- Image via Wikipedia
Think about the way that the classrooms have evolved over the years. Many, many years ago it used to be that classrooms did not have chalkboards at all and instead children were required to write on their own individual chalkboards. Advance a few years and classrooms came equipped with chalkboards that teachers could use for their lessons. Another few years into the future and the classroom chalkboard switched to whiteboards that required erasable marker. Now a whole new wave of technology has advanced how the classroom chalkboard is used and there is the smart classroom technology known as the interactive whiteboard that is used by classrooms all over.
The Interactive Whiteboard is a huge screen that is mounted to a wall of the classroom. The teacher or professor will use a computer to project a given image of their computer desktop onto the screen. The screen can then be controlled by the students pen on the screen, fingers or other types of pointing devices. This control allows students to interact first hand with what the teacher is presenting and become involved with the lessons.
When the interactive whiteboard is brought into a classroom it can serve a number of purposes. The first purpose being that of an interactive learning tool. Teachers are able to invent classroom activities that allow students to interact with the lesson and therefore offer a new learning technique to some of the elements that need to be learned. Another purpose is that of media projection. The interactive whiteboard can serve as a way to show off videos and DVDs to a classroom. Teachers can now use these types of videos and media elements as a way to supplement their classroom lessons and not have to worry about students having limited access to the media elements as they are being presented to the whole classroom at one time.
