Thoughts on IWB

   When you first introduced us to the interactive white board I was amazed and impressed with how technology has evolved sense I've been in school. When I was reading the article, I agreed that the teachers that have them (to my knowledge) do not get training on how to use them properly and are not shown their full potential. The article stated that most teachers use them as a black board or to just project the topic at hand. In the school I teach there very few teachers that have theses interactive white boards.  I observed one teacher's class during this semester and she used it in a very basic manner because she doesn't know how else to use it. This is an example of what I have witnessed from the article discussing the use of IWB in class. The article also says that schools should provide training on these boards, but they don't.  To my knowledge, schools are not willing to pay for workshops or for a presenter to come and demonstrate how to use these when there are so many budget cuts going on. So, I don't see the point on having them at this point. My school isn't going to purchase anymore because of fund issues and budget cuts. Some teachers where I work even have old school chalk boards which I love to see those still around. So, my honest opinion on these boards goes along with the article, that having these boards doesn't prove that students learn better, or there are no statistics yet stating that these boards help increase knowledge of the topic at hand, or they are the reason for higher grades. Therefore my thoughts are, why do we need to know how to use them if our schools can't even afford to purchase them for teachers let along provide training. I do think they are cool and super interesting though! I would love to have one in my class but I know it wont ever happen. This tool in my opinion, is a great attention getter and a good motivational tool for the class to be actively engaged. It is also wonderful to be on the cutting edge of technology with this next generation of children, but if there is no training and no way of purchasing at this time, and especially if test results do not show that having these boards are directly related to higher test scores I don't see how teacher can benefit at this moment. They will just use them as a regular board instead just like the teachers in my building.