Interactive Whiteboards

Gone are the days of the old chalkboard and white chalk! We have now been introduced and blessed with whiteboards and markers and now recently, the interactive whiteboard. An Interactive whiteboard is an interactive display that is connected to a computer and projector. The projector allows the computer's desktop to be projected onto the surface of the board where the user can control the computer using a pen or their finger.

The following is a PMI (Plus, Minus and Interesting) I have developed on Interactive Whiteboards:

Pluses
- They make it easy for teachers to enhance presentation content by easily integrating a wide range of material into a lesson, such as a picture from the internet, a piece of text from Microsoft Word, a video file from Media Player in addition to student and teacher annotations on these objects.
- They allow teachers to create easily and rapidly customised learning objects from a range of existing content and to adapt it to the needs of the class.
- Students are able to absorb information more easily.
- Students can participate in group discussions easily.
- They allow learners to work collaboratively around a shared task or work area.
- They allow the Learning Manager to prepare lessons beforehand and just open them up the beginning of the lesson.
- There are many programs and resources that have been developed specifically for this tool.
- Caters for the different learners - kinaesthetic (hands on), visual and auditory. Tactile or kinaesthetic learners can benefit from touching and marking at the board, audio learners can have the class discussion, visual learners can see what is taking place as it develops on the board.

Minus
- Interactive whiteboards are more expensive than conventional whiteboards
- With all technology, if there is power outages this can cause difficulties with using the interactive whiteboards.
- Teachers can often become reliant on the interactive whiteboard and forget about other methods of teaching.

Interesting
- The first interactive whiteboard was manufactured by SMART Technologies Inc. in 1991.
- Australian researchers investigating interactive whiteboards have also found an increased potential for interactive engagement in classrooms where ICT is integrated (Kent,2003) and indicated that teaching with interactive whiteboards is “more fun, more engaging, more exciting and [is] impacting on the enjoyment, speed and depth of learning” (Lee and Boyle, 2003).
- Lee and Boyle (2003) reinforce the notion that it is the tactile nature of the interactive whiteboard that makes it such an attractive medium for teaching children, due in part to “that ready ability to engage with the material on the board and for the children to use their finger ... to open files, to write or simply to highlight a point.”
(Lee, M., & Boyle, M. (2003). The Educational Effects and Implications of the Interactive Whiteboard Strategy of Richardson Primary School: A Brief
Review. Retrieved August 23, 2010, from www.richardsonps.act.edu.au/RichardsonReview_Grey.pdf)