Response to Edutopia article on electronic whiteboards

My response to an Edutopia Article (it also references some of the comments on Edutopia):

I find a middle ground between the utility of electronic white boards as stated by Sue and Joel's remarks. Though having an e-board allows one to USE a nice collection educational manipulatives, it does not provide a new technology in terms of displaying such manipulatives (LCD projector and computer will do this alone).

Along the same lines, It is currently possible to insert internet links and surf for answers with the computer/LCD projector combo. Sue says, "Any software you can put on your laptop can be used with a SMART Board." Any software installed on your laptop can currently be viewed using just the LCD projector. I believe that drawing and writing on the SMART board, and the ability to move to a new "slide" and back without losing your annotations is the key feature. Joel, your picture solution does not provide that type of flexibility. At the end of the whole process, your images and annotations are savable (great for absent students). Sue's ideas would make sense to me if the SMART software allowed a user to pause a video and write on the screen, maybe diagramming the scene. Does anyone know if this is the case?

At the end of the article there is a list of activities that are now possible with electronic white boards. Here is the list with flaws that I see.

• Digital storytelling. (already possible through software)
• Creating, viewing, and annotating student PowerPoint and multimedia presentations in real time. (once again, annotation is the key feature here)
• Showing streamed or downloaded videos. (already possible, paused diagramming would be great)
• Using online map and satellite imagery to teach geography. (already possible)
• Displaying artwork or online museum presentations. (beneficial if labeling parts)
• Demonstrating movie-making techniques. (Already possible but may be more beneficial with teacher pointing on board instead of just using the mouse pointer)
• Viewing and analyzing competitive sports and physical education activities. (great for saving diagrams of plays/technique)
• Teaching students how to conduct research on the Internet. (refer to movie-making response)
• Working collaboratively on writing and editing exercises, math lessons, and science experiments. (Usually easier to write/diagram than type math problems)
• Instructing the class on the use of a software program, keyboarding techniques, and other computer skills. (refer to movie-making response)