Introduction
Recently, there's been a big boom in bringing classrooms into the 21st century. This notion that setting up and creating a 21st century classroom is what all schools should strive for is primarily a business marketing tactic; it’s not something supported by research. The biggest push for creating a 21st century classroom is equipping these very classrooms with Interactive White Boards (IWB), a costly piece of equipment that can run up towards five grand per IWB. In a school with thirty different classrooms, this would cost the school district $150,000. And this is only the purchase cost; it does not include installation, training, or any added features you will need in the long run.
Recently, there's been a big boom in bringing classrooms into the 21st century. This notion that setting up and creating a 21st century classroom is what all schools should strive for is primarily a business marketing tactic; it’s not something supported by research. The biggest push for creating a 21st century classroom is equipping these very classrooms with Interactive White Boards (IWB), a costly piece of equipment that can run up towards five grand per IWB. In a school with thirty different classrooms, this would cost the school district $150,000. And this is only the purchase cost; it does not include installation, training, or any added features you will need in the long run.
In addition to hefty costs, IWBs don’t really
add anything to the class that a laptop/projector combo can’t do. In reality, many teachers use IWBs as a “glorified”
laptop/projector combo. In many cases
this is due to teachers not knowing how to effectively use IWBs, but in other
cases this is due to IWBs not offering much more than other, less costly
technology options. Often times when administrators
go into classrooms that have IWBs, they see them being used as a
projector. In fact, in some classrooms
teachers post student grades or student work on the IWBs, using them as a
$5,000 bulletin board. In one true
instance of a teacher effectively using an IWB to teach their students that no
other piece of technology can do was a teacher playing a vocabulary game on the
IWB. Students would throw suction cup
darts at the board. Depending on where
it hit, the teacher would then open the box it hit and read that team a
question. This way truly incorporates an
IWB into the classroom in a way that no other technology can, something that all teachers should strive for in classrooms already equipped with this technology. However, the fact of the matter remains that the
majority of educational strategies can be done with a simple laptop/projector combo
with a reliable connection to the internet, like teaching from a PowerPoint,
showing videos on YouTube, listening to music, students presenting their work,
and a myriad of many other ways. The few extra options IWBs classrooms doesn't justify the extra costs that come with it.
Extra Links
The Interactive Whiteboard: Weighing the Pros and Cons
Personally, I'm a big fan of pros and cons, and this article is a great, critical article on IWBs. I was personally attracted to these article because it takes foreign language teaching as its main focus, in particular ESL, but the same information can be applied to other disciplines.
3 Practical Uses for Interactive Whiteboards
Many schools have already equipped many of their classrooms with IWBs. This article discusses three ways we can use IWBs effectively--and practically--in the classroom that no other technology can imitate.
Interactive Whiteboards: Truths and Consequences
This article helps strengthen the rest of the articles I read this week, supporting much of the material Dr. Siko posted on our classroom's Blackboard site. It adds other arguments and research disapproving of IWBs, such as that IWBs are counterintuitive in that they revert teachers to a 19th century lecture style.
Extra Links
The Interactive Whiteboard: Weighing the Pros and Cons
Personally, I'm a big fan of pros and cons, and this article is a great, critical article on IWBs. I was personally attracted to these article because it takes foreign language teaching as its main focus, in particular ESL, but the same information can be applied to other disciplines.
3 Practical Uses for Interactive Whiteboards
Many schools have already equipped many of their classrooms with IWBs. This article discusses three ways we can use IWBs effectively--and practically--in the classroom that no other technology can imitate.
Interactive Whiteboards: Truths and Consequences
This article helps strengthen the rest of the articles I read this week, supporting much of the material Dr. Siko posted on our classroom's Blackboard site. It adds other arguments and research disapproving of IWBs, such as that IWBs are counterintuitive in that they revert teachers to a 19th century lecture style.
