Electronic whiteboards (EW's) such as Smart Boards, Active Boards, Mimio, Numonics and Starboards to name a few, are still under debate within schools. It seems that the main argument involves the return on investment (ROI) relating to the initial capital cost of this technology within schools and the ongoing costs of training educators in their use. Some people believe that the benefits for learners to interact with the EW's coupled even with the initial increased planning requirements bestowed upon teachers far outweigh these costs. Others believe that even the best teachers will not properly utilise this technology due to the additional planning requirements and as such will not achieve its full potential or desired outcome.
I am excited about the opportunity to become involved in an environment that may offer this technology. I have found many resources available online offering hints and tips as well as an increasing number of pre-planned lesson that may be applied as is or modified simply to adapt to a large range of topics. Promethean Planet provide one of the larger online support websites for educators to source these lessons and share alike. To overcome some of this learning curve I would involve students in experimental application and research of the board. We would learn together to apply the board. Other than this I will be constructing lessons for my future Manual Arts and Business Management /Accounting classes using downloads available for use on my laptop.
This YouTube video by Promenthean Planet provides a useful overview of this technology and its benefits.
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