachers should make use of a data projector, which projects its image on to a conventional whiteboard writing surface. This approach would allow teachers to take advantage of the visual features of ICT they most readily recognise as beneficial when they first use IWB technology. The aim of this strategy would be to encourage teachers to improve their ICT skills and grow in confidence in the use of ICT in their lessons, while minimising the cost involved in allowing them to do so. Copyright / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / unrestricted

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Strategies have been put into place to affect improvement in science achievement, including the use of Interactive Whiteboards (IWBs) in science instruction. IWBs enable rich resources, appropriate pacing, and multimodal presentation of content deemed as best practices. Professional development experiences, use of resources, instructional practices, and changes in professional behavior in science teachers were recorded. Also recorded were differences in the engagement and motivation of students in IWB classrooms versus IWB-free classrooms and observed differences in students' problem solving, critical thinking, and collaboration. Using a mixed-method research design quantitative data were collected to identify achievement levels of the target population on the assumption that all students, regardless of ability, will achieve greater mastery of science content in IWB classrooms. Qualitative data were collected through observations, interviews, videotapes, and a survey to identify how IWBs lead to increased achievement in third grade classrooms and to develop a record of teachers' professional practices, and students' measures of engagement and motivation. Comparative techniques determined whether science instruction is more effective in IWB classroom than in IWB-free classrooms. The qualitative findings concluded that, compared to science teachers who work in IWB-free settings, elementary science teachers who used IWBs incorporated more resources to accommodate learning objectives and the varied abilities and learning styles of their students. They assessed student understanding more frequently and perceived their classrooms as more collaborative and interactive. Furthermore, they displayed willingness to pursue professional development and employed different engagement strategies. Finally, teachers who used IWBs supported more instances of critical thinking and problem-solving. Quantitative findings concluded that students of all ability levels were more motivated and engaged in IWB classes. Best practices distilled included combining IWBs with handheld peripherals to maximize assessment; the determination that formal professional development is more effective than peer coaching; that effectively managing an IWB classroom is as vital as learning how to use board itself; and that IWB teachers should be able to modify resources to tailor them for the circumstances of their classroom.

The purpose of this mixed methods study was twofold. First, the study assessed whether Davis’ (1989) Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was useful in predicting instructional usage of the interactive whiteboard (IWB), as reported by K-8 teachers. Second, the study set out to understand what motivated those teachers to use the IWB for classroom instruction, and to further describe the ways in which they used them. Through surveying 155 teachers and 40 administrators of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS) schools, the researcher used multiple regression and moderator analyses to examine whether the TAM model helped explain teachers’ reported teacher-centered and student-centered instructional IWB usage. The researcher followed this by oneon- one interviews with 5 of the teachers surveyed. With the data gathered from the interviews and open-ended items from the original surveys, an analysis using qualitative methods was performed. The results from the qualitative analysis were then used to help refine and explain the quantitative findings. The results of the study’s quantitative phase indicated two variables adapted from the TAM, teachers’ perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of the IWB, contributed to the prediction of teacher-centered instructional usage of the device. Further it was found that the perceived usefulness variable contributed to the prediction of student-centered instructional usage. Moderator analysis indicated the variable for teachers’ IWB technological pedagogical content knowledge, adapted from Mishra and Koehler’s (2006) technological pedagogical content knowledge framework, moderated the relationships between the variable perceived ease of use of the IWB and teacher and student-centered instructional usage respectively, as well as between the variable perceived usefulness of the IWB and teacher-centered instructional usage. The qualitative phase results revealed those teachers surveyed used their IWBs in a variety of ways for both teacher-centered and student-centered instruction. Teachers frequently reported they were motivated to use the device by its overall user-friendliness and its utility as an instructional tool. Central to the teachers’ discussion of its utility were ways in which the tool positively impacted the students during instruction. Specifically how it engaged students by attracting their attention, keeping them focused, and offering them a better way to learn. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

This diploma thesis deals with the use of interactive whiteboards in the second grade primary Cicics lessons. The theoretical part focusees on the general approach to interactive whiteboard and their significance in the Framework Educational Programe; the importance, principle and features of interactive whiteboards. A key part of interaktiv whiteboards is also their technology and available programmes for teaching. Texttbooks are another Essentials part especially in these case so-called interactive textbooks. The practical part analyse the questionnaires which serve to evaluace the importance of interactive teaching, its advantages and disadvantages in teching Civics.

The aim of the offered dissertation is an attempt to create a material for teaching how to solve mathematical word exercises at an elementary school. This document is based on theoretical knowledge. The theoretical part of the dissertation documents the evolution of the mathematics from the antiquity untill these days. Basic information necessary for the development of an interactive textbook is grounded on theoretical findings in interactive boards and word exercises that have been published recently. The educational material was created in the program Activstudio 3 for the boards of the Activboard type and practically tested with the 8th grade students at the Plesivec elementary school. The other aim of this work is to see the response and attitudes of the students toward this kind of classwork, if it can help them to better grasp the word exercises solutions and to provide the teacher a useful tool for their work with an interactive board, since to create such a groundwork for the lessons by themselves can be very demanding on their time needed for the preparation for their lessons.

Digitalization has spread to affect many aspects of our lives but it has yet to fully engage equestrians. Many stables still extensively use the traditional whiteboard in combination with digital technologies. Is it because digital technologies are not designed with the unique needs of an equestrian? Since research in this area is lacking, this study describes the daily conventions around the traditional whiteboard and the complementary use of digital technology, while exploring equestrians’ attitudes toward digitalization. Ethnographic methods of participant observation and group interviews were conducted at two large equestrian centers in Sweden, and the informants were a mix of horse owners, stable owners, stable staff, and riding school students. The results show that whiteboards are used to communicate and collaborative planning, but there is a problem of not noticing new handwritten information. Informants are hesitant toward incorporating new digital technologies because they worry about limitations, and some are content with the current traditional conventions - even if they employ many workarounds to issues related to the traditional way. The study also contributes toward a broader understanding of how future digital technologies can be designed in the unique setting of a stable, and the importance of a thorough understanding of users.