Using an Interactive Whiteboard in Teaching

Yesterday, I posted a picture in Facebook of myself demonstrating the use of an interactive whiteboard to a group of teachers.  I was quite surprised that a number of my friends like the picture and the response that I got from it.  It reminded me of a totally different experience about 2 years back when I was working for a company that sells interactive whiteboard which totally freaked me out.

As part of our marketing campaign for our product, we had invited a number of school administrators for a training seminar on the new technologies that could be used for the K to 12  program that was to be implemented by the Department of Education.  At the end of the presentation a school administrator asked “Why should we use that considering that a blackboard could also create the same result?”  I really could not remember what I answered back, it could have been in the line of “you are an old ignoramus that's why you are not appreciating this” that she was really fuming when she went out of the hall. I know that I was wrong and it caused me to loose an opportunity to make a sale but she got the worst out of me.

The interactive whiteboard has been around for quite sometime and it is being extensively used  by schools in most progressive countries.  Here in the Philippines its adoption is quite low. You could frequently find them in the school's multimedia centers used only for programs or to impress parents during gatherings. Interactive whiteboard use in the classroom is only limited to the international schools or in one or two rooms in some schools most especially in the kinder garden level. In almost all schools the old reliable chalkboard and static whiteboard are still the preferred equipment by the teachers. 

Here's a few reasons why is it so:

1. Its expensive – Interactive whiteboards in the Philippines depending on size and features will cost from about Php30,000.00 to Php120,000.00. Add the cost of the projector (short throw is the preferred type of projector to used), the laptop to be used and multiply that by the number of classrooms that most schools have. Its quite a hefty investment on the part of the school.

2. Lack of Teacher's competency to use it – in order to develop teacher's skills in using it they must have access to its use, to proper training and support.  There are schools that bought one or two pieces just to try it out but without the proper program in place the teachers will not be using it for they believe that it is such a hassle. Teachers are often the last one to place themselves outside of their comfort zone.  They tend to stick to what their day to day activities and rarely deviate from them.

3.  Interactive whiteboard training is not part of the teaching with technology curriculum which is mainly made up of basic computing and basic use of the internet.

Why should a school consider replacing the static chalkboard with the more dynamic interactive whiteboard in every classroom?

1. Stunning visuals – students these days learns more through the use of visuals and using an interactive whiteboard allows the teacher to make stunning visuals of the lessons that would enable the students to learn it much easier.  From a one dimension while using an ordinary chalkboard or whiteboard, teachers would be able to project a 3 dimensional image of the lessons through the use of shapes, colors and mediums.  Teachers are able to highlight points in their presentation and provide annotation to stress their point during the discussion. The best of all is that teachers would be able to save the discussion presented on the board and present it to another class to compare their reactions.

2. Greater access to information – using a static board will limit the teacher to what she provides on the board while using an interactive whiteboard coupled with the learning materials in the teacher's laptop and internet would allow the teacher to present more information about the lesson to their students.

3. It encourages student participation – the use of the interactive whiteboard puts the student's in their own digital world that something that they could relate to.  They are encourage through the use of stunning visuals and the chance of manipulating data presented in the board to derive the information.