Hi Guys,
I’m a student working on a startup in the EdTech space and I just wanted to do some research here and see people’s thoughts.
How do you guys feel about interactive whiteboards? Teachers who have them: are they useful? Teachers who don’t have access: do you wish you do? Schools that have them: were they a good investment? What do you wish was different? Schools that don’t have them: What holds you back?
I’d really appreciate any responses. Thanks!
Any lag is discomforting. They can do some neat presentation stuff but when you want to draw or annotate and it’s a big fat laggy digital pen. Well, get in the bin. I’ve never seen one with zero lag. Maybe it exists now. Seen a lot fit for my bin.
I hate everything about them, so I project on my whiteboard and write notes in dry erase marker. I don’t know why we need a technical solution to problems that don’t really need solving.
Stanley said:
I hate everything about them, so I project on my whiteboard and write notes in dry erase marker. I don’t know why we need a technical solution to problems that don’t really need solving.
Were you teaching when they first came on the scene in the second half of the 00’s? I remember tech departments pushing to get as many as possible as quickly as possible.
@Samuel
I worked for a university when they first came out and was tasked to come up with a use case for them, to justify the tens of thousands they spent, and I couldn’t come up with anything, so we all concluded that they were a waste when they first came out. Fast forward 15 plus years (damn I’m old) and I’ve seen waves of crap like this come and I don’t really use any technology in the classroom because it’s either a distractor, time sink, or doesn’t really do much to help students move up Blooms, well that and I can crank out a lesson plan on paper in 5 minutes when a PowerPoint takes 20, so I think there really isn’t the next big ed-tech thing beyond the stuff we’re all forced to use.
@Stanley
Yep. Haven’t seen anything all that significant since “projected internet-enabled computer” 
Stanley said:
I hate everything about them, so I project on my whiteboard and write notes in dry erase marker. I don’t know why we need a technical solution to problems that don’t really need solving.
I understand that. Do you think it would be more appealing to you if you could interact with the board from your desk as well and potentially have students interacting from their desks?
Ronald said:
@Lucky
That’s a software solution, not a hardware one.
I’m not seeing how that could be solved with software. What’s the interactive surface that would allow that to happen?
@Lucky
None, in UX, and edtech, we often choose problems to solve for a product that is the problem, so I’d go back to square one and think about doing things like scan samples of classes to see what pain points teachers have with their current setups.
@Stanley
That’s very true and we don’t want to do that. We’re just trying to understand the problems a bit better with this forum
Lucky said:
@Stanley
That’s very true and we don’t want to do that. We’re just trying to understand the problems a bit better with this forum
Best of luck to you then!
I’ve had really annoying Promethean boards that had to be recalibrated all the time. I understand the frustration. I have a newer one at my current school. I can save anchor charts I make with the class and put them back up later to refer to. I teach 4th & 5th Grade. It’s a computer too. I love it!
@DolphGabbana
Same! We got new ones two years ago that are basically just giant tablets. I enjoy using it, but I’m pretty tech savvy. Main peeve is they got rid of the document camera. Projecting/Casting onto the screen with an iPad or webcam is a PITA. (I teach first, so sometimes I’ve gotta show coloring with crayons, not possible on a computer)
edit: just now thinking… I could just buy a document camera and a long usb cable… hm.
@LyamGenesis
You can also just use any web camera if you can configure it to point down at your desk. The document camera is nice though for some features.
@LyamGenesis
Would you guys say that having it be its own device with its own sort of computer and operating system is something you really value?
Because alot of other options are more tied to an external computer and what it’s displaying.
I use them in economics a lot. It saves time not having to redraw graphs but I realize that may not be applicable in every subject
lucas said:
I use them in economics a lot. It saves time not having to redraw graphs but I realize that may not be applicable in every subject
Serious question, only tangential to this thread: Do you ever wonder if there’s more value for students when you redraw with them? I only ask, because I think about this kind of thing in my own work, too.
Absolutely NO judgement either way.
@Samuel
It’s more the inconvenience of having to redraw the axes. It’s a small thing but a time saver not having to redraw something that’s always there but I always redraw the curves themselves and where they should start to hammer it in