The Benefits of Interactive Whiteboards

An interactive whiteboard is a display that is connected to a computer and projector. The users use a stylus or pen to control the computer. The first interactive whiteboard was released in 1991. It is only in the last few years that the interactive whiteboard has been found to be of use in K-12 classrooms. You can replicate anything that is done on a computer monitor on an interactive whiteboard. It is seen to be useful in online education because it provides all the features of a traditional classroom. In the process large groups can participate with ease in a presentation. Lessons can be made exciting by integrating animation, video, graphics, audio and text. You can embed material from CD-ROMs, websites, DVDs and VHP tapes by displaying material from any of these sources. You can present information more creatively as it offers flexibility to use different methods. As a tutor while planning your lessons, you can edit information directly and save changes to the computer. You can use notes, diagrams and in the process save presentations. To revert to any earlier class-work you can go to the archive section as the interactive whiteboard gives you the ability to archive and add to the centralised resource. You can therefore refer to any presentation in progress for the next class. You get to create a collaborative layout in an engaging environment where more dialogues between tutors and students are made possible. Students tend to be motivated as more special effects can be used to excite their imagination. By presenting ideas effectively you will be able to endear students to complex ideas which would otherwise be a big challenge in a traditional classroom. An interactive whiteboard is a useful way of getting feedback from your students by using keypads from the Audience Response system and linking them with the computer in the whiteboard system. Responses can be used to increase the impact of your lessons. As online education is an outcome of the evolution of teaching methods there is a need to develop new age assets with research-documentation skills and proficiency in technology. The interactive whiteboard is useful to accelerate this process both for the online tutor and for the students. rnMulti-sensory learning is the best way to engage students. Technology broadens the mind by connecting the world as is the case with Interactive Whiteboards. Now virtual field trips and virtual experiments are all possible in your online classes.