BSU EDTECH Student Blog

Evaluating the Wii Remote Interactive Whiteboard

My goal is to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of a Wii Remote Interactive WhiteBoard (WRIWB) system in facilitating interactivity in the classroom.  The WRIWB is a low-cost alternative to significantly more expensive proprietary interactive whiteboards. The interactivity examined includes student interaction with learning materials and student interactions with each other and with the teacher.  The questions asked regarding efficiency will determine whether teachers’ time required to install and set up the jury-rigged system is warranted and whether the time necessary to learn to use the technical aspects of the system is justified. The effectiveness of the technical merit of the system will be answered by questions about the ability of teachers and students to interact with learning materials presented on the WRIWB using two different infrared pen devices.  Questions are also asked to assess meaningful social interaction that can be facilitated when teachers and students use the WRIWB.

The data is being collected by interviewing teachers who have installed the system as part of this project and by observing teachers and students during lessons in which the WRIWB is used. I observed a lesson today and must say it was gratifying to see the students get excited when the teacher informed them he was going to conduct a lesson using the WRIWB. One student leaned over to me and said, “we love this thing!”

As part of this project, I have read several studies on the impact of interactive whiteboards. To my surprise, despite positive reviews by teachers and students and wide-scale adoption of interactive whiteboards by many schools, scientific evidence of improved learning outcomes is limited. The studies suggest that interactive whiteboards offer learning benefits through increased interactivity and through the use of multimedia learning materials. However, teachers must use the technology effectively  to bring about increased academic gains of their students.

I am still in the process of collecting data. Nevertheless, the major work to be done on this project is to formally analyze the data and complete the evaluation report.