IWBs

Funs fact for you. My class at school was THE FIRST classroom to ever have an IWB in it. And my best friend Tara was the first student to ever touch one.

Thinking back to grade 5 when that happened (in 2005), my teacher really didn't use the IWB that well. He mainly used it as a substitute for a normal whiteboard. That's from what I remember anyway.

In terms of using IWB's in the classroom. I find that I prefer just a projector. Especially for physics and maths teaching. Unless I want to record what I'm doing. The reason being, is that a normal whiteboard is sometimes all that I need to explain a difficult concept.

Also, at uni, on level 2 in building B. I think the collaborative rooms are poorly designed because they don't have a proper whiteboard in there. They are not designed for learning. Teachers who want to use a normal whiteboard can't. Especially in engineering, where they need to write normally on the board.

I think its because when you are writing on the board, you can add animation to it. The teacher can be physical. Whereas, in the uni collaborative rooms, although they do have the tools to write, they can't animate and talk to the whole class as they do.

Anyway. As I've said before, everything is contextual. It depends on the students. It depends on what is available. It depends on the task and the content that needs learning.