Are Interactive White Boards Dead?

By Robert J. Leneway January 8, 2012

Close to 600,000 Interactive Whiteboards were sold worldwide last year, generating nearly $1billion of revenue, according to a new market report from Futuresource Consulting. “Across the globe, the Interactive Whiteboard phenomenon is really taking hold,” says Colin Messenger, Senior Consultant, Futuresource with “one in six classrooms” now hooked up with an Interactive Whiteboard. The report goes on to say that few markets hold the promise of education, where we’ll see very strong sales growth for at least the next five years.” Thus, the use of interactive white boards may not yet be dead but there are several other emerging trends that may threaten their mortality.

According to Wikipedia, “An interactive whiteboard (IWB) is a large interactive display that connects to a computer and projector. A projector projects the computer's desktop onto the board's surface where users control the computer using a pen, finger, stylus, or other device. The board is typically mounted to a wall or floor stand.” They range in price from about $3,500 to $5,000 and need a laptop which could cost from $500 to $1,500 and if not already build in, a multimedia projector and typically weight up to 300 pounds.

Why use an IWB?

All interactive whiteboards come with software, to enable you to use it as a copy board. Wedgewood Consulting claims that IWBs can be use to “write or draw on the whiteboard with your finger or the pens provided and save the image to the computer. These images, which are your notes from the meeting or training session, can then be printed or emailed. The software that comes with some interactive whiteboards may have built in OCR to recognize handwriting and turn it into computer text.”

Wedgewood further reports that Interactive whiteboards can be used to:

• Write over the top of programs to highlight and annotate points (see picture above).
• View and navigate the Internet from the whiteboard. Surf and display websites which the entire room will be able to see.
• Students/audience members can approach the whiteboard and add their contribution to the discussion by writing directly on the whiteboard.
• Present ideas to large audiences.
• Display movie files or DVD's from the PC
• Work on word processing documents, spreadsheets, design project with your colleagues and can be connected to video conferencing systems.

In the classroom, Marzano (2008) claims that student achievement can be raised significantly with the regular use of IWB by trained teachers. Hence, their increase in sales to the educational marketplace.

Alternatives?

In their best seller, Disrupting Class, How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns: Christensen C., Johnson C., Horn, M., (2011) detail how new innovations quietly progress to a tipping point and replace current technology, ie. main frames computer replaced by personal computers, and currently brick and mortar schools by online education. A similar fate may be brewing for I.W.B.s. Forrester Research projected that based on the U.S sales figures of different PC form factors – Tablets, Netbooks, Notebooks & Desktop, tablet sales, will overtake Netbook sales in 2012 and desktop sales by 2013 (Shantharam, 2010). Within the tablet market, 14.3 million iPads were sold compared to 1.3 million other tablets in). 2011 (Ugwu, 2011

The Consumer Electronic Show held in Las Vegas each year is the largest show of its kind in the world is reported to demonstrate that 2012 will be the year of the Internet TV. Internet TV is an emerging internet technology standard for use by television broadcasters to directly distribute Internet content to the viewer. Meanwhile, large LCD TVs with interactive screens have now also reached the consumer marketplace. These touch screen LCD and plasma TVs/monitors ranges in price from $949 for a 50” LG touch screen TV to $10,000 for a 70” touch and thin screen 3D Samsung TV and are expected to come down in price as availability and sales increase. Touch screen TV, or tablet such as an iPad connected to either a projector or an LCD TV are emerging as an possible less expensive alternative to interactive white boards. A laptop with TV output can provide limited interactivity. However, when a pc is linked using software such as Splashtop or Doceri to a tablet like an iPad and a projector or LCD TV functionality beyond what is currently offered by most IWBs can be obtained. See chart below. These linking software apps offer remote desktop control, annotation, and an authoring environment for creating and sharing lessons. Thus, by using a tablet like the iPad to communicate wirelessly with a classroom computer, teachers can project lessons using standard projection equipment to create an interactive whiteboard learning environment that allows students to participate in lessons without leaving their seats.

Instructional Functions	I.W.B.s with pc and Projector	Touch Screen 50 inch TVs with pc	PC, iPad(s) and Projector
Highlight and annotate	X		X
Surf the Internet	X	X	X
Class writing on board	X		X
Present ideas to large audience	X		X
Display movies and DVDs	X	X	X
Collaborative work with MS Office	X		X
Connect to a video conferencing session	X	X	X
Record screen for future viewing	X		X
Record entire lesson for future playback			X
Student input without leaving desk			X
Displaying educational apps			X
Est. cost of I.W.B. with projector (REMC) Promethean 300 Series Fixed Bundle	$4,006
Est cost of Multimedia projector, ultraportable, WXGA (REMC bid price)			$909
Est cost of Projector bulb first year	$200-$300		$200-$300
Est cost of Touch Screen 50” TV with Internet		$3,000
Est cost of PC with basic software	$1,200	$1,200	$1,2 00
Est cost of iPad			$299 to $699
Est cost of linking software			$50 per iPad
Est total cost	$5,500	$4,200	$2,700
Est total cost for 30 students (working in pairs with iPads)	N.A.	N.A.	$7,950

*iPads are currently available at $299 from Verizon and other wireless vendors with a two year commitment, however, reports are that Apple will make a $299 version available to everyone this spring 2012 to better compete with the $199 Kindle Fire.

Conclusion

If cost is the only consideration, then the commercial IWB could be replaced by a combination of a pc, iPad, and projector running an iPad wireless linking software like Doceri at less than half the cost. Also, a 50” ITV or Plasma Internet enhanced TV connected to a pc with an HDMI connection and/or iPad with an HDMI adaptor ($33) is also less costly, but also less interactive then the other two solutions. The advantage is that is it less complex and does allow for the use of educational iPad apps on a large screen.

However, it should be remembered that it's not the medium, but instructional methods that cause learning. For any implementation to have a chance of making a difference in learning, Deubel (2010) says that one needs to be able to answer "yes" to one or more of the following questions:

1. Is there an educational need, problem, or gap for which use of new media might potentially enhance learning?
2. Would the application of new media assess students' prior knowledge and either provide the instructor with relevant information about students' knowledge and skill level or provide help to students in acquiring the necessary prerequisite knowledge and skills if their prior knowledge is weak?
3. Would the use of new media enhance students' organization of information given that organization determines retrieval and flexible use?
4. Would the use of new media actively engage students in purposeful practice that promotes deeper learning so that students focus on underlying principles, theories, models, and processes, and not the superficial features of problems?
5. Would the application of new media provide frequent, timely, and constructive feedback, given that learning requires accurate information on one's misconceptions, misunderstandings, and weaknesses?
6. Would the application of new media help learners develop the proficiency they need to acquire the skills of selective monitoring, evaluating, and adjusting their learning strategies? (Some call these metacognitive skills.)
7. Would the use of new media adjust to students' individual differences given that students are increasingly diverse in their educational backgrounds and preferred methods of learning?

If these questions on the use of educational technology tools to enhance learning are applied to each of these options, then it would appear that each meets one or more of criteria, but the best solution that would meet all of these learning enhancement and engagement questions would be to purchase multiple iPads such that student could work individually, in pairs or small team on instructional problems that could be shared directly from their desks to the larger classroom audience. As the instructional process becomes more individualized and the instructor takes on more of the “guide on the side” role, classroom technology that support this role change becomes increasing critical.

So, the interactive white board may not be yet dead, but it is in peril of being “disrupted” by emerging innovations in classroom technologies.