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

[vvvodka]

because i truly think they are a waste of resources.

our gaff is also thinking of buying a device that you cna put on the pc and hten it displays something,whatever it is, an artifact another kids book, onto the screen so the whole calss doesnt have to jostle around

great for classrrrom management

or the bulbs - mine just went .. £250!!

yes, it's the old story of replacement parts costing a fortune so you shell out more andmore money.

And councils having a history of being wrapped up in terribly overpriced rip-off contracts

I agree with the concern at the whiteboard becomes too much a thing that drives the lesson rather than a useful tool within it.

What I used to find useful teaching adults was to use the overhead linked to a laptop so I could show them much more easily how to do things like Excel spreadsheet calculations as well as show them slides off Powerpoint slides, video etc.

However, I found that I had to also switch it off and go to blackboard and chalk as a multimedia presentation can becomes like watching TV and people switch off after a while.

Perhaps we should go back to making the children write on wax tablets or slates.

well, yeah, if every lesson is just a powerpoiunt pressentation, then that is tedious.

I am always amazed when adults involved in education put on a training course for adults. Because they rarely structure it in the same way teachers do for children and as a result are often so dull.

hey i gave some 15yr olds a spelling test.
it was retro tastic.

'a lot of older teachers are very scared of htem. '

People get terribly patronising about age! I am an older teacher-I am not scared of them. Older teachers are just as capable of dealing with them as younger teachers!

They are fantastic. Just from the whiteboard point of view they are vastly superior.
1.You can have everything on different pages. On the old fashioned one you run out of space and have to rub off stiff you still want.
2.You can save it for another lesson. You can't keep stuff on the traditional board for a week or a month-you need the space.

1. DCs can't accidentally rub it off by brushing past. Other people using your room can't rub it off, thinking you don't need it.
2. You can set it up for Maths etc in advance with progression on different pages.
3. You can write things up in advance, when you have the time.

That is just the writing part-then:

1. You can use web pages-google earth etc-in fact anything you can get on the internet and show to the whole class.
2. You can demonstrate how to produce spreadsheets, powerpoints etc.
3. You can use with a visualiser and show a book or a picture or a poster etc to the whole class.

9 You can put up text and alter it. 10. You can turn the whole page into squared paper, produce a blank graph, a venn diagram etc with a click and a drag. 11. You can have illustrations and move them around. 12. You can have hidden answers to uncover. 13. You can play DVDs and videos on the big screen rather than the small TV.

This is just off the top of my head-there are lots more.
I supply teach and I am always disappointed if I get to school and find that the teacher has taken the laptop and we can't use it. It is far, far superior to the old whiteboard or blackboard.
'Old' teachers are not dinosaurs-we can use them as well as anyone else!!

Stuff not stiff-sorry

I wouldn't pay to send my DCs to a private school that wasn't embracing technology.

i too am old. i was just saying some of my collagues whoa re returnign to work post kids are scared shitless of em

thast it a VISUALISER>
that is what we are buying

I am shit scared of them, and will do anything to avoid using them. They switch themselves off when they sense I am near

ah i htought i sensed that in your " i like chalk" posturing

arf

I agree that some are scared-but the only way to overcome it is to use them.
A visualizer is like using an overhead projector but you don't prepare a slide-you lay the book, map, object etc on it and it comes up on the screen. I have used it mainly for books, but if you were doing history you could put an historical artifact like a brooch on it and it would be on the screen. You could put a DCs work on there to show the class. see here

lol .

They laugh at me at work. They laugh on the other side of their faces when there's a power cut at school and I breeze past with my felt pens

I expect there are better explations-that is the first I came across.

Classrooms still have an old type board-it is never a question of either/or-I use both together.

As with any teaching tool they can be overused, and often are when they are new but I love my interactive board.

I also have blinds, fans etc, it need not be one or the other.

My subject, like many others is constantly updating so textbooks are often irrelevant. I often use my board to create page of a text book tailored to a particular class t a particular time, no textbook can constantly do that.

Most teachers do combine them with a traditional whiteboard, I know when we moved into our new classrooms there were not any teachers who just wanted an interactive board we wanted both.

My board has never been damaged even when teaching in very difficult school, I did however get my remote pinched but I soon learnt to out it away.

Interactive boards are not the downfall of eduction and to link achievement in one school soley with interactive boards is silly.

They don't stop children spelling correctly or using the correct grammar.

I am a teacher who embraces technology from discussing topics on internet forums with my pupils, to creating podcasts, film making, wallwishers and I still have time for regular spelling tests.

I can remember returning to teaching after 5 years out and being terrified of IWBs you learn quickly though.

Crunching text is when you use a program to sort the words of a text (eg a poem or some shakespeare) into categories eg put all the words in alphabetical order - useful to look at the writer's use of alliteration or the words most repeated - or into word classes eg looking at all the verbs used. It's fascinating and really helps the children look at grammar and word use in a very sophisticated way.

and there are those word pattern htings

omg wallwishers arefab

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

What a frightening lack of imagination and limited notion of how tools can be used that statement shows.

A good teacher can teach well with chalk and blackboard, or without.

"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"

Do the parents in that school realise what a complete gobshite is in charge of their children's education?

"Crunching text is when you use a program to sort the words of a text (eg a poem or some shakespeare) into categories eg put all the words in alphabetical order - useful to look at the writer's use of alliteration or the words most repeated - or into word classes eg looking at all the verbs used. It's fascinating and really helps the children look at grammar and word use in a very sophisticated way."

You can do that on a blackboard. It's hardly a new idea, is it? A computer just makes it easier to do. Which isn't necessarily an advantage if you're trying to teach people to do stuff themselves.

Teaching them how to write the algorithm to parse the text I can see as useful.

Of course they can teach and learn. But why be a LUddite.
WHy ONLY stand and talk?

" write the algorithm to parse the text"

arf at parse.
Its not just about parseing tests though is it.