Interactive whiteboards have been praised for being the best in the latest ICT technology to improve the classroom of the 21st Century. They are interactive, they project onto a screen that can be zoomed in and can access the internet and various other programs. In that sense interactive whiteboards are brilliant if you have an arsenal of great programs or knowledge and access to online resources eg games, websites etc.
I have used an interactive whiteboard in the classroom as an activity as well as in conjunction with an activity and have found them to be useful tools you can have a number of documents set up on the computer before the start of the lesson instead of having to rub things off of the board or running out of room on the board you can simply save it and bring it up later even in a later lesson if you are continuing on from a previous lesson. It is also good to use if you have a sheet to go through with the students if you have it saved onto a USB stick or on the computer you can blow it up on the projector and explain the sheet or go through the answers together.
On the other hand there are some technical difficulties that can be experiences with the interactive whiteboard that would not be otherwise with a regular whiteboard for example no lesson I have ever seen had to be cut short because the only two whiteboard pens you have ran out of ink. There are also the issues of using the interactive whiteboards within early childhood as most interactive whiteboards are installed to the height of the teacher which is fine when you are dealing with high school students who are around the same height however when you have a class of grade one students who are the same height as your hip it becomes a bit more difficult for them to interact.
Other problems include possibility of teachers becoming too reliant on the interactive whiteboard and forget about the other ways to teach students effectively. If using the Interactive Whiteboard is not done in an effective and engaging way it is just a waste of time and effort. There is no point to using a fancy ICT if it is not going to be used effectively in your teaching practice.
I feel that Interactives whiteboards are a great tool for classrooms. According to Kearsley and Schneiderman (1999), students need to be meaningfully engaged in learning experiences through collaboration with others and authentic tasks. Therfore, having interactive whiteboards in a classroom will not facilitate engaging, meaningful and effective learning. However, using an interactive whiteboard to support meaningful learning experiences that are linked to ‘real- world’ contexts may enhance learning.
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