Advantages and Disadvantages of Interactive Whiteboards

After talking about the hardware and softwares of Interactive Whiteboards, I'm going to talk about some pros and cons of IWBs.

First of all, as being used like computers, the greatest difference between IWBs and traditional blackboards is that teachers' work like handwriting can be saved and stored easily. The files can be demonstrated again at any time we want. Here is an interesting video showing this advantage:

Secondly, IWBs enable teachers to use different kind of teaching materials like images, graphics, audio and videos to make their classes more interesting and interactive. Teacher can use underling, circling, annotating of different colors combined with IWBs' tools to help students understand the contents more easily and thoroughly.

Also, teachers can simply show the software and website up onscreen and go through it bit by bit on the whiteboard when they want to tell the class how to use a particular website or software.

However, there are also cons of IWBs. The price of IWBs is always much more higher than traditional whiteboards which makes many schools unable to afford. The surface is especially expensive and can be easily damaged. Besides, the shadow is a big problem which may prevent students seeing the contents clearly.