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

[vvvodka]

because i truly think they are a waste of resources.

A reasonable quality Smartboard/projector package costs around £2000 - I would guess that would pay for a SENCO maybe for a month?

Standing and talking technology is one of the most effective we have for passing on ideas.

But you don't just have to stand and talk. There are lots of other things you can do without even resorting to black/white board tech.

Some teachers above have given good reasons for using "interactive" white boards. Whether those reasons stack up against the cost is another issue.

Nobody should ever do anything just to avoid being a Luddite. The fact that something is new is no guarantee of its usefulness.

The kind of scornful attacks on people who question whether buying the latest tech for schools is a good use of resources is part of a culture that allows the tech savvy to rip off the gullible who want to seem "with it".

As a technologist I should just take advantage of other people's idiocy in this regard, but when I see it damaging children's education it makes me sad.

Visualisers are great. They are like overhead projectors only you don't need to write/print everything out on fussy transparencies. You shove ANYTHING under the lamp, right way up, and it displays it on the screen. Such a simple idea - amazed it took so long...

Yea but, with white boards the teacher can't chuck the board rubber at a child messing about at the back of the class.

We had a teacher who prided himself on being able to hit a recalcitrant boy on the temple with a piece of chalk from anywhere in the classroom without missing a beat or even looking a way from the board.

No, it isn't just about parsing the texts. That's pretty much my point. Or was that not clear?

Interactive boards do have rubbers Abetadad, though if you throw it at a pupil, you will find that your pen won't work as the board thinks you want to erase when you pick up the eraser.

Visualisers are great for videoing demonstrations eg of craft skills or science experiments - you can then play it back while the children are trying it out for themselves in case they get stuck.

Like all tools the IWB's effectiveness is related to user ability.
A teacher who has taken the time to develop his/her skills will be able to use an IWB to enhance and improve the teaching and learning in the classroom.
Sadly, some teachers won't.
I am very lucky to have an IWB, a visualiser and a lot of great ICT equipment in my room - I use them when they are the correct tool for the task.

Of course a good teacher can just stand and talk-however they now have many more tools at their disposal-I wouldn't be too keen on a closed mind that says 'I don't need them', teaching my DCs. A good teacher should never be satisfied-they should always be striving to be better and at least learn how to use the IWB, even if they then decide not to use it.

One huge advantage is that you can sit with your feet up and a glass of wine tonight and write up what you want on the board tomorrow-you can't do that with the old boards!!

They are interactive-hence they do keep some students engaged that would otherwise drift off.

Yes our children have such poor attention spans now unless it's spinning, whirring, techo tripe it doesn't pass muster

quote:

1. can bring up websites/pictures that link in to the topic taught
2. can show film clips and adverts which could link into many topics but literacy related stuff mainly
3. can bring up maps of anywhere in the world which you can then choose from a wide selection of symbols/notes/labels to enhance what is being learned
4. huge selction of maths tools - from clock faces, to square paper, to fraction aids, oh so much - which aids whole class understanding
5. children can come up to show their answer/their working/their problem solving idea - whole class can see and comment and make changes
6. useful little devices like countdown clocks to help chunk up lessons and drive pace
7. great variety of educational games that can be an excellent introduction or plenary to lesson

/endquote

You can do all that with a computer/projector and ordinary whiteboard or screen.

no, you can't have children coming up to a computer/whiteboard, dragging and moving text, adding new ideas and saving it all as part of the original document.

You can't call up a map, call up a load of weather symbols and have the class presenting the weather in french without a huge amount of prep work.

There is no point saying you can do all this with other tools because you can't do it all.

skidoodle is making a point about people idolising technology and losing sight of the goal but she's saying it in such a barky bitey way I don't think anyone will listen.

Sure you can. If you can call it up on your whiteboard, you can call it up on your PC. All the whiteboard is doing is using a pen on the screen to control your computer mouse.

It might be nice to have the child touch the object on the screen, but is it really worth ££2000?

That's not all though. There are dozens of different types of pages, symbols, mathematical aids.

Have you seen anyone use one effectivelt, five?

There's lots of things you can do on the interactive whiteboard you can't with just a projected image - for example you can annotate a document, then convert the annotations to printed text & save them, either with or without the original document.
Also, of course controlling via the board means it is easier face your audience instead of having to be at the computer.

Though, on behalf of all school IT techs, I would like to remind teachers on here that the interactive bits don't work if you plug the USB into the network point on your laptop.....

Cybil, what I mean by interactive is say the teacher asks a question and the children respond using their desk computer or clicker and the majority answers incorrectly-the teacher then has immediate feedback that the class isn't understanding and can cover the information again. I loathe the whole thing but the students that I know that use this technology really like it. In some of the prep schools here (States) the technology has moved to tabletop that students all gather around-rather than board in front of the room.

Oh thats too 21st century for me

Skidoodle is right however; whilst interactive whiteboards may be the best thing since sliced bread, there is nothing that compares with a teacher spending time with students who haven't understood something, and going over it with them again and again. A teacher to quote Shakespeare, has infinite variety, and can respond to the needs of an individual student far more readily than a whiteboard.

A whiteboard is a tool, and that is all it is; same as my dry wipe pens, or OHPs or a CD player or a laptop. People get so caught up with all the whistles and bells that they forget that.

Well, only last week I used mine to project the image of the head's face onto a pumpkin and carve it out. Indispensable

Anyway, it was a government pledge a few years ago to ensure every classroom has one. Although capping class sizes at 30 was also one of these pledges, so... you have to wonder.

The interactive whiteboards were funded directly I believe, so even if the schools wanted to use the money for something else, they would not have been able to.

It is a very good tool. If you are doing maths-with a normal board you have to rub off as you go along to make room but with the interactive white board you can go back through the pages and pick up the point that the DC got lost-it is still there. The next month you can say remember when... and bring up the page.

I wonder if there would be a similar thread about dentists...or doctors...

"I think these new-fangled x-ray machines are a waste of resources, a proper doctor should be able to tell what's wrong by cutting a patient open and having a good old rummage - and my nurse has a lovely way with a needle. They'll laugh on the other side of their faces when that electrickery fails and I breeze in with my leeches..."

mmrred

Hmm. With regard to supposedly clever people becoming over-reliant on computers and not being able to see the wood for the trees & losing oldfashioned common sense and judgment ...

I'll see your doctor and raise you a banker.

Technology is all very well as long as we remember that it is only another tool, nothing more than that, and the usual cost/benefit analyses need to be done.