Whiteboard: Snazzy New Teaching Tool

 

Q. What are schools doing to take advantage of technology?

 

            One of the coolest innovations is the whiteboard. Now, we all know about the BLACKboard - chalk, erasers, something that is ubiquitous in every classroom. But whiteboards - which can project images from a computer and still allow the teacher or students to write on top of them - may be the wave of the future.

 

            Here's a picture of a whiteboard from an article out of Australia:

 

Year 7 maths teacher Matthew Tatkovic

 is using an interactive projection computer whiteboard system

 with his Firbank Grammar pupils.
Photo: Gary Medicott

 

            White boards are sort of a merger between dry-erase boards and multimedia projection screens. A projector is hooked up to a computer onto which the teacher's multimedia lesson plan has been loaded.

 

            The teacher can project a series of prepared screens, and either the teacher or the students can manipulate the words or pictures on that screen the same way a "mouse" moves things around on a computer screen. You can access the Internet, show a PowerPoint production, create a chart or other graphic, and just basically use it as sort of a technological "slate."

 

            In fact, there are wireless "slates" on the market for students to interact with the whiteboard from their seats.

 

            Indications are that whiteboards are popular with students because they mimic their own high-tech, information-at-your-fingertips lifestyle with video games, Instant Messaging, email, Internet and so forth. Boys, especially, like whiteboards because they are more kinesthetic, which means they love to move around and touch things. While learning by reading is the quickest and cheapest way to learn, many children seem to learn better by listening and doing, so the whiteboard technology reaches out to them.

 

            That's the good news. The bad news is, a whiteboard system may cost upwards of $7,000 per classroom. So don't hold your breath. But we all know what happens with technology: they'll keep tweaking it, and the price will come down, and one of these days, your child may be told to stay after school for being naughty in class - and instead of clapping the chalkboard erasers, maybe the child will have to dust the whiteboard?!?

 

            Homework: Here's the article the picture came from:

http://www.theage.com.au/news/education-news/the-classrooms-great-white-hope/2007/02/09/1170524304557.html

By Susan Darst Williams • www.GoBigEd.com • Arithmetic, Etc. 116 • © 2007