The screen and the sand-timer: The integration of the interactive whiteboard into an early years free-flow learning environment

Abstract

This article aims to explore how the interactive whiteboard is situated in the social and material conditions of an early years free-flow learning environment. It examines how the affordances of the interactive whiteboard and the expectations of the surrounding classroom impact how activity involving the interactive whiteboard unfolds. It achieves this through an analysis of observations, documented through video, of how children enter into and exit from activities involving the interactive whiteboard during free-flow activity time. We share the different types of entrance and exit observed and what these suggest about the social and material conditions in which interactive whiteboard is situated. Based on these findings, we suggest opportunities for the disruption of existing patterns of integration of the interactive whiteboard into the learning environment, so as to explore the potential for more collaborative and creative engagement with the technology. Specifically, we argue that the emphasis on turn-taking that characterises the early years learning environment – an emphasis reinforced by the inability of the interactive whiteboard to support simultaneous engagement by multiple users – is prompting children to engage individually with the resources and miss opportunities to create and play together.