Blog Post 5

In Michael Staton's Why Smartboards Are A Dumb Initiative he gives to arguments as to why he doesn't think that "SMART" boards are a good classroom investment. The first is that teachers will face the same problems of standing in front of a classroom and lecturing in the same way that he says students don't respond to, only now with a more elaborate board behind them. Second, that they are an "administrative cop out" for a justification to spend money. He states that in order to request money they need to be able to show a valid reason or area that the money is going to, and that's where the SMART boards come in to play. They are a good show piece, to prove how well they are spending the money they are allocated.

Almost the same feelings are expressed by Bill Ferriter in his post, Why I Hate Interactive Whiteboards. Mr. Ferriter even goes as far as to say that he has given his interactive board away. Both of these gentlemen express some very intense feelings on the idea of SMART boards.

While I do not completely disagree with both of these men I cannot agree 100% either. Having experienced lessons with and without the use of SMART board I can appreciate some of the advantages as well. Students today like to use technology, and the chance to use the SMART board is an incentive to many students when giving reports. It gives them a sense of creative freedom when doing presentations that just simply doesn't exist with the use of normal blackboards. Also, I know from experience that when teachers are writing things on the board for you to copy as notes it is sometimes hard to get every single thing before they are erasing and going on to the next time. SMART boards allow teachers to save anything that has been written on a SMART board and posted on the internet for the students to refer back to at a later time.

While the idea of using a SMART board is totally opinionated this is a link I found interesting and helpful when looking at advantages to utilizing interactive whiteboards. Why Do Teachers Love SMART boards? is a website where teachers from all over have went and posted what they love the most about SMART boards so school board officials and principals can see the potential and possibly approve the funding to put these boards in their schools.




Watching the Chipper video as well as the EDM310 for dummies was a very interesting experience. Both videos showed a great amount of thought and creativity as well as the "chipper" video teaches several great lessons about being successful in life.

They were made you think of what were some possibilities for other movies? Maybe like the "chipper" movie we could make a video showing kids the consequences for drug and alcohol abuse just like chipper found out the consequences for procrastinating on school and work? Cliche maybe but I still think it would be a good idea.