By Paul Hemsley
Following the Western Australian Government’s program to install interactive whiteboards in school classrooms, it will be up to the schools to select their own vendor.
The WA Government will fund $4 million to 124 schools over the next two years to install the interactive whiteboards, where 33 will be in the first round.
No one particular brand for the whiteboard technology has been selected by the state government, rather schools will need to select a preferred brand from a list of approved providers from the Department of Education and abide by state government procurement rules.
Minister for Education, Elizabeth Constable said the technology is “revolutionising” teaching, as students and teachers can physically interact with education software programs on a large whiteboard screen.
According to Ms Constable, a total of 242 schools will have benefited from the program once these schools have received the assistive technology.
Schools making submissions for the final round of funding for interactive whiteboards will be called for this month.
Westfield Park Primary School principal Steve Soames said the benefit of interactive whiteboards is the way they appeal to the whole class because students focus on them.
“In areas such as numeracy and literacy, often there are different routes to an answer and students are happy to use the whiteboards to show how they came to their conclusions,” Mr Soames said.
The whiteboard connects to a computer and a projector by a USB cable or wirelessly via Bluetooth, simulating a computer mouse and keyboard operated by a specialized pen or by finger touch.
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