This case study was funded by a grant from Becta.
Alison Carter
January 2002

Introduction
Staff and children at our school are always keen to adopt new ideas and technologies, which may lead to an improvement in teaching and learning opportunities within the classroom. The advent of the interactive whiteboard in the education setting offers another tool, which could be exploited to help achieve a better outcome for our pupils. It could provide a dynamic, visually appealing and accessible tool in the classroom.

This case study aims to provide evidence that using an interactive whiteboard with primary aged pupils is an effective tool and, more specifically, that it is of particular benefit to deaf bilingual children.

Context
Our school caters for approximately 50 primary children from three to eleven years old in Birmingham. It is a special school which aims to meet the needs of profoundly deaf children who have British sign Language (BSL) as their primary means of communication. The bilingual philosophy, which pervades the school, addresses not only the educational and communication needs of the children, but also ensures that the children take pride in their cultural heritage as deaf Sign Language users. Deaf and hearing staff work alongside one another to provide a rich and varied curriculum, which is delivered bilingually.

Some of the children have cochlear implants, others are aided with more traditional hearing aids - all are encouraged to develop both languages, BSL and English, to the best of their ability.