Technology & Innovation - Issue 12

understanding. As well as the motorised mounts that met learners where they were, the boards also included ‘fine touch’ technologyintheirdisplays,of the kind that made it easier for learners with limited motor skills to draw, select objects and interact with the board in class, at a level of precision. Some students at the school have compromised immune systems. The boards’ antimicrobial screen surfaces are therefore a useful hygiene feature, both at RainbowHub and indeed for all other schools and public environments. Opening up new avenues To ensure yet more safety, the cable clutter around the boards has been kept to a minimum by equipping each unit with a dedicated slot-in PC. This means that teachers can avoid having to connect their own PC to the board – via an HDMI cable, for example – at the start of each lesson and risk creating a potential trip hazard. Instead, they can simply use the built-in PC already plugged into the side of the board, or else cast content from their laptop or mobile device to the board wirelessly. Each board moreover has its own dedicatedWiFi module, meaning that there’s no longer need for schools to keep wireless routers in every classroom, with yet more cables to have to worry about. Following their installation, the boards soon began to open up new avenues for interaction among staff and students alike. With their lessons having become more interactive and visual than before, learners at the school with profound physical and communication challenges have finally been able to take a fuller, more active part in classroom life, supported by tools that recognise their individual strengths and learning preferences. Yet before the students could get used to the boards, the school’s teachers and volunteers needed to become comfortable with using them first. What they received wasn’t just a demo, however, but rather fully-fledged, in-person training grounded in real-world teaching scenarios. These sessions covered the kinds of situations that teachers could actually expect to run into during classes, rather than dry demonstrations of simply how to log in, or save their whiteboard files. Teachers and volunteers received practical, hands-on training on how to integrate the boards’ interactive tools into daily classroom activities. The teachers also quickly gained confidence in importing images and videos into myViewBoard interactive whiteboard scenes, and with casting content from their mobile devices. Ebb andflow This approach worked. RainbowHub teachers found that they were now equipped to offer differentiated learning with the boards, while the volunteers could be more effective at both the learning and therapy sessions they deliver to the students. Some teachers even become champions for the boards internally, helping others to learn about and use the boards themselves in lessons, creating a positive feedback loop. “ It wasn’t just training on the tool, ” says Berry. “ It’s changed the way we can deliver lessons and include every child in the classroom. ” This happened in no small part because the boards themselves let the teachers record their lessons and document the ebb and flow of their classroom delivery. These lesson recordings could then be turned into reusable resources for helping teachers improve their own practice by spotting areas for improvement, as well as supporting the onboarding of new teachers, therapists and LAs. Instead of simply ‘coping’ with students’ needs, the newly empowered school staff are now co- creating in an entirely new and proactive way. Beyond improvements to learning and pedagogical outcomes, the solution was always intended from the outset to help the school in its wider fundraising efforts. “ We plan to use [the boards] so that visitors can have an oversight of the children they’re helping, ” says Emma Parish, RainbowHub’s corporate relations and event manager. The boards thus occupy pride of place during various school-hosted events, ranging from assemblies to fundraising presentations, as well as during internal training sessions. Throughout the implementation phase, the school found that its teachers were better equipped to teach students than ever before. Soon after, it began taking onmore staff and students, increasing enrolment from six to 36 students – a sixfold increase in a very short amount of time. “ The future of Rainbow Hub School is exciting, ” says Berry. “ It will enhance the wonderful journey that our pupils will experience, but it’s the personalised communication needs, that makes the school so special. ” “It helpedus rethinkhow to teach inclusively” 39 WH O L E S C H O O L teachwire.net