Via my del.icio.us network, I find this post by Ewan McIntosh, titled CESI: Why people (not you) dread Change, Innovation and Creativity
“One of the reasons Interactive Whiteboards are not really delivering significant educational returns is because people don’t see how to exploit them in the long-term for what they’re good at: collaborative, student-led activity… What we end up with is teacher-centred uncollaborative work. Had they taken the less attractive, slightly bitter taste of changing the way they had taught all along (teacher-centred, from the front, look at my PowerPoint) to something more collaborative (the kids, not them, touch the board each lesson) then the rest of the drink would be more palatable in the longer term.
The entire post is interesting (if completely outside my area of competency), but I thought the perspective on participatory, reflective learning was interesting.
Personally, I think interactive whiteboards are brilliant toys, and would love to have one. I have no idea how they do or don’t perform in a traditional or non-traditional classroom environment, but, you know… Shiny!
Anyway, go read Ewan, and check out the discussion in the comments. It’s worth reading.