Abstract

Over the course of the past decade, the use of interactive whiteboards (IWB) in North American and European elementary classrooms has surged in popularity. Nevertheless, their procurement has been scrutinized due to their questionable ‘interactivity’, lack of usage by students, and steep price tags. This design-based study aimed at determining the effectiveness of a performance improvement campaign’s interventions designed at encouraging dialogic interactivity by utilizing both the IWB and Google Apps for Education (GAFE). The project was structured using the ADDIE model. Participatory action research techniques informed the performance needs analysis, which subsequently led to the design and development of the interventions as outlined in the high level design. Interventions were implemented over the course of one school year. Both qualitative and quantitative data collection instruments were used to evaluate the efficacy of the interventions, as well as to explain the numerous factors that had an impact on their effectiveness. Results found that the tiered professional development sessions, the eNewsletters, the online tutorials, and the collaborative IWB and GAFE activities workshop were the most useful interventions. Various themes, notably that of time as a constraint, the potential for pedagogical use, and teachers as creatures of habit, emerged as factors that influenced the efficacy of the performance improvement campaign’s interventions.