Small Class Interactive Whiteboard Teaching Environment

In the context of Chinese education, classroom instruction in schools, especially in primary and secondary schools, will exist for a long time in predictable future. The information age sets new requests onto education. The traditional classroom instruction has been frequently criticized because of its inherent weakness. Information technology is taken for a breach of reform to improve the classroom instruction. At present, the integration of the information technology into curricula is a hotspot which education researchers and teachers concern much in the elementary education stage. But how can information technology truly enter the normal process of teaching and learning in classroom? This question is what we really care and want to solve urgently.The use of interactive whiteboard represents a possible solution for the realistic question. Based upon the conclusions from related studies within the country and abroad, the paper focus on how can interactive whiteboard improve the teaching and learning in the small-class instruction that is increasingly adopted in China.The conclusions and viewpoints addressed in the paper are as follows. (1) The methods using the interactive whiteboard in the class are much close to teachers' originally accustomed approaches, and thus fits for teachers and normally daily classroom instruction. (2) The interactive whiteboard has the advantages both of traditional classroom instruction and information technology. And it can support the interaction in classroom instruction. (3) As a tool of information technology, interactive whiteboard can provide a digital convergence learning environment and many kinds of "affordances" for learning. (4) The small-class instruction which widely develops is a suitable environment to interactive whiteboard. (5) Teachers in small class must choose appropriate teaching method, reasonably establish the classroom environment, emphasize the design of learning resource (thematic resource) and instructional model (synergistic learning model). (6) At present, the interactive whiteboard still has some drawbacks in the use of classroom teaching, which are waiting for us to overcome.