Every school contemplating the use of IWBs and looking to equip their classrooms appropriately is advised to address very carefully OH & S.

It is appreciated many schools acquiring IWBs will be naïve buyers and that there is an audio visual sales force keen to sell the latest and greatest technology and in particular the most powerful data projectors.

The bottom line is that the beam thrown by data projectors can be very dangerous to both teachers’ and students’ eyesight, and hence the selection and positioning of the data projectors should be done carefully.

BECTA – the British Educational Technology and Communications Agency – http://schools.becta.org.uk - provides the following excellent advice in its data projector procurement documentation.

It is anticipated that a maximum of 1,500 ANSI lumens will be adequate for most classroom environments. To minimise the risk of eye injury following improper use, projectors that are provided with outputs exceeding 1,500 lumens must be provided with a method of brightness reduction, by means of either power reduction or neutral density filters, so that the output is constrained to no more than 1,500 lumens when the projector is used with an interactive whiteboard. This constraint can then be removed for other projector uses such as video projection where it is unlikely that a person will be standing in the beam. This may be achieved by the supply of a neutral density filter.

Please note: the above statement does not imply that projectors over 1,500 lumens are dangerous. All projectors have the potential to cause damage if misused, but the risk may be increased with higher-powered projectors.”

Consider spending a little more money on blinds and acquiring a lower powered data projector that is ceiling mounted in a way that will minimise users of the boards looking into the team, rather than acquire a top end, 20,000 plus lumen data projector.

It is appreciated the trend with the data projectors is provide every greater power but the users must remind industry of the dangers.

A related, and not highly promoted issue, is the need to ensure teachers can use the boards in comfort. This is particularly important for early childhood teachers, working down at the kids’ level. Usually they will need an electronic slate or effective cordless keyboard to work comfortably.

Another OH&S issue for many schools, and in particular the early users is the propensity to do the cabling and powering on the cheap.

One walks into classrooms and sees power and speaker cables loosely lying around, and a dangerous number of power connections running off the one powerboard.

Ensure all the cabling is out of harm’s way and the appropriate care is taken with the power.