As a full-time teacher, I have used Interactive White Boards (IWB's) extensively and believe they can be a life saver for educators. Just today I used my Smart Board in order to allow the students to play a probability game. (a picture of the game is included above) The results were fanstasic! This article by OBannon does a good job pointing out all the ways a IWB can benifit both teachers and students. The points are very brief and succint which makes it an easy read. It then goes on to discuss reasearch that has been done regarding the effectiveness of IWB's in student achievment. The results are mixed and the article blames most of the neutral results on lack of teacher knowledge and skill regarding IWB's. It says that many teachers essentially use them as mess-free blackboards instead of taking full advantage of the many things they can do. I myself am guilty of that sometimes and will make an effort to impliment my smartboard more effectively.
The one thing the article said that I disagreed with wholeheartedly is that teachers need to have professional development on IWB's, i.e., teacher workshops and the like. I believe this would be meet with violent opposition and for good reason. The amount of planning time teachers get is very minimal because of the slew of meetings and Professional Developement (PD) workshops we must attend. And with Common Core on the way that will only increase. I am instead going to study on my own iin order to increase my IWB proficenty and encourage others to do the same before we lose even more precious planning time to PD's
