The obvious question that will be asked by most school leaders - and in particular by those who have made a considerable investment in placing data projectors with a computer in most classrooms - is what do interactive whiteboards do that can't be achieved by a data projector and a computer?

The clearest answer is that IWBs open the way for every teacher to use ICT integrally in their everyday teaching, to enhance pedagogy and improve student learning, while there is scant or no evidence to support the ability of data projectors alone to achieve this kind of success.

The reasons for that success lie in a combination of the following factors:

Teachers Able to Teach Naturally

IWBs are the teaching boards of the twenty first century. Strategically positioned they allow teachers to use their full array of teaching skills. They are able to perform as normal. In contrast, computer driven data projectors oblige the teachers to operate from the keyboard and in so doing even the most dynamic teachers are inhibited.

Interactivity of the Boards - and the type of teaching that it encourages

IWBs are designed as an interactive facility, to be readily and easily used by everyone in the classroom. The data projector/desktop set up in contrast is primarily a one-person presentation facility. The latter’s basic set up – and its operating software – makes it very difficult for more than one person at a time to use the technology. The IWBs in contrast actively attract multiple users – and their highly tactile nature encourages the group to contribute. IWBs encourage a student centric teaching style while the data projectors encourage a teacher centric teaching style.

Interactive Software

A major plus of the boards over the data projector is the increasingly sophisticated body of software, provided by both the board manufacturers and third parties, that actively encourages interactivity and group contribution.

Simple Large Screen Controls

One of the major differences between the two technologies is the on screen controls of the interactive whiteboards; highly intuitive controls that can be readily used without any keyboard skills by everyone in the class. The data projector controls are vested in the teacher. Those controls shift the balance from a teacher to a more student inclusive model. The kids from kindergarten upwards are readily able to use the technology.

Immediacy of Use by all Teachers and Students

Having the operational controls on the board itself makes it very, very easy for even the most diffident users of ICT to use an IWB. Those controls serve to remove the ‘barriers’ and hang ups associated with the use of computer keyboards. Alienated students and reluctant teachers are soon taken with the opportunities provided.

Students and Teachers Free to Work the Boards

Anyone can manipulate and annotate information, objects and programs that are displayed on the board. A group can cluster around the board taking turns in a quick fire manner to interact with the content of the board. With a computer and a projector all the aspects of control are located at the computer, often away from the display of information. This creates serious barriers to collaborative interactions, assuming that the children have the skills to interact via a computer in the first place.

‘Back up’ Assurance

Undoubtedly linked to the ease of use of the boards is the realisation by the teachers that should all else fail the board could always be used as a whiteboard.

Graduated ‘Take up’

The combination of the on-screen and desktop controls allows the more diffident teachers to work a graduated take up and increase their use when they feel comfortable.

ICT and Teaching Integration

IWBs are a very effective and comfortable way for teachers to integrate ICT into classroom practice. Teachers can think of an IWB as a whiteboard with the power of a computer. They know how to incorporate whiteboards into classroom use and so they feel comfortable with IWBs. As time progresses they evolve their teaching to take into consideration the potential of the 'computer aspect'. A computer and projector can be thought of as a computer with a very large screen, but it is still fundamentally a computer, not fundamentally a whiteboard. While this might seem a difference in semantics it makes a big difference in practice. ICT and curriculum integration soon become a non-issue.

Group Editing the Digital Form

Linked is the facility to readily annotate – or indeed edit – any of the digital images on the screen; something the students can’t readily do with presentation technology.

IWBs facilitate the Use of Pre-existing ICT

The boards provide the bridge between 'technology' and teachers’ 'comfort zones'. As a computer and projector do not provide this link the schools pre-existing technology often remains redundant.

Ease of Integrating Peripheral Technology

The IWB screen controls make it very easy for even the youngest of the students to readily take advantage of other digital inputs and indeed for the group to ‘work’ the associated digital images.

But at the Beginning...

IWBs for schools are still a very new technology - with immense capacity for enhancement - while data projectors linked to computers are a dated technology with little scope for development.