The document discusses the use of whiteboards in the classroom and how they are changing how teachers teach. Whiteboards can be used across curriculums and benefit all types of learners through visual, tactile, and audio engagement. An interactive whiteboard interfaces a computer and projector to display content on its surface, allowing teachers to easily integrate lessons. While expensive, whiteboards facilitate universal design and creative lesson planning. Grants may help schools that cannot otherwise afford this technology.

1. Technology in the Classroom The Use of Whiteboards in the Classroom

2. “While many new technologies have emerged throughout history, so has the cry for educators to find meaningful ways to incorporate these technologies into the classroom – be it the typewriter, the television, the calculator, or the computer. And while some professional educators may have become numb to this unwavering ‘call’ – and for good reason – it is crucial to consider that the excitement over games and social networking isn’t just business and industry “crying wolf.” Indeed, those previous technologies have a powerful place in instruction and the classroom; but without them, strong lessons and learning objectives can still be achieved. With these more recent technologies, we think educators should take the call, even if only on a trial basis” (Klopfer, 2009).

3. Computers have been a fixture in classrooms for many years. Students use them daily to conduct research, browse through the internet, write and edit papers, and to provide the students with enrichment activities. Today, teachers are using a new type of technology in their classroom, the Whiteboard.

4. The use of whiteboards in the classroom is changing how teachers are teaching their students. Whiteboards can be used across the entire curriculum and is a added benefit for all types of learners.

5. A whiteboard is defined as: The electronic equivalent of chalk and blackboard, but between remote users. Whiteboard systems allow network participants to simultaneously view one or more users drawing on an on-screen blackboard or running an application. This is not the same as application sharing where two or more users can interactively work in the application. Only one user is actually running the application from his or her computer. In many desktop systems, the application is not viewable interactively. A copy of the current application window is pasted into the whiteboard, which then becomes a static image for interactive annotation as in the example below.

6. Interactive white boards are becoming the new chalk board for many classrooms around the world. “An interactive white board is a presentation device that interfaces with a computer and data projector, creating a large computer image displayed on its surface” (Basilicato, 2005). This particular device is a great way for the teacher to easily integrate the curriculum for all types of learners in the classroom. The white board facilitates all types of learning including tactile, visual and audio (Basilicato, 2005).

7. “Interactive whiteboards fall into the spectrum of universal design, as they offer the teacher many creative opportunities to develop lessons that are engaging as well as informative and entertaining” (Basilicato, 2005; Wood, 2001).

8. There are many schools that would not be able to afford such the luxury of having this type of technology inside of their classroom. For these schools there maybe some type of grant that would be available to them through their state and or district.

9. “We already knew that kids learned computer technology more easily than adults, It is as if children were waiting all these centuries for someone to invent their native language." - Jaron Lanier

10. “Those who educate children well are more to be honored than parents, for these only gave life, those the art of living well. “~Aristotle

11. References Basilicato, A. N. (2005) Interactive Whiteboards: Assistive Technology for Every Classroom. Today’s School, March/April. Retrieved from http://aplusalgebra.com/interacitve-whiteboards.htm Groff, J., Hass, J., Klopfer, E., Osterweil, S. (2009). The Education Arcade. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved on February 26, 2010.