This is a well-written paper that deals with research performed for the UK government during the period between 2004 and 2006, “to evaluate the impact of interactive whiteboards for teaching and learning in primary schools in England.” This Primary Schools Whiteboard Expansion (PSWE) project revealed “positive gains in literacy, mathematics and science for children aged seven and 11.”

Based on the findings from the evaluation study that was carried out using a multilevel modeling approach, Lewin et al. propose a three-stage model of pedagogical change, where interactive whiteboards (IWBs) are integrated into the instructional practices. The first stage concerns “teachers fitting new technologies into established pedagogies”; the second stage involves “teachers engaging in collaborative exploration of the new opportunities offered by these technologies”; and the last stage deals with “using the IWB skillfully and intuitively ... in ways that extended or transformed their established pedagogic practices.”

The authors compare their model with other models. They rightly claim that their model offers a simple conceptual framework for understanding the changes in the instructional practices that can occur when IWBs are integrated into classroom activities. They also argue that their model has an advantage over other models, because it is less prescriptive. But a model of change should not always be simple and less prescriptive: if the target audience consists of policy makers, the model needs to be quite prescriptive, although simple. In this particular case, the target audience of the proposed model is not well defined, making it difficult to evaluate whether it accomplishes this objective.

This is a timely paper. Lately, governments and individual schools have extensively invested in IWBs, with the expectation of positive impact on learner achievement. The British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta) has produced several reports that assess the educational value of IWBs. Also, projects such as the PSWE and the Research and Evaluation of Interactive, Electronic Whiteboards (REVIEW) continue to investigate the effectiveness of using IWBs in schools, for various subjects. Furthermore, there is a need for guidance on how to use IWBs in the classroom. Several initiatives and Web sites offer teachers free tools and resources. Luckily, these initiatives occur in less-favored countries; for example, the Education Project Asia (TEPA) is a consultancy established in 2002, which offers support to international schools in 17 countries in Southeast Asia.

To conclude, IWBs should be regarded as yet another powerful artifact for facilitating student-student and student-teacher interactions in the classroom. Observations of IWB use, in lessons on several subjects and in various educational contexts, need to be made, in order to reach firm conclusions about their effectiveness and the factors that contribute to their effectiveness [1].