How Interactive Boards Assist Teachers in the Classroom

Chapter one of Blanche O'Bannon and Misty Anderson's book, Engaging Learners with Interactive Whiteboards, discusses multiple benefits, challenges, and training for teachers seeking to integrate technology into their classroom. Interactive Whiteboard Systems, otherwise known as IWBs, were created and are primarily used in classrooms to promote interactivity.

How IWBs can be used in classrooms vary in an incredible range of activity. IWBs are able to highlight, color, annotate, or zoom important content. IWBs also hide or reveal text and photos, drags and drops information, and matches items such as terms and definitions. IWBs import pictures, share reading, encourage peer teaching, use multimedia content, provides feedback that is activated by touch, and finally, uses student response systems.

Important instructional benefits to IWBs in classrooms include active learning, classroom management, lesson organization and flow, flexibility in handling lesson materials, multimodal presentations, and enhanced interaction with peers. Ultimately, IWBs have the ability to draw learners' attention by enriching instruction through motivation, participation, and collaboration.

While there are many benefits to IWBs, there are also some challenges to using them in one's classroom. Studies prove that while IWBs are very beneficial, educators fail to use these boards correctly or effectively most of the time. This limits the beneficial ways the IWB can be used, and builds frustration among not only the students, but the teacher as well.

Teachers also struggle with changing their traditional ways of teaching, and incorporating interactive whiteboards into their methods, so continued teacher training is necessary. Teacher training assists teachers in how to use the boards in effective and efficient ways, and helps teachers discover the quality of activities that IWBs can add to a classroom setting, and learning processes.