Interactive white boards, are they bad news ???

[mummyloveslucy]

My daughter is due to start primary school in January. Her school has these interactive white boards. I've heard that they might not be good for our childrens developing brains. I'm a bit worried about the long tern effects of these.
Does anyone have more info on these? I'm probubly worrying about nothing, what do you thik?

[Hulababy]

Never heard that. Why would they not be good?

I have used them as a teacher and a TA, and they are used in all the schools I have been in, including DD's school.

I like them. They have so much scope to make the lessons more interactive and engaging when used well.

Certainly the children I have worked with, and my own DD, enjoy using them.

[GrimmaTheNome]

I think you're worrying about nothing, TBH.

I don't suppose chalk dust was good for our lungs in the old days, or solvent from whiteboard pens....

[MrsWeasley]

I have never heard that about developing brains.

I can say that they can make the lessons more interactive and interesting for the children.

[flatcapandpearls]

I think you may struggle to find a school without them soon, I love mine.

[Wonderstuff]

I'm a teacher and I love mind. So much more scope for different things in lessons.

[violethill]

How strange. Have you been reading the tabloids or something?

[Overmydeadbody]

You are worrying over nothing. Talk about pfb.

Interactive whiteboards have been around for years, and they are a good thing. How exactly could they be bad for developing brains?

[Yurtgirl]

My lo's school has them in every classroom as most schools do these days

I can see the benefits but I do have one complaint
At my lo's school they are used as a babysitter - a lot!
Its playtime, its vaguely raining - never mind we will stick them all in front of the white board with a dvd

Mine have watched lots of films and cartoons at school that I wouldnt necessarily choose to let them watch at the age they are

[mummyloveslucy]

Oh that's o.k then. It was the mums talking at nursery about them that made me wonder.
I'm not that good with technology, so thought I'd ask.
I don't think they've been proven safe or unsafe, but it looks as if they're unavoidable.

[1dilemma]

Interesting that the teachers like them so much.
I don't know about developing brains but they are in most schools round here and presented as a positive thing however I saw part of a lesson and thought it was just awful.

It was probably a reception class one little girl was by the white board trying to do something like move spots onto a dalmation, she couldn't reach (and was by no means the shortest), then her poor little finger couldn't drag the spot so everyone else was plainly bored after about 7 goes the teacher either did it or told her to sit down, the entire class was talking precipatated mostly by someone who was presumably assisting someone with special needs who was sitting on her lap whilst she talked to him.

It did not make a good impression on me (and this school is in the good schools guide and very highly thought of)

I have subsequently seen it used for some phonics and it was better but I was still a bit ho hum (however it did strongly remind me of the first occasion)

[mummyloveslucy]

The head of my daughters nursery isn't impressed by them, she says children learn better though holding shapes and exploring letters etc. She has foam letters that the children hold and make up words.
Doing it all on a computor screen just seems wrong to me.

[LIZS]

but they don't "do it all" on the computer screen. It is as large as an old fashioned blackboard and the kids get to go up and write on it or press answers. tbh I'd be surprised if her current school doesn't use them further up even if not in nursery (I doubt many schools woudl in Foundation stage much). It is a teaching tool, but just one of many in a classroom. They may well use tactile materials etc too.

[piscesmoon]

They don't do one or the other mummyloveslucy! They still hold the shapes etc.
I love them-you can do so much. There is no point in worrying -all schools have them now in the way that they used to have blackboard and chalk-you ould be hard pressed to find anywhere without.

[mummyloveslucy]

The school she's at now is private and very traditional. They don't have them in the junior or senior schools either.
I'm not saying that's better, just different. She will be going to a state school soon, after she finnishes nursery. I don't think there are any state schools without them now.
I'm glad it's not just computor based learning.

[mrz]

1dilemma I insisted my IWB was sited at ground level so the children could use it the installers were appalled at the extra work it caused them. I think most schools accept they have to situated where the installers say. The board in our Y2 class is so high the 6'2" teacher can't reach the top!
I use my board everyday but wouldn't be heartbroken if I didn't have it.

mummyloveslucy we have IWBs in our nursery and I recently visited another nursery where they counted 5 !!!

[mrsmaidamess]

I do not like IWB's unless they are used in precisely that way, i.e interactive.

Too often I see them being used as a giant TV screen, or a white version of a black board. There does not seem to be too much interaction with the children getting up and using them.

Also I think they dictate too much how a lesson will go. Sometimes planning is done around what IWB resources there are rather than using imaginative ideas presented in a more old fashioned way.

[bumsrush]

I think a good teacher will use them in many different ways, including using it like a blackboard and a projector screen.

What would make it unsafe?

[cupofteaplease]

In my placement school, the IWB is moveable, so it can be lowered to floor level in Foundation Stage, and highered for older ages. I love mine.

[TsarChasm]

I think they're brilliant. All my dc have them at school.

Better than blackboards. Teachers used to lob board rubbers at us when I was at school. A couple of teachers were crack shots. The new boards have got to be safer

[gerontius]

Isn't there a problem now though, that children are stimulated so much (pictures, videos, bright colours, interactivity) that when there's no IWB or it's just the teacher talking they're going to find it a struggle to concentrate? And isn't giving children pictures all the times removing the need for them to develop an imagination i.e. there's no need to imagine because it's all there in front of them?

[hercules1]

Mummyloveslucy - your private school probably doesnt have them as they are expensive and state schools get separate ICT funding (or used to anyway).
We looked at a private school for dd and the lack of ict equipment like whiteboards put me off and helped make the choice much easier to go to her far better equipped state school.

Interactive white boards are a very good teaching tool.

[hercules1]

geronitus - I cannot see how in any way a teacher using an interacive whiteboard is going to affect a child's imagination.

[gerontius]

Hercules, my point is that children get so much given to them nowadays that there's not as much need to think and imagine. For example, if the teacher constantly puts up pictures to illustrate what she's saying, children don't have to imagine in their mind what they're saying. It's a bit like seeing the film of a book, where how you'd imagined it before was completely different.

Am not expressing myself very well here.

[helsbels4]

I thought the iwb in ds' class when they were first introduced were brilliant!!! I was so in awe of how they worked and how the children loved going up and doing different things with them.

You can pick up a certain colour pen and it will write in that colour - amazing!!!!

[moffat]

There was definitely some research recently - from the Institute of Education I think - which questioned how good they were.