Tetrad for the Interactive/Electronic White Board

Tetrad for the electronic white board

Enhances Classroom clutter problems (equipment on carts and tables) Student immersion in the topic at hand	Reverses/Recalls Marking on diagrams (you cannot do that on a projection screen…more than once) Makes a classroom pointer cool again (especially the kind with the pointing finger on the end)
Obsoletes Chalk boards Many flip charts Projector screens Classroom televisions Trays and cans full of dead whiteboard markers The need to keep a stock of erasable markers, as well as water-soluble ones for paper that don’t stink!	Sets the stage for: Thin touch screen displays that are built into the walls Reactive paint/wall covering

OK—I’m a little behind the power curve (pun intended) due to some unexpected flooding that took out my power and cable and left us trapped on our property last week (10 inches of rain in 2 days is a VERY big deal!). Happily, most of the area is drying out, the utility companies have gotten their services back on, and I have a renewed respect for infrastructure, which is rather essential for technology to work but we don’t usually notice it until it goes away!

My Learning Community has selected the electronic white board as our emerging technology of choice, and since I use them at work in our classrooms, I found this to be a perfectly interesting option to examine in this exercise.

As you can see in the tetrad above, I feel that the electronic boards (are they all considered SmartBoards, or is that a registered trademark that is becoming mainstream like Kleenex and Xerox?) add value and enhance instruction and learning in several ways:

They improve the clutter situation that existed previously in many of our training classrooms, What with TVs on carts, cables strewn about the floor, projectors sitting on tables in the middle of the aisle, and an overhead projector that was ALWAYS in the way no matter where you moved it, rooms with technology got to be very full of Stuff, all of which was considered important and necessary.

They provide better tools for learning and teaching, with the capability to project, write, type, display, and otherwise integrate a variety of media onto a single screen at the same time. No switching between sources needed!

The interactive white boards “obsolete” a host of things, many of which will not be missed:

• Chalkboards and their accompanying mess and the possibility of fingernails across them

• Many of our classes train with flip charts—you can cut down the use of paper resources and the need for those nasty flip chart easels that fall on you when you turn your back (been there and had it happen)—good riddance!

• The need for a separate projection screen, which either blocked the white board or was up when you needed it down, but always was wrong no matter what. The demise of the projection screen makes the job of a facilitator easier, because you no longer need to keep an eye on the presenter who is trying to make a point to a projected powerpoint slide using a marker, snatching it from their hand before they mark on the projection screen! (been there…)

• No whiteboards means no vast collection of whiteboard markers, most of which have expired and dried beyond an hope of use.

• The interactive whiteboards also eliminate the need to keep two sets of markers in the classroom, only one of which may be used to write on the whiteboard. We can now maintain a supply of the water-soluble ones that smell like fruit for use on flip charts—erasable markers are OUT!

Practices that interactive white boards recall:

• The ability to mark on the media being shown (takes us back to overhead projector days!), while not having to worry about a guest speaker marking on the projector screen by mistake.

• Interactive whiteboards have made pointers useful and cool again (especially the ones that SmartBoard gives away with the pointy finger on the end).

I believe that interactive white boards set the stage for several future concepts:

• Wall-size screen areas that are touch-screen and incorporate all the input and connectivity capabilities.

• The generation beyond this is reactive paint or wall covering that, when a signal is connected to it, serves as an interactive display—this would be a practical use for electronic paper!