The following observations come from a over a decade of consultancy work in ICT and education, reinforced and elaborated upon by IWBNet's now extensive research and global interaction on the whole of school take up of IWBs.

IWBNet is very conscious of the rapidly changing and ever–evolving nature of this area but believes these are pointers that bear consideration in every implementation strategy and plan.

All should be read in association with the school effectiveness findings and the change management lessons and the necessity of shaping your interactive whiteboard implementation strategy as part of the total school development strategy.

All aspects are elaborated upon in IWBNet's School Leaders IWB Guide.

Role of the Principal

As the school effectiveness literature attests, your role as principal is central to the success of any whole of school interactive whiteboard initiative.

You can’t delegate this role.

The principal must be to the fore in proclaiming the virtues of the boards – and when underway – their success.

Do your homework on the potential of the boards and keep your self abreast of the research.

Be the mentor, the supporter, the confidante, the critical friend, when required the provider of those extra monies and most importantly the person who takes the group over the inevitable hurdles.

Without your active involvement there simply will not be a whole of school take up.

Be very conscious of the facility the interactive whiteboards provide for a graduated take up, that allows each teacher to move to the next stage when they feel confident. You know how they feel about uncertainty.

Set your expectations high.

When you’ve achieved whole of school embracement, expect the staff to continue seeking to harness the immense potential of the technology.

A ‘Chief Information Officer’

You will need – except in a very small school - a high-level staff member with a macro understanding of the role of ICT in education who can oversee the implementation of the school’s whiteboard strategy.

Invariably you won’t have time.

That role is fleshed out in several articles Lee, Gaffney and Schiller prepared for the Australian Council for Educational Leaders. There are copies in The Publications.

In essence you need a ‘chief information officer – a CIO’. The person must be an educator not a technical manager.

It could be a deputy, a leading teacher, a director of information services, but whoever it is you need a ‘project manager'.

The role is critical. Who will it be?

Ensure the person has the time and support to undertake the job.

Working in Unchartered Waters

Appreciate that much of the time you’ll be taking the school through unchartered, uncertain and indeed ever changing waters. While there is now a growing awareness of the key navigation guides there still will be times when you will have to move into the unknown.

Learn to live with that glorious uncertainty, the opportunities provided and the probable need to occasionally take the ship off the sand.

The following guideposts should help your passage.

Have a hands-on appreciation of what can be done with the technology.

Most of the IWB software can be downloaded on to a Mac or PC free of charge.

Words cannot adequately describe the immense potential of IWBs. You have to see them in use with a quality teacher and ideally you should also try them yourself.

Monitor the research. Much is happening at speed. IWBNet aims to make it easier for you by providing free of charge, a regular emailed newsletter that covers that research.

Recognise every school’s whiteboard implementation strategy will be distinct.

Appreciate your school’s strategy will evolve almost by the month. Watch for the subtle shifts. Use your helicopter view to help give direction.

Network

Listen to what other school leaders implementing a whiteboard strategy are saying.

Implement a Complete Solution - Don't Just Acquire IWBs

The mere acquisition of interactive whiteboards will not change your situation one iota. It is their successful use in a total solution that will make the difference.

Reject the requests to acquire an X or Y board. Harness the enthusiasm and ask the proponents to indicate how the school is going to achieve total school take up.

The Key is Skilful Teachers – Harnessing the IWBs

The full educational potential of interactive whiteboards will only be realised by highly skilful teachers. They are the key, the differentiator - the technology is not.

Any implementation strategy needs to recognise that centrality.

Integrating the Whole

This is the hard part. This is what will make or break the whole of school take up.

If you want the total school community, all the students, teachers and parents, to embrace the use of ICT in all areas of learning, the use of the technology has to become the norm in every facet of classroom teaching, from Kindergarten onwards.

It must be integrated into all areas of teaching and indeed classroom administration, with all staff

Publicly abandon any stand-alone ICT program or policy.

Weave the interactive whiteboard strategy into the total school development program.

Consider the ICT and Education Matrix

While the focus here is on the use of interactive whiteboards it is wise to think of a matrix in selecting the most appropriate information and communications technology for each teaching situation.

Imagine on the one axis the learning situation and the other the technology. The aim should be to use the technology most appropriate for the teaching situation, a move that could see a teacher using several types of technology in a lesson.

Suffice it to say that while interactive whiteboards are an immensely powerful and flexible tool they are not the only ones that should be in a teacher’s kit.

Seeking Normalcy

Your goal should be to get the interactive whiteboards in each classroom to become a normal part of everyday teaching – in much the same way as the old whiteboard.

When you’ve reached that stage with every teacher you’ll know you’re succeeding.

Let the boards stay on 100 percent of the teaching day. There should be no time wasted in the teacher deciding to use the resource – unlike the situation with computer labs.

Phased Uptake

The interactive whiteboards – and the accompanying software – allow teachers to use a phased take up, moving from the simple to the highly sophisticated, when they are ready.

The analogy would be with Microsoft Word, where one can use the basics and then gradually ramp up.

Of note is the number of situations we can point to where the vast majority of the staff had low ICT skills when they started – and indeed had significant misgivings about using computers in their teaching. Within two years the same staff have become highly skilled in the use of the boards as digital convergence facilities and want the higher-level training to make even greater use of the technology.

Depending on your situation and the number of boards you are intending to start with, you might want to take advantage of this attribute in your strategy.

Let the individual teacher’s readiness shape their particular use of the interactive whiteboards.

The research is showing that teachers’ lesson preparation time in the first year, when they were gaining proficiency in the IWB technology, was much the same as before, but those in the second year of usage believed their lesson preparation time had been reduced.

The Importance of Critical Mass

In your quest to get the total school using the boards bear in mind you might not make significant headway until you have a critical mass of boards.

One or two boards will have little impact.

You’ll probably need around two thirds to three quarters of the classes using the boards to gain the desired momentum and to reach the point where the remaining teachers clamour for ‘their’ board.

Occupational Health and Safety

In your planning pay careful regard to occupational health and safety (OHS).

While it is still early days with use of the boards and the OHS concerns are not as yet readily apparent, it would be wise to be on the look out.

UK's BECTA has already flagged its concern with very powerful data projectors and teachers looking into the beam. The use of mid range projectors and ceiling mounts can assist.

Watch also for loose cabling, particularly of the complementary ICT and teacher posture.

An Ever Evolving Strategy

As mentioned above your school’s interactive whiteboard implementation strategy will be distinctly yours, but in so saying the research on schools in different parts of the world is indicating the journey taken will have many similar features.

It will moreover be an ever-evolving strategy.

The key features could be very different in twelve months.

Anticipate the evolution.

Monitor the changes and note the finer nuances.

Ensure the strategy is providing the kind of universal use you want.

Appreciate that when you achieve whole of school embracement the challenge will then be to capitalise on that base and lift the quality of teaching and learning to an even higher plain.

However also appreciate that while parts of the strategy will evolve and change, many facets will remain constant, not least of which will be the mindset that constantly seeks to make the most of the technology to enhance teaching and learning.

Reflection and Development

It is imperative you allocate – and keep sacrosanct – a regular timeslot for staff using the interactive whiteboards to meet, to share ideas and to identify what needs to be done to enhance their teaching.

Provide them the support and protection they need.

Don’t allow ‘administrivia’ to eat into their reflection and development.

Experience and research shows much of the staff development can be done in house.

Further development can be done online – through the likes of IWBNet – but also through the teachers’ own networks.

However aim to supplement that development with specialist training, attendance at regional, national and indeed international conferences and by encouraging outside ‘experts’ and other schools to visit.

Overcoming the Hurdles

Here will be hurdles, large and small, human and technical.

Central offices have the propensity to add to the challenges.

Your role and that of your ‘CIO’ is to help in overcoming those barriers.

In the implementation strategy budget, set aside a principal’s discretionary fund. This can be used to help overcome hurdles or to buy that special piece of software.

Any change in operations in a school will likely diminish the power of someone – and generate opposition to the new.

Try and anticipate the potential hurdles. Most will be human.

Network managers could see their empire being eroded, particularly if the introduction of the whiteboards is accompanied by a reduction in time, in the number of personal computers, the size of the network and the budget required maintaining that network.

Celebrating the Successes

As the teachers’ proficiency in the use of the interactive whiteboards grows and in particular as their pedagogy grows and evolves, ensure you celebrate those successes.

It is very easy to buy the technology. It is quite another thing to get teachers to change their teaching approach.