Smart boards should be utilised as interactive pedagogical tools — such as for demonstrating the human respiratory system, taking virtual field trips to London’s Baker Street, or playing nursery rhymes — rather than as a distraction to keep students quiet while teachers attend to other tasks.
The screen is to be used as an “active learning tool” and not as a passive pacifier, they said.
Interactive smart boards have become a staple in modern classrooms, transforming traditional instruction through digital engagement. Through these interactive features, schools can provide students with digital access to curriculum materials, effectively reducing the need for children to carry heavy physical textbooks to class.
The textbooks can be referred to at home, the schools said.
However, some teachers use the boards just like parents use their mobile phones to pacify a child.
“We tell teachers to use the smart boards in a way that would make the text interesting and help children relate to what they are learning. For example, while teaching about flowers, it’s better to show the kids the flower market in Howrah rather than the tulip festival in Denmark. It not only makes the text interesting, but also helps the children relate to their surroundings,” said Nupur Ghosh, the vice-principal of Mahadevi Birla World Academy.
Suman Sood, the director of BD Memorial Junior School, expressed the same concern.
“Smart boards cannot be used as passive learning tools where the children are watching the screen while the teacher is busy doing her work. When they are passive watchers, children are not present in the environment and dissociate themselves from their surroundings,” she said.
Educators emphasise that nursery rhymes should be interactive group activities where children actively repeat actions to maximise developmental benefits.
The screen is often used as a baby sitter at home. In one school, a four-year-old started throwing a tantrum when he saw the teacher’s mobile phone on the table, and he wanted it.
Most schools discourage teachers from carrying mobile phones to classrooms or browsing the Internet in front of children.
“If the teacher has to show something to the children on the screen, it has to be pre-decided. She cannot be browsing in front of the children,” said Mayurika Basu, a director of Shemrock Chrysalis, a preschool.
Some suggested that teachers can do better than showing everyday objects on screen.
Showing a bird taking flight, a leaf in the garden, or an animal in the zoo is much better than showing the same on the screen, said Sanjana Vakharia, the director of Mongrace Montessori House.
“If we allow children to play with blocks, pebbles, or mud and water, they would learn more because they are making, breaking, throwing, and dismantling things instead of seeing the same thing on the screen,” said Vakharia.
The screen can dull the imagination if not used judiciously.
“The teaching-learning process can become superficial, too,” said Vakharia.
Several schools conceded that teachers run out of ideas because they are “so screen-driven”.
“If they have to prepare a board on wild animals, we’d want them to work on their own ideas and not replicate what is available online,” said Basu.