Ceist Anseo: Are IWBs All That?

Just over 8 months ago, I published a post asking the above question, Are Interactive Whiteboards all that?  I mentioned that I encountered Interactive Whiteboards for the first time in 2002 and gave a little bit of history surrounding them.  I also published some informal findings on how teachers were using them and coming to the conclusion that most of them would have been better off with just a projector or worse, nothing at all.

For me, an IWB doesn’t really have too much to offer versus a traditional whiteboard.  I list below, all the things that you can do on a board.

1. Drag and drop
2. Point and Click
3. Make marks with digital ink
4. Store Information

Now obviously, it’s what you do with the board that matters.  And with only 4 functions, you can do almost anything.  The trouble is that, as I said before, teachers aren’t doing it.  From my study, most teachers are only using the projector.
I did a little bit of further investigation, informally, with trainee teachers who were using the boards during teaching practice.  Despite getting certification in IWB usage, 100% of them used the IWB to display PowerPoint presentations.  Most of them also said that they type up stuff in a Word Processor to show the class, e.g. the daily news.  A few mentioned that they showed videos and played Karaoke too.
Although there’s nothing wrong with any of the above, one does not need a €2,500 piece of equipment to do them.  All of these activities only require a projector and computer.
However, what other things can one use an IWB for that a projector on its own wouldn’t achieve?  I want to throw this question out to you.  I’ll give my own ideas in another post, but I’d love to hear from you first.