From transmission to transformative learning: How elementary teachers use the interactive board to transform the teaching and learning process

Interactive boards have slowly entered the k-12 environment since 1996 when the boards first started appearing in classrooms. Certain tools that appear in the classroom have the potential to be transformative. The emergence of tools that display text, still images, and video changed the way information was displayed. These tools anchored the transmission model of teaching and learning. The chalkboard was used to display small or large amounts of text while overhead projectors facilitated the viewing of figures such as graphs and tables. Television and the vcr allowed teachers to show content based movies.;The interactive board is a different tool compared to the aforementioned tools. The interactive board is an amalgamation of these tools and it provides interactivity. Interactivity means that teachers and students can experience content in new ways. During a lesson, both the teacher and students interact with the content. The former tools could only be used to display information. Using the interactive board, information can be presented and manipulated, thus creating an interactive learning environment. Interactive learning environments allow students to construct knowledge through content interaction.;This study complements the literature on interactive boards in the classroom by exploring the ways in which elementary teachers use interactive boards. Use of the boards promotes transformation of the teacher, the student, and the learning environment. Understanding how teachers diffuse the technology, create meanings for the technology, and use particular learning theories is important because the interactive board provides the potential for teachers to change the way teaching and learning occurs in the classroom. Each participant was observed and interviewed to obtain information about how the boards were used. The data was presented through vignettes and digital images. Analysis was conducted to determine the patterns of use by the teachers. A cross case analysis was also conducted to show similarities and differences of the teachers' use of the interactive board.;The findings suggested that the teachers' use of interactive boards promotes many transformative factors including teacher metacognition and student interactivity. From this study, it was concluded that the interactive board is a transformative tool when it is used appropriately.