It's not so much the software, although the Inspire platform has great utilities and functionality. Rather, it is the capacity to follow threads, model effectively, and draw my studnets along and into what we are doing and or exploring.
Let me illustrate specifically what I'm talking about.
Today I cued up a clip from ESPN Outside the Lines entitled "Unspeakable," about a 1916 lynching and the subsequent connection to two present day public figures in Abbeville, South Carolina. (I'm being intentionally vague about details to entice you into following links to take in this most excellent piece)
Now, that could've been achieved with a little forethought and copying onto a transparency; however, what came next was made possible only by the interactive whiteboard. We learend of the unlikely prosperity of a black man circa 1916, so we used Googel to translate acres into square feet. And, using Google maps, we located the town square of Abbeville, SC, looked around in street view, located Abbeville High School, looked for the area fair grounds, and then used line tools to draw a square mile on the map. This combined with some discussion about our infamous history and relationship with slavery, racism, and bigotry, and all of the sudden the magnitude of what happened in Abbeville 93 years ago hit home with my students - a place, an unusually wealthy& self-made man, an indescribably horrible event, and its impact on two present-day Abbeville community members.
It all came to life today. What would've been a far removed, albeit no less significant set of events actually entered my room on an entirely different level today, thanks to my ACTVBoard.
-SchlegsofTonka
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