Go take a look at this excellent blog post by Matt Pearson : “Reports of the death of the whiteboard are much exaggerated.” In it he sums up a lot of my thinking on interactive whiteboards.
To those who claim that IWB’s are expensive white elephants I would argue that it is a matter of training. A school invests many thousands of pounds in technology, but then will not invest in the time or money to train their staff to make the best use of them. Hence the IWB’s become expensive screens. But that’s not the fault of the technology.
A full day’s training would cost a school around £600 for up to 20 staff. That’s £30 a head. Split the day into two 1/2 day sessions and you could give 40 staff a good grounding in how to use their IWB for only £15 a head.
Is that not worth doing?
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Danny Nicholson : Educator, Science teacher, ICT Consultant, PGCE lecturer, Author and Web2.0 / SMART Masters/ Interactive Whiteboard Trainer. Contact me for any training requests. 
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Miracles and magic only happen in fiction. You know perfectly well that a one day of training is not enough to cover and dominate everytning. Not even a week. You know that teachers will need lots of extra time to make resources tailored to their classes. And that comes from the teachers’ pockets. Many teachers are put off when they balance the effect(s) of a one-minute end product with the time and effort they put into making it. Not to mention technicalities problems that happen without the smallest interference of the teacher. Please don’t make the teachers’ life more difficult…
One day training (or two half days with time in between) is enough to give most teachers a good idea of ways to use their boards more creatively.
The pay off vs effort argument is just the same with a worksheet or any other resource we create for lessons. It will take time to build up a bank of resources. Hopefully staff in a school will share their resources via a shared drive or dropbox and over time a useful bank of material will build up.
Training isnt the answer – but it helps provide the focus for implementing the technology. It’s definitely better than dropping a load of kit in a classroom and expecting the teacher to just get on with it.
I may have mentioned my views before and I don’t want to sound like a bore but if the software wasn’t a whole generation behind in terms of design, usability, reliability and style, then the amount of training required would be far less.
Now that we have incredibly easy to use touch screen apps on phones and tablets, in addition to some amazing modern desktop applications, perhaps someone will shake up the IWB scene with something fresh, usable and inspiring? And not SMART Notebook.
I think as there’s now an explosion in touch technology – products like the iPad are showing how useability can be improved. Having multitouch screens will help. I also think we’re close to the death of the projector – OLED screens will be large and thin enough to make an all-in-one interactive surface.
What we then need is better software for integrating the “main” surface with the tablet devices of the students. So all can share between each others pads, plus display on the main screen.
There are some interesting “web 2″ mindmap/brainstorm interfaces out there that are the way to go – and collaborative too.
The big players (Microsoft / Apple) have ignored whiteboard tech for now – surely they can see there’s a need to shake things up?
Also commented on Matt’s post and echoed your comment about training. ‘Starter training’ with smaller groups and as much ‘hands-on’ as possible works well, plus ensuring staff have access to work on resources away from the board (install on home PC is allowed). Schools should invest more in their own ‘experts’ and then use them to help their colleagues develop.
Might be regarded as a trifle Stalinist, but we went for the ‘MAKE it happen’ approach and cut all write-on boards from a new build and just deployed IWBs… amazing how that drove usage! Might blog about it myself one day!
Thanks Steve. Some kickstart training is essential – the number of staff who tell me they never even thought of doing some of the things I show them in a simple 2 hour session – and thats only using basic tools.
As to ripping out regular whiteboards – I can see why schools do it, but even as a techno geek I think its a bit cruel
I’d like to see flipchart sized whiteboards either side of a regular whiteboard for other information to be written on. Plus I am in a few schools from time to time where the bulbs have gone in the projectors and they have no Plan B until the technician sends off for more, which in some primaries can take weeks. Roll on the end of the projector.
IWBs are useful tools in the classroom… but only that. I have one in my classroom and I use it regularly but not exclusively: I still use an ordinary whiteboard as well.
I have two reasons for not becoming dependent on IWBs: the main one being that I find IWBs can make the focus in lessons very teacher orientated and can allow some pupils to become passengers. I also like the fact that ordinary whiteboards do not crash, nor do the bulbs blow – this makes them far more predictable.
A poor engineer blames their tools. Similarly, teachers need to ensure that they are able to work without the technology.
I get the feeling they will be replaced with iPads and online blended learning products at some point in the future.