can someone explain to me why interactive white boards are so essential?

[vvvodka]

because i truly think they are a waste of resources.

I think you are making a decent point in there somewhere, skidoddle. There is an obsession with technology in schools which frustrates me at times because there are still very very few primary schools which offer one computer per child, whether in the ICT suite or in the form of laptops. Two children sharing a computer is really not ideal.

Plus local authorities are locked into absolutely awful deals for computers etc where they spend a fortune on equipment that anyone else could get for a fraction of the price. And they do not invest in proper IT support so school staff are often left in the lurch.

telling - no. The novelty of pressing buttons wears off and you are left with an everyday teaching tool.

pointy, your list of uses is heartwarming.

i used to teach, but not with these boards. i have three kids, and have been very inovloved with pta fundraising, and the other thread has inspired this one, as i have always felt they werent a good use of pta funds, value for money etc. in my dc school, a full time senco would have been moeny better spent imo.

two of my dc have since moved to the independant sector, and neither one now has these smart boards in all their classrooms anymore, in the state they did, paid for by pta. i feel that both are doing better academically now, than they did in their previous school, yet, i am reluctant to tell any of my old 'pta chums' [read sarcasm] that my kids are doing better without the technology they all think is soo essential.

pointy, the IT students doing placements in schools, always feel they have learnt the most, as they tend to be thrown in the deep end, and sink or swim, helping sort it all out.

i really like the way you treat it as a teaching tool. i wish you could come and tell some of these people i am thinking about that that is all it is, just a tool

A PTA spent money on interactive whiteboards rather than a full time SENCO?

Is there no end to people's gullibility?

Was there ever a time when people spent money on chalk that could have been spent hiring a teacher?

What I dislike about them is that the blinds have to be shut for the children to be able to see them properly.
My ds has spent the last 3 yrs at a private school that didn't have them and got a fantastic education. We have recently moved and he is now in a village school... part of his homework is done on education city which to me seems like a step backwards. He has beautiful handwriting and excellent grammar for a 9 yr old coupled with a great imagination. According to the head at my own school, children won't need these qualities in future years because the computer does it for you... very sad IMO.( She is also a big fan of the interactive white board!)

Not as a teacher, but as a frequent visitor to schools, I have found them really useful for displaying my presentations from my memory stick. I would otherwise need a slide projector.

They're also useful for my workshop handouts - if the photocopies aren't great (it varies from school to school), I can open my Word file and display the handouts on screen.

If you don't like them you don;'t have to use them. I still use old-fashioned (!) drywipe pen and whiteboard for writing ideas and keywords up.

PTA funds cannot be spent on teaching staff! As was explained in the other thread.

Whiteboards are a teaching tool - like pens, like paper, like photocopiers, like computers, like videos, like DVDs, like cue-cards. They are not essential but we shouldn't be Luddites about something that can be so useful.

I'm doing an adult education course, and they do enhance our tutor's lessons.

We are only in class once a week, but the lesson notes from the board are saved, which would not happen with a blackboard. She can also bring up websites, maps and other graphics.

I did not get interactive whiteboards until I benefitted myself from their use.

I love interactive whiteboards. Everything that could be done on a chalkboard I can still do (even add the noise of nails on chalk board if I can ever think of a reason for doing so) and SO much more.

As with any piece of technology, people have to learn how to use it fully and some do that faster than others. I can use music, sound effects, visual images, film clips, websites, pictures of the students themselves - the list is endless. There is fantastic software out there that makes all kinds of difficult concepts easier to explore - I can highlight pieces of text, annotate it, zoom in and out, hide some info, run a tickertape message at the top with reminders or hints. And I'm not an expert by any means!

Also, al, the kids can do the same thing. They can manipulate text, crunch it, add their ideas, and I can save the whole thing and print it out for revision notes.

I've never heard of a PTA paying the wages of a member of staff, and clearly if a Senco is needed then that should come first, but I would respectfully suggest that lovely handwriting is not as useful in this century as computer skills, and that there may be other factors in the improved academic performance of children in the private sector rather than just the absence of whiteboards.

It is still interesting though that independent schools choose not to have them though - presumably it's not due to lack of funds.

I also think that being able to write legibly is important. Isn't the overuse of word processing programs the reason that many young people struggle with spelling?

yes, linking the use of smartboards in teh classroom to better attainment levels is wonky. No one should be saying they will improve attainment.

And it's quite right that th epta shoulnd't be raising funds for staff.

and I think handwriting and grammar (sheesh, especially grammar) are very important

It's not linking it to attainment, it's more wondering why the independents don't use them, they must have their reasons, I would be interested to know what they are.

What is "crunching" text BTW?

lol a vvodka.

I think that the issue around whiteboards is that the budget seems to get spent entirely on the board and there isn't enough time taken to train up teachers, update lesson plans etc to take full benefit from the boards.

slate and chalk isnt effective apart form making kids learn like parrots and thats not the purpose of schools these days.

when i taught ICT i had this fab thing called RM tutor that meant on MY screen i could not only see what the kids were all doing on theirs but block certain websites, take over their screens, sned them messages or send them quizzes - that was good - like Family fortines, adn all the kids answered anonymoulsy SO i coudl see who was understanding it or not. I did occasionally do comedic ones that they laughed at too.

are there figures, then, about how many private schools have smartboars? Do we know that they are activly choosing not to have them?

a lot of older teachers are very scared of htem.

There is plenty of smartboard traiingn. When you have one in your workplace that you have to use, you learn to use it very quickly. It's like a computer. It is really not hard at all to pick up the basics and then gradually pick up more and more bits and pieces. I have seen technophobes do this.

When you don't have one, or only have the option to use one, it is a big scary thing.

pointy. No I do not have statistics to hand, it just struck me that people on this thread with children at independent schools had mentioned it.

Do all state schools have them? Is it for primary as well as secondary?

YY

I would be very surprised if private schools are actively choosing not to have them.

State schools which put aside some of their budget, or fundraise, have them. Quite a number still do not as there is no money.

There is an issue with updating/replacing them, I would think, which hasn't hit us yet.