After reading “The Rise of the Interactive Whiteboard in Higher Education”, I was not surprised to see how much the usage of this technology is growing. The article makes a critical point in that these interactive boards bring about a new level of education and provide students with a learning opportunity that regular white boards or chalk boards cannot.
SmartBoards can be much more versatile than traditional chalk boards or white boards.
IWBs engage students imagination and encourage collaboration. In my opinion, the level of interacity that these IWBs bring to the table makes them worth their cost. They simply bring a lot more to the table than regular textbook learning. I think the most important issue with using this technology is the capability of the instructor who is using the board. Without a knowledgeable instructor, this board could be useless and be a waste of time and money. We had SmartBoards in several of our classrooms during my senior year in high school. However, I remember very well how every teacher that had one seemed to use it only because their felt obligated to. I can remember no interactive activities using an IWB at all during high school. The teachers that had them only used them to write notes, which could have been done with a dry erase board.
The most intriguing thing to me about IWBs are the possibilities of communication that comes along with them. With connection through the internet, groups can even meet in different countries if they need to. Any notes or audio commentary taken on these boards can be saved. Overall, it is evident that IWBs can be extremely beneficial to classrooms of all kinds. They are definitely a step up from the traditional textbook and chalkboard learning techniques, especially in the areas of communication, students’ imagination, and collaboration. I think it is important that we continue to utilize these in our schools and the users become as knowledgeable as possible in order to utilize the IWBs and extract their maximum capabilities.
You can see in this image some of the capabilities that IWBs have that classrooms have not seen before.
jdh9blog 