You’re convinced that interactive whiteboards are the way forward.

Where do you find the money?

Most schools will need to find the funds from within their existing budget or indeed seek a one off infusion of extra monies from their community on the proviso that there will be savings within the next couple of years.

In some situations, probably for the next decade, the politicians will like the fashionable quality of the IWBs and be convinced to provide a special infusion of monies to acquire the boards.

From Within the Budget

As you’ll have seen from the Cost Comparisons the set up of IWB classrooms costs appreciably less than establishing and maintaining a computer lab.

Another variable to consider is that the successful take up of IWBs would appear to lead to a significant decrease in photocopying use and expenditure.

The successful IWB take-ups tend not to teach ICT skills as such, but rather naturally integrate the ICT development into all teaching and in turn foster the already considerable one-to one computer use in the home.

This removes the need for computer labs, other than for specialist subjects and thus allows those monies to be redeployed.

How you move will be strongly influenced by your financial situation and most importantly where you are at with any leasing program.

One of the great features of IWBs – and the successful implementation strategies – is that one can work a graduated take up and acquire the boards in batches.

In many schools the funds will need to be secured by spending less on personal computers and the associated network infrastructure and maintenance. Experience would suggest there is a tendency for the decision makers to forget the total cost and how much is spent in providing the network infrastructure for large PC and laptop deployments.

IWBNet strongly recommends each school model the anticipated take up costs - including the IWB technology, the complementary technology, the set up of the teaching areas and staff development - over the likely school take up period.

In so doing it will also be important to factor in the facility to use and redeploy existing ICT.

One-off Infusion

Another option is to secure a one-off infusion of monies on the understanding that significant savings will be made in the next couple of years.

The main cost with an IWB deployment will normally be in the initial set up.

The boards do not have to be upgraded anywhere near as regularly as personal computers. The technological updating is achieved through free software upgrades.

There is now enough knowledge for schools to model the kind of shifts in expenditure possible once one has moved to the greater use of IWBs.

Special Public Money Grants

The interactive whiteboard technology is currently fashionable and will likely be so for a few more years, particularly as the research comes forward showing its positive impact on teaching and learning.

That fashionable quality will appeal to politicians and thus one is likely to see, across the world, initiatives like those of the UK government.

Judging from past experience the ‘roll out’ will be designed for maximum political and not educational impact, but the exercises will provide the astute school leaders the opportunity to take advantage of the extra infusion of resources.

The key as a school and system leader is to regard the public money infusions as ‘cream on the cake’ and to budget for no supplementary funding.