From IWBs to Interactive Worlds: Game - Leading-Our-Way

From IWBs to Interactive Worlds:
Game-Changing Applications
by
Lynell Burmark, Ph.D.
www.educatebetter.org
Adoption process
Like most new technologies introduced into education, in the initial stages Interactive
White Boards (IWBs) were expensive tools used to do the same old things a little
differently, maybe a little faster or a little more efficiently. Think of word processing:
initially, just a way to type where you could use the backspace key to make corrections,
and the font library to create ransom notes and other decorative documents without using
scissors or glue. Or the first encyclopedias on CD-ROMs: just “the latest” linear copies of
the same old texts and reproductions of the same old static, mostly black and white
images. Or the PowerPoint at your last staff meeting: how, instead of reading the printed
Agenda, your boss (or was that you?) read a litany of words projected on the screen.
IWB adoptions have followed the same trajectory: early users posted class schedules,
attendance rosters, lunch menu choices, homework assignments – all those factoids that
are easier to keyboard and project than to scrawl out in big letters on the blackboard.
Good tools, experienced teachers
And then, somewhere along the line, the classroom teachers who initially resisted giving
up their treasured chalkboard space for these interactive whiteboards began to see the
power of this new technology. Teachers found that using the boards attracted students’
attention and improved their engagement “with even the most tedious content.”1 The
mere act of putting anything on the board – particularly if there was some kind of color,
image or animation – drew the students to it like a magnet.
Most recently, as Robert Marzano has pointed out in his highly touted report2 on the
value of IWBs in the classroom, it has been established that integrating whiteboard
lessons can raise student achievement an average of 17 percent – if a teacher has ten or
more years of teaching experience, has been using the technology for two or more years,
has high confidence in his or her ability to use the IWB lessons, and uses the board 75 to
80 percent of the time in the classroom.
In other words, IWB manufacturers cannot guarantee that just nailing their board to the
classroom wall will raise test scores or catapult students’ ability to transfer learning. For
that we need confident, experienced, trained teachers. And by training we do not mean a
two-hour vendor in-service on how to install and operate the projector and the board; we
mean at least two years of ongoing opportunities to apply research and integrate best
instructional practices with this new technology.
© 2010. Lynell Burmark
Page 1 of 13
Research into practice
Let’s take a brief look at some of the most widely known bodies of research and pause to
enjoy a few creative applications of that research by exemplary educators as they deploy
good pedagogy and good technology to inspire and engage learners in their classrooms.
Marzano: Similarities & Differences
Before he conducted the research study on IWBs, of course, Robert Marzano was a
household (or at least a classroom) name because of his classic research identifying nine
categories of instructional strategies that are most likely to improve student achievement
across all content areas and grade levels. (These strategies are explained in the book
Classroom Instruction That Works3 by Robert Marzano, Debra Pickering, and Jane
Pollock, published by ASCD in 2001.)
Even a non-statistician can quickly observe that the most effective strategy is at the top of
the chart: “Identifying similarities and differences.” Traditional PowerPoint slideshows
have not been the best means of supporting this strategy because they display images one
slide after another rather than placing them side-by-side, which would have required
using two projectors and two screens. (I’ll never forget the look on one tech director’s
face when he had just finished installing 2000+ Epson LCD projectors and I told him he
needed a second one in every classroom!) Fortunately, before he started down that path,
Epson introduced its new line of WXGA projectors. Instead of the old XGA resolution
(1024 pixels wide by 768 pixels high, in the 4:3 aspect ratio of our traditional television
sets), WXGA projected images are 1280 pixels wide by 800 pixels high (in the 16:10
aspect ratio of HDTV).
© 2010. Lynell Burmark
Page 2 of 13
With 30% more screen real estate, you can juxtapose images side-by-side, project Venn
diagrams, and plug items into classification charts. Art teachers love the option of
comparing two paintings (e.g., same artist, different period in life; two different artists,
same location or subject depicted); science teachers love software that supports dragging
items into appropriate circles and boxes.
Of course, some new concepts – even though rendered visually and executed physically
on the IWBs – can still be a bit abstract for students to comprehend on a flat screen. To
teach classification, middle school science teacher Tanisha Brooks at Oliver Wendell
Holmes Foundation Academy in Flint, Michigan, takes her students out on the concrete
cement playground where she draws a 20-foot wide Venn diagram with two overlapping
circles. Visually surveying her female students (for whom the daily “outfit” is a huge
deal), she comes up with labels for the two outer circles (e.g., leggings, and pink tops)
and then has her male students direct the girls where to stand. (Girls wearing leggings
AND pink tops would be in the overlapping center part of the circle.) After a couple of
rounds of this concrete game, the subsequent, indoor, more abstract science classification
Venn diagram becomes a no-brainer.
Mayer: Modality Principle
Widely cited by most of the world’s presentation gurus, Richard E. Mayer, Professor of
Psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), is the author of
Multimedia Learning,4 published by Cambridge University Press in 2001 and updated in
Multimedia Learning, Second Edition,5 released in 2009. Mayer’s extensive research
documents much of what educators already intuited in their “teacher guts,” and gives
enough evidence of the potential for projectors to put a smile on the face of every
projector vendor on the planet. I would like to take Mayer’s entire book and match each
point with resources, specific lessons and strategies for multimedia instruction in the
classroom (much like Howard Pitler did with Marzano’s work in Pitler’s 2007 ASCD
publication: Using Technology with Classroom Instruction That Works).But, for the
moment, I will focus on the modality effect, because if instructors and curriculum
developers applied just that one principle they could revolutionize our educational
system. Simply stated: “Students who receive a multimedia lesson will perform better on
a problem-solving transfer test when the words are presented as spoken text rather than as
printed text.” After reading Mayer’s 2001 publication, I created the following chart to
present this finding to educators:
© 2010. Lynell Burmark
Page 3 of 13
By using narration/voiceovers rather than written text to accompany an image, recall and
retention (i.e., test scores) increase 42% and the ability to apply learning to new problemsolving situations goes up 89%! What school district wouldn’t want to see its test scores
boosted 42%? What teacher wouldn’t want to see actual learning increase 89%?
How do we translate this into classroom practice? Instead of reading screen after screen
of PowerPoint text (which Mayer has shown to actually decrease retention), we fill the
screen with full-color, photographic images, animations and/or videos; we use the voice
and/or music to narrate (to the audio processing channel) what the eyes are seeing (in the
visual processing channel). The brain quickly accesses prior knowledge, decides which
words to “Velcro” to the image, and then saves the package to long-term memory.
This “modality principle” can inform the way teachers introduce new information; it can
also be the rationale for designing a variety of activities, including what I call the
“Progressive Story.” Using a slideshow of full-screen photographic images (4-20 images
depending on the age of the students, the complexity of the topic, and the time allocated
for the activity), the teacher divides the class into groups of three. Each group receives a
small, soft ball (commonly referred to as koosh balls). The person chosen to start begins
the story by telling something about the first image on the screen. That person then tosses
the koosh ball to another person in the group who continues the story by narrating the
next slide. And so on.
An interesting application of the progressive story is implemented by middle school
language arts teacher Yolanda Jackson at Oliver Wendell Holmes Foundation Academy
in Flint, Michigan. Rather than lecturing her students about making good choices,
Yolanda put them in groups of three and then had them create a progressive story to
narrate the following images:
1. School
2. Two girlfriends sneaking out
3. Burger joint
4. Wallet with only $2
5. Cheeseburger and fries
6. Clothing store
7. Girl stealing perfume
© 2010. Lynell Burmark
Page 4 of 13
8. Juvenile detention center
8. Girl leaving perfume in shoe department
9. Security guard
10. Empty purse, smiling girl
11. Two girls leaving store
12. Two girls back at school
Of course, the two girls who had posed for the series of photographic images were
already in on a possible story line!
.
Burmark: First, the images
In the eBook update (available from www.educatebetter.org) of my award-winning
ASCD print book, Visual Literacy: Learn to See, See to Learn,6 I share a revolutionary
insight: “Words can only recall images we have already seen.” To bring the point home,
try this activity:
1. First, on the left-hand side of your whiteboard, write or project the word, “cat.”
Ask the students or audience members to draw a picture of what that word
represents. Then invite one volunteer up to draw the image on the right-hand side
of the whiteboard for the whole group to see. Comment on the pointy ears, the
whiskers, and (if shown), the tail and the paws. After a round of applause, the
artist-volunteer may go back to his or her seat.
2. Next, on the left-hand side of the whiteboard, project the word, “okapi.” Invite a
volunteer up to draw that image. Why is that more difficult? Why doesn’t the
word bring a picture to your mind’s eye? How many of you have seen an okapi?
(Check it out on wikipedia. It’s a cross between a zebra and a giraffe. You have to
see it to believe it!)
Both teachers I interviewed from Oliver Wendell Holmes Foundation Academy found
ways to implement this strategy in teaching vocabulary:
Working with the inner city kids in her middle school English classroom, Yolanda
Jackson frequently came up with words for which her students drew a complete
blank. One such word was “gait.” Yolanda had told me she often used movie clips
to introduce new material and create shared experience in the classroom. When
she said “gait,” I immediately flashed back 1977, to the opening credits of
Saturday Night Fever, where John Travolta was strutting his stuff with an
amazing gait, as the Bee Gees sang: “Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk,
I’m a woman’s man: no time to talk….” Of course, today’s students weren’t even
born when that film came out, but that music and that “gait” are timelessly
infectious. (And you can easily find the clip on YouTube.) Once that example was
shared, Yolanda could ask the kids to think about other distinctive gaits they
might have observed in real life, on television, or in a movie: e.g., a toddler
learning to walk, a model in spike heels on a catwalk, an elderly grandfather
shuffling along, bending his wearied torso over a walker, etc.
© 2010. Lynell Burmark
Page 5 of 13
In preparing her science and math students to take tests where they would have to
understand directions like “Justify,” Tanisha Brooks resorted to dancing out the
words to a rap song all her students would recognize immediately. Tanisha
assured me I would not want to know the rest of the song’s lyrics, just that they
ask a guy with a handsome face to “back it up.” First the image of the words
“back it up” flashing on the screen as the “movie” of the handsome guy backing it
up rolls in your mind’s eye, then a morph to the new word “Justify” – oh, yeah,
we get it now!
Medina: Visual, Multi-sensory, Engaging
University of Washington professor of cognitive psychology, John Medina, has written
one of the most informative, fun-to-read books of the century: Brain Rules: 12 Principles
for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School. Every principle could be applied
to increasing the effectiveness of projectors and IWBs, but I’ve selected just three to
illustrate here.
• Rule #10: Vision trumps all other senses.
Certainly, a huge part of why the IWBs have been so successful is the same reason for
the popularity of LCD projectors: whatever image teachers (or student presenters) need,
they can bring it into the classroom – in full color, vivid detail, and, in most cases, for
free or as part of a subscription license (like Discovery Education) that the district has
already paid for. We know our students learn and remember best when the instruction is
delivered visually, and research has told us that images (unlike words) go to long-term
memory.
One practice I’ve been advocating now for over a decade is to have an anchor image
projected when students arrive in class. Let’s say you were going to discuss seasons.
There could be an image of a maple tree… in winter. Once the students were
comfortably settled in, the image could morph to that same tree… in spring… in
summer… in fall. With the glorious autumn colors displayed, the teacher could ask
students to discuss in small groups what was going on with that tree! Then, perhaps
with all four seasons of the tree displayed in quadrants on the same screen, a whole
class discussion could ensue about seasons. Once their prior knowledge was tapped and
shared, the lesson could cut to a clip from a wonderful video like the Four Seasons
(complete with music from Vivaldi, of course) from 100% Educational Videos.
www.schoolvideos.com
• Rule #9: Stimulate more of the senses at the same time.
Our senses work together – which means that we learn best if we stimulate several
senses at once. Activating the sense of touch by dragging objects around (via pen or
finger) on the whiteboard adds not only to the level of engagement but also to the
power of retention.
According to Medina, “Smells have an unusual power to bring back memories, maybe
because smell signals bypass the thalamus and head straight to their destinations, which
include that supervisor of emotions known as the amygdala.” So, if you are showing
© 2010. Lynell Burmark
Page 6 of 13
movies on the projector or whiteboard, make sure to serve popcorn. Moviegoers who
eat popcorn during the show will remember 10 – 50% more when quizzed after the film
if they are eating popcorn during the quiz!
• Rule #4: We don’t pay attention to boring things.
And, after 10 minutes, anything and everything is boring. Professor Medina has found
that even college students start losing attention after ten minutes of lecture. Nobody
knows why. The speculation is that somehow the interval is wired into our genes.
We need to program, religiously, into our presentations and into our instructional days,
the formula of 10:2. Ten minutes of stimulating, scintillating, engaging lecture followed
by a two-minute shift to active participation by the audience or class members. In
Maïda Cárdenas’ first-grade classroom at Grimmer Elementary School (Fremont,
California), for example, students apply the last ten minutes of teacher-driven content
by pausing for two minutes to discuss it with a partner. The beauty of the Grimmer
practice, in my opinion, is that they not only change the pace to refocus kids after ten
minutes, but they also take that opportunity to give the students a chance to relate the
content to the reality of their own special worlds.
Think different.
What we’ve discussed above, exciting and productive as it may be, still largely represents
incremental change – most of which could be done with a good WXGA projector,
without even having an IWB. We have taken the research and especially the documented
power of images and visual learning into consideration and we are thinking differently
about the way we teach and engage learners.
But I think we are ready for more. I believe we are ready to “think different,” as the term
was coined by Apple Computer’s awesome advertising campaign8 launched back in
1997. Apple computers were forever linked in our minds with famous people who didn’t
just think a little differently, but who invented totally original, breakthrough, different
things.
© 2010. Lynell Burmark
Page 7 of 13
Apple plastered individual posters everywhere. In addition, they aired a one-minute
television commercial, featuring black and white video footage of significant historical
figures including Albert Einstein, Bob Dylan, Martin Luther King, Jr., Richard Branson,
John Lennon (with Yoko Ono), R. Buckminster Fuller, Thomas Edison, Muhammad Ali,
Ted Turner, Maria Callas, Mahatma Gandhi, Amelia Earhart, Alfred Hitchcock, Martha
Graham, Jim Henson (with Kermit the Frog), Frank Lloyd Wright and Pablo Picasso, and
narrated with a voiceover by Richard Dreyfuss:
“ Here’s to the crazy ones…. The round pegs in the square holes. The
ones who see things differently.
You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them,
glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore
them. Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They
heal. They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human
race forward.
Maybe they have to be crazy. How else can you stare at an empty
canvas and see a work of art? Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s
never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on
wheels?
While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the
people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are
the ones who do.”
I believe that’s where educators are today with presentations and instruction, projectors
and IWBs. We have embraced multimedia and by-and-large replaced clip art and bulleted
text with full-color photographs, full-motion video, voice-over narration and music that
inspires as it entrains.
© 2010. Lynell Burmark
Page 8 of 13
But while we were embedding video clips in our PowerPoints, the world has moved on.
In case you missed it, multimedia has been replaced by “transmedia” where the viewers
become part of the action. In 2008, Warner Brothers partnered with Big Fantastic to
create its first original web series: Sorority Forever. In addition to the episodes, a fully
interactive metaverse was created and produced to provide an immersive, transmedia
experience, with almost limitless entry points into the story, inviting viewers to interact
with characters in real time using MySpace, Twitter, and other Internet platforms.
Can our classrooms simulate “the hottest sorority on campus,” or compete with the sex,
drama, and beautiful people (or the excitement of the terrifying secret that lurks around
every corner of the Phi Chi House)? Probably not. At least probably not the content.
But we need to start thinking how we can simulate the transmedia and social media
aspects of the experience. In Datacloud,9 author Johndan Johnson-Eilola asserts that with
IWBs we are “attempting to understand how users can exist within information spaces
rather than merely gaze at them, and how information spaces must be shared with others
rather than being private, lived in rather than simply visited.” He supports the boards as
spaces where students can engage in active collaboration and “bodied” (direct
manipulation) experiences.
In the movie theater, have you ever fantasized about walking into the screen and becoming
part of the action? Like Alice stepping through the looking glass into an alternative world?
The technology is not quite there yet with the IWBs, so it’s probably still not a good idea to
encourage students to walk into the boards. But what we can do is to interact with what’s
being projected. Have a look at Lasse Gjertsen’s Amateur video on YouTube where he’s
playing both drums and piano! There’s a whole world of possibilities for synchronous and
asynchronous musical groups. Project a recorded video performance and have your
students set up their instruments on either side of the screen and join the jamming session.
Or, for the ultimate thrill, have students tap into a band using Stickam to stream live from
their recording studio. (Christian hard rock band Underoath used Stickam for two months
while recording their album, Lost in the Sound of Separation, and racked up over 1.8
million live views.)
Assign students a “set” to create, the way they would for a theater performance, except that
this one would be digital with projected (stills) and/or rolling (video) as a backdrop for live
student actors and actresses at the front of the “stage.” Think of a French class where a
passionate dialog could have a real café on Les Champs-Elysées as a backdrop. Or a
Spanish class where a couple of students could follow the teacher’s commands for dance
moves in the courtyard of a gorgeous hacienda awash with bougainvillea. Or what about
remixing the content of any unit of study into a song and creating a video backdrop to
perform that song live for the rest of the class? What could the students learn designing the
“sets”? How much more engaged would they be as reconstructed their knowledge in these
digital worlds?
With Internet connections in our classrooms, teachers and students could access Google
Earth and transform great works of literature into literal trips they could map out and
© 2010. Lynell Burmark
Page 9 of 13
follow. (Download Jerome Burg’s Grapes of Wrath GoogleLit Trip as a stellar example.
www.googlelittrips.org) Using the overlay writing pens, students could trace the journey
of the Joad family, while twittering their own ideas about journeys from poverty to hope.
Think about projecting whole new genres of software that invite the user to participate and
direct their flow. Check out Soy Tu Aire…. Pintando una Canción. Listen to this incredible,
evocative song and watch the wonderful music video that accompanies it. Then interact with
the narrative of the song, by going to Labuat. Make sure you move your cursor like a paint
brush across the screen as the song crosses the space and takes its emotional journey with
you, allowing you to connect with the piece as an art form. Immerse yourself in it. As you
interact, your own expressive journey is recorded, each person unique and different. And
then you can send your recording to your friends. This is truly inspired. Read about it on
Angela Thomas’ website: http://angelaathomas.com/2009/03/29/soy-tu-aire-i-am-your-air/
Warning: The lyrics are not suitable for K-12 students, but educators should experience this
love song and keep their antennae up for classroom-appropriate materials in this genre.
***
So, back to the beginning of this conversation, where we asked ourselves whether we
were making optimal use of these IWBs, these expensive pieces of equipment. Hopefully,
we have shown that these interactive projection technologies are absolutely necessary for
reaching and teaching the “multimedia” let alone the “transmedia” generation.
Secondly, thousands and thousands of the IWBs are already paid for, already installed in
classrooms, and significant time and effort has already been expended to train teachers to
optimize use of the education-related software that IWB manufacturers have developed to
increase the value of their products. (Teachers have already gone past that two-year
learning curve that Marzano prescribes to actually translate into significant gains in
student achievement.)
Convinced? Need more boards?
50% price drop
Schools who need more IWBs (who still don’t have one, or understand the power of
using more than one in every classroom) can now purchase the biggest size (96-inch
diagonal) for well under $2000 per classroom! How is this possible?
Two in one
Effective March 1, 2010 there’s a game-changing player in the Interactive Whiteboard
market: the Epson 450Wi. By building the brains for interactivity into the LCD projector
and the two digital infrared pens, Epson has eliminated the constraints and expense of the
board! Anything your computer, DVD player or document camera can project through
the LCD projector, you can control (like with a wireless mouse) or annotate (like with the
weatherperson’s telestrator) with the rugged, battery-operated pens. And the image can
be projected on any surface!
© 2010. Lynell Burmark
Page 10 of 13
Really, any surface?
Theoretically, you can project from the Brightlink onto any surface. Realistically, a lightcolored (to not black out the images) and smooth (for the pens to glide over) surface
would be best. If you already have a traditional (not interactive) whiteboard, you’re ready
to roll. If you want a bigger image (no extra cost for the 96-inch diagonal), you can take a
tip from the burgeoning home theater business and just paint a screen on any smooth
surface: drywall, light wood paneling, or even your old chalkboard. (Visit
www.gooscreen.com for all kinds of tips and tricks and to learn why a slightly gray
screen may actually give you better image contrast than a stark white whiteboard.)
No budget for paint? Watch the hilarious YouTube video of beloved educator Hall
Davidson showing Discovery Education videos on four pieces of styrofoam he was
strapping together with duct tape! (Hall Davidson demos Epson BrightLink 450W •
Recorded on January 13, 2010 at the Florida Educational Technology Conference)
How far can you “throw”?
In the olden days (maybe 5-10 years ago), most projectors had flexible lenses with
medium to long throw. (You would place the projector as far back in the room as
necessary to get an image big enough to fill the screen). You still see long-throw
projectors in permanent ceiling installations in church sanctuaries, hotel ballrooms,
theaters, and some (wealthier) school auditoriums.
Lately, we have seen a lot of short-throw projectors, like the ones hanging on “arms”
that protrude from IWBs. Although those arms are good things in that they get the
projector up off a cart and avoid pesky and potentially expensive ceiling installations,
they don’t solve the problem that anyone or anything between the projector and the wall
gets its shadow projected on the board.
(Sometimes, I think the kids want to come up to the board just to see their shadow!
Admit it, some of you remember making hand puppet shadows with technology from the
last century. Kids will always be kids….)
© 2010. Lynell Burmark
Page 11 of 13
The time has come for ultra-short-throw projection! Start looking for projectors that are
mounted to the wall (gone are the Star Wars-like arms) with the image projected at a
much steeper angle (think almost down the wall rather than at it), reducing not only the
dark shadows but also the glaring “hot” spots on the projection screen. And you get a big,
bright image from a very short distance – great for tight spaces, crowded classrooms, and
light-sensitive environments.
How bright can it get?
I love explaining to teachers that one lumen represents the light of one candle. So, when
we have an LCD projector with 2500 lumens it’s like one of those big old European
cathedrals with every possible candle lit. How could we not get our message through with
that many candles burning for it!
Still, no matter how many lumens, we always want to avoid having a fluorescent light
right above the space where we’ll project our image, because fluorescent lighting will
wash out any image. (Think about it. How many fluorescent lights do you see in those
cathedrals?) Fortunately, by now, even though most school architects and facilities
planners remain clueless, most teachers have figured out how to make friends with the
custodian and/or unscrew those tube lights themselves.
How ’bout those lemons?
I’ve started doing a workshop called “The Straight Scoop on Projectors and
Presentations.” (See Presentations on my website: www.educatebetter.org) In the session,
I define terms and explain what educators need to ask for in an LCD projector:
• WXGA resolution so we get the wide screen we need for the space
to compare and contrast;
• >2500 lumens so we don’t need to turn the lights off, and
• breathtaking image color/quality.
For the image quality, I suggest two tests: First, show a full-color, full-motion video that
you plan to use and see how the projector displays it. Second, put together a short
slideshow with full-screen photographic images, pre-sized in Photoshop to 1280 pixels
wide by 800 pixels high, 72 dots per inch. Make sure the photo selection includes closeups of faces in a variety of skin tones, images you know you’d like to use, and at least
one good lemon. If the projector turns your brown eyes blue, or your yellow lemons
chartreuse, it’s the wrong projector. My favorite lemon picture is “lemonpie” posted on
www.flickr.com on October 9, 2006 by beta karel. All sizes of this photo are available for
download under a Creative Commons license. If you’d like a copy of other images I’ve
collected to test for image quality, see “The Straight Scoop” article on my website.
(Go to www.educatebetter.org and click on FREE RESOURCES, then FREE
ARTICLES.)
© 2010. Lynell Burmark
Page 12 of 13
***
My first LCD projector was actually an LCD panel that used an overhead projector as its
light source. It had two colors – purple and white – and cost $3,500. I helped design the
tablet and pen that plugged into the panel and gave teachers overlay writing capability.
That was twenty years ago. You can understand why I cried when I saw the BrightLink
450Wi. The technology finally caught up with (and even exceeded) my dreams.
So, to all of you crazies. You round pegs in the square classrooms. You who invent and
inspire. You who believe the educational system is here to serve kids and not the other
way around. Seize these marvelous tools. Use them to transform the walls of your
classrooms from prison bars to windowpanes. Take kids to see places they’ve never been
so they can dream dreams they would have not otherwise imagined. Put the digital pens
in their hands. Make sure they all can write: Think different. Then let them astound you
with what they create.
NOTES:
1. Joy Maine, art teacher at Chestertown Middle School, Kent County School
District, Chestertown, Maryland.
2. Marzano, Robert and Haystead, Mark, “Evaluation Study of the Effects of
Promethean ActivClassroom on Student Achievement.” The full report and/or an
executive summary may be downloaded from www.prometheanworld.com.
3. Marzano, Robert, Pickering, Debra, and Pollock, Jane, Classroom Instruction
That Works, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development,
Alexandria, VA, 2001.
4. Mayer, Richard E., Multimedia Learning, Cambridge University Press, New
York, NY, 2001.
5. Mayer, Richard E., Multimedia Learning, Second Edition, Cambridge University
Press, New York, NY, 2009.
6. Burmark, Lynell, Visual Literacy: Learn to See, See to Learn, Association for
Supervision and Curriculum Development, Alexandria, VA, 2001, 2005.
7. Medina, John, Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work,
Home, and School, Pear Press, Seattle, WA, 2008.
8. Think different, many resources and articles online about the campaign. Be sure
to view the one-minute commercial, narrated by Richard Dreyfuss:
www.uriahcarpenter.info/think-different-one.html
9. Johnson-Eilola, Johndan, Datacloud: Toward a New Theory of Online Work,
Hampton Press, Inc., Cresskill, NJ, 2005.
© 2010. Lynell Burmark
Page 13 of 13