What is an interactive whiteboard?
An interactive whiteboard is really three pieces of equipment linked together:
- A computer - Mac or PC
- A digital projector
- A touch-sensitive screen - the interactive whiteboard
This combination of technologies turns the interactive whiteboard into a very large computer screen. With a pointer, or even a finger, the user can write on the board or control computer programs. It is ideal for whole-class teaching as it removes the need to have large groups huddled around a single computer screen.
Although interactive whiteboards are themselves relatively new, they have evolved from tried-and-tested technologies. This means that users who are familiar with personal computers should not find the transition too daunting. For instance, instead of opening a computer program by double clicking on its icon with a mouse, the user taps twice on the icon displayed on the interactive whiteboard.
The technology is extremely flexible. Its screen can be used to display not only computer software to a class but, with the appropriate connections, web pages and videos, whether on DVD, VHS or CD-ROM. It has the potential to replace the classroom roller whiteboard, overhead projector, video recorder and television. This is already happening at St Thomas Acquin's School in Edinburgh.As the use of interactive whiteboards in education is so new there is little software that has been written specifically to take advantage of the technology. Many packages, however, lend themselves to the medium, particularly when their use is being demonstrated to a whole class.
Although presentation software such as Microsoft's PowerPoint was not written expressly for use with an interactive whiteboard, it is designed to work with a digital projector and large screen. This powerful software is ideal for the advanced preparation of lessons to take advantage of the interactive whiteboard.
This illustrates another strength of the interactive whiteboard. Not only can materials be prepared in advance using a laptop or desktop computer, but class 'work in progress' can be stored ready for the next lesson.
'Using the whiteboard takes educational software from the PC screen to the big screen, making each application available to many more students in a single sitting than would be possible with a traditional computer,' says Eileen Humphrey, a teacher at Lourdes Secondary School in Glasgow. 'It lets teachers work in a new way in front of the class, using the latest educational software's dynamic content and animations rather than flat diagrams to explain concepts.'