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Wednesday, July 16

Am I Missing Something? - Interactive Whiteboards vs. Data Projectors


As far as 'bang for buck' goes I am an advocate of mounted data projectors in classrooms rather than interactive white-boards.

I am interested in your thoughts.
Are you considering them ? Have you got one?




What can you do with an IWB that can't be done with a data projector and/or a marker board?
How do your use your IWB to ensure your students are active participants and not simply consumers of information?


Some of the ideas on this site were useful in challenging my thinking but enough to justify the hundreds of extra dollars - I dunno?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Rocky -

We have ceiling mounted projectors in most of our classrooms at Selwyn Ridge Primary, and feel a bit the same way as you. I will be very interested to see if anyone can convince us otherwise, although we are very open to change!

We have three classrooms now with wii remote iwb (as shown to the world by Jonny Lee), which do 80% of what an iwb can do at a fraction of the cost ($130 for the remote, mount and ir pen).

With tools like this, or with a long range wireless mouse, we feel we have the best value for money.

Cheers, MattThomas

Tessa Gray said...

Hi Matthew and Rocky.

This is a very timely discussion point and we have now made the ICT PD Online Theme "Interactive Whiteboards" open to all viewers. There are some particularly relevant discussions about data projectors, IWBs, Mimios and Tablets. Go in and have your say.

I think the driving philosophy is in the interpretation of the work 'interactive'. How does one interact? Where from in the classroom? How is this different from a laptop or desktop destination? What this might mean to the teacher, learner, group and of course how it is used effectively in a learning cycle.

I would say the best argument comes from those who use them frequently and well. Sue Hodge has written some reflective analysis of this in her IWB paper. This too can be downloaded from the site. http://centre4.interact.ac.nz/modules/page/page.php?space_key=382&module_key=63730