Emergence of the Interactive Whiteboard in Educational Settings

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The interactive whiteboard generally consists of a computer, a data projector, and an electronic screen . The IWB was designed for office settings, and has not been used in schools until recently. In educational settings, it was first used in higher education, and primary schools began to consider its use in the late 1990s. One of the reasons this new technological tool began to be considered for use in educational settings is because it was identified as a way to integrate a wide range of multimedia resources, such as written text, sound, pictures, software packages, video clips, CD-ROMs, Internet images and websites, into classroom instruction. It also provides a synchronous transmission mode, allowing two-way interaction between the student or teacher and the medium, thus enhancing student engagement . The board is large and touch-sensitive ; students can write on the board, using fingers, hands,and markers to demonstrate their understanding . It also can be very useful when teaching math as a result of its ability to let the user draw straight lines, circles, triangles, and squares . Many countries, such as the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, and Canada, are enthusiastic about the whiteboard’s potential in enhancing teaching and learning; consequently, they are spending millions to buy this technology for their school systems. England has been experiencing a trend toward whole-class teaching recently, especially in mathematics. Reynolds and Farrell found that the top-performing countries in mathematics were using a significant amount of direct whole-class teaching. The enthusiasm about INTECH IWB( was likely triggered in part by their potential to improve whole-class instruction.