For this post I am going to digress from speaking about mobile handheld technologies and address an issue that has bothered me for years. In this Education Week article it raises some questions about Interactive White Boards (IWB). I gave a presentation at NJ Techspo in January 2006 called Smarter Technoogies. My premise was that IWB are an expensive piece of technology and there are other cost effective ways to obtain the same effect.

At the time of my presentation we had 3 of the IWB in our school. I had a few teachers that were masters on them. They are an amazing piece of technology and you can definitely hold children's attention using one. We got rid of all 3 of the IWB a year later (they had been sitting collecting dust - I'll tell you why in a minute).

Here are some of the problems that I have with IWB:

• Expensive - there are cheaper options
• Anchors the teacher to the front of the classroom
• Requires three or more devices (projector, computer, IWB, slate)
• Immobile

I could list more but this will suffice for me to make my point. IWB are very expensive. What it costs to outfit one classroom with an IWB, projector, and a pc, I could outfit two to three classrooms with equivalent technologies. Who wants your teachers anchored to the front of the classroom? This is a movement backwards as far as I am concerned. The IWB are immobile. I know you can put them on a frame with wheels, but they are not easy to move and then they have to be reoriented in the new classroom.

What was the solution that we used to make the IWB obsolete? Tablet pc's and a wireless projector. Everything you can do on an IWB you can do on a Tablet PC (and a whole lot more). When connected to a wireless projector the teacher is free to teach from anywhere in the classroom. We had teachers who would let the students pass the tablet around and provide solutions to problems for the whole class to see. The tablet is completely mobile. HP has tablets for around $1000 and Epson makes a wireless projector that is around $800. 

Interactive White Boards are a fascinating technology. A Tablet PC and a wireless projector are a more cost effective solution and might I say a "smarter choice" for schools to make.