One of the many things I have to familiarise myself with is interactive whiteboards. This has been difficult in the absence of one in my day to day work environment. However today I arranged a one to one introduction and finally understood why it has been so difficult to get hard guidance about these tools. I am sold and can see that they have masses of potential but I can also see that they are something that one needs to get used to over time with use and experience. I can now see that my question 'What does an interactive whiteboard do?' was as unanswerable as 'What does a computer do?' The answers are far too wide and I guess only limited by human ingenuity.
I still don't know however if my work environment is going to include such a tool any time soon. I feel that it is not worth my while investing a lot of time in familiarisation until it becomes an everyday tool.
Update: A couple of days after I had my introduction to smartboards, my daughter met her first one at school. They were in the classroom where the new interactive board has been placed and expressed curiosity in this new piece of kit. So the headteacher obliged and then invited the students to have a go. Her verdict? Cool!
Keywords: interactive whiteboards
