Why interactive whiteboards suck

There are a number of 19th century classroom practices that we've tried hard to eliminate during the 20th century. These include whole-class teaching from the front of the room, seeing learning as the transfer of information from the knowledgeable teacher to the ignorant students, and seeing knowledge as discrete - as facts to be learned. I'd suggest that interactive whiteboards encourage teachers to revert to these 19th century practices and that their use runs counter to the direction set in the new New Zealand Curriculum, which emphasises self management and personalised or co-constructed learning.

We forget that technology massages us into behaving in certain ways: the car, the telephone, the electric plug, television, the Internet, have all dramatically changed the way we behave. The interactive whiteboard encourages us to teach in particular ways and these may not actually be a good thing. We need to think through how this technology changes our behaviour and the messages about learning interactive whiteboards encourage.

And I'm always suspicious of "products" that teachers need to be better teachers. To be better, teachers seldom need products - they don't need a Smartboard, they just need to be smart.