The new must have tech in education: the interactive smartboard. These cost at around £1500 each (excluding projector) so they are an expensive investment.  But are they really necessary?

What I don’t understand is why they are needed in every classroom for every single  subject.  Though they make a school look high tech and for the right subjects they are a benefit for subjects such as physics where there are interactive demonstrations (like bloody oscillations of a spring). For subjects such as Mathematics or English they are absolutely pointless. In my maths class there is a smartboard installed, and its only purpose is a projector screen, nothing else which is a huge waste.  Surely a whiteboard would make a cheaper projector screen.

What’s even more annoying is when they spend hundreds of pounds on an interactive whiteboard set up when its not even aligned properly.  Some are at weird angles, some only use up a small proportion of the smartboard and on some set ups the projector isn’t focused (see picture below).  Most of the smartboards that are in use aren’t even calibrated properly.  This leads to the teacher tapping furiously at an object on the screen and getting the incorrect response for instance when they want to close a window, but it minimises instead.

The projectors that are in use aren’t even maintained properly.  Almost all the projectors I come across display the message asking the user to clean the filters.  It is an important because the dust can cause the projector to overheat thus reducing its lifespan. Most teachers ignore this message either that or the fatass IT guy (being stereotypical here) is to busy monitoring students typing swearwords into word.

In my secondary school, I had a biology teacher that relied solely on a smartboard to teach a lesson.  Now this really annoyed me because copying notes from a powerpoint presentation is not helpful.  Not only were the backgrounds ugly, the font was abysmal and there was TOO MUCH text (Gosh!).  Nothing was interactive, it was just pressing the right arrow key on the keyboard to advance the slides.

Teachers should be trained in using the smartboards.  Most don’t even have a clue how to use one effectively.  And most of the time they aren’t even needed the money could be better spent on other things, such as more thermite. Muahahahaha.

Heh, a projector was stolen in my college at one point, poor Mike, he couldn’t teach without it.