Why are we STILL Wasting Money on Whiteboards?

If you’ve spent any time reading the Radical, you know that I hate Interactive Whiteboards—and the companies that sell them as instructional silver bullets—with an unhealthy passion. 

Recently, though, I’ve dialed back that passion.  I guess that’s because—thankfully—conversations about teaching with technology have started to shift into healthier places. 

I hear less and less from educators who just HAVE to have an IWB.

More importantly, I hear less and less from school leaders who are ready to plunk down their schools’ already limited technology budgets on a small handful of glorified presentation tools that do NOTHING to change teaching and learning in our schools.

That lull in the lunacy ended this week.

You see, I bumped into a friend who is a well respected instructional technology leader in his large middle school.  He was completely jazzed because his principal had asked him to help spend the school’s technology budget.

That excitement was short-lived, though.  Turns out that his principal—who’d recently attended a conference and seen a slick presentation in the vendor hall—had already bought and paid for 6 IWBs.

Total cost:  $18,000.

Stew in that for a minute, would you?  Do you have ANY idea what you could do with $18 THOUSAND dollars?

Here are 5 different ways I would spend that cash:

You could buy 75 netbook computers with $18 K.

I’ve been more than a little riled up lately about the fact that I have TWO working computers in my room. 

That makes it really difficult for my kids to access the internet, which makes it really difficult for them to explore and to wonder on their own.

If I had $18 grand to spend, I’d think about buying a bunch of cheap netbooks—like these $240 Eee PCs—to spread around my classrooms.

You could buy 87 iTouches with $18 K.

While they’re not as functional as netbooks, 87 iTouches could go a long way in classrooms too.  They could function as eReaders and student responders.  They could function as web browsers and video cameras.

They could be loaded with educational applications and used in remediation stations.  They could serve as impromptu voice recorders and video conferencing tools. 

Most importantly, they would be in the hands of kids—not teachers.  That matters.

 

You could buy 360 Livescribe Pens with $18 K.

One of my favorite digital tools is the Livescribe pen. 

A digital gizmo that records every stroke that a user makes on special Livescribe paper and pairs it to a time-synched audio recording, Livescribe pens have a million applications in the classroom.

Teachers can use Livescribe pens to easily create and upload tutorials for students.  Students can use Livescribe pens to capture content from lessons they would have otherwise missed. 

Teachers AND students can use Livescribe pens to extend learning or provide remediation whenever—and wherever—a pen and a notebook can go.

And at $49 for a refurbished 1GB pen, they’re easily the cheapest tool you can spring for in today’s digital marketplace.

 

You could buy 7 YEARS of Poll Everywhere subscriptions for $18 K.

I’ve written for years about my struggles to integrate formative assessment practices into my classroom. 

While I get that collecting—and then acting on—data about what my kids know is essential to driving learning gains, collecting and acting on student learning data isn’t easy when you’re armed with nothing  more than post it notes and three ring binders.

That’s why Poll Everywhere is a service that I’m currently exploring. 

Paired with student cell phones, computers, or handheld wireless devices, Poll Everywhere makes it possible for teachers to collect instant feedback on student learning.

With $18 K, you could buy 7 YEARS of premium Poll Everywhere accounts for 50 teachers. 

You could buy 36 YEARS of VoiceThread subscriptions for $18 K.

I’ve been a believer in VoiceThread for years. 

A simple service that allows teachers and students to engage in asynchronous conversations around text, images or videos, VoiceThread taps into the essentially social nature of learning—and of kids.

I’ve used VoiceThread to give students forums for their poetry and to extend Socratic seminars on topics like hate and genocide. 

My kids almost always love VoiceThreads because they can choose the strands of conversation that they want to participate in.  VoiceThread also appeals to the quiet kids in my class who might never take the chance to share in front of their peers.

And for about a BUCK, you can get an Ed VoiceThread subscription for a student for one year. 

Divide your $18 K up any way you want.  Have 18,000 kids in your district?  Outfit them all with a VT subscription for one year.

Have 500 kids in your school?  Spend $500 per year on VT subscriptions and your $18 K will last for THIRTY-SIX YEARS.

My buddy’s principal—not to mention his state’s taxpayers and the parents of his school community—ought to look at this list and CRINGE. 

Instead of getting 75 netbooks or 87 iTouches or 360 Livescribe pens or 7 years of Poll Everywhere for every teacher or 36 years of VoiceThread subscriptions for every student, he bought SIX INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARDS.

No matter how you slice it, that’s wasting cash.

#sickofit

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Related Radical Reads:

More on Interactive Whiteboards

What I’d buy instead of an Interactive Whiteboard

Teachers, Chainsaws and the Dreaded Interactive Whiteboard

Five questions to ask BEFORE buying IWBs

Comments

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1065784140]

Interactive Whiteboards can be a nightmare for subs. I vote for blackboards with chalk.

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1065784140]

Spend the money on Laptop computers so that the children have access to the Internet. One or two computers per classroom is useless.

[Frank Noschese]

Or you could buy 9,000 $2 interactive whiteboards -- one for each pair of students in your district. http://bit.ly/2dollarWB

Great post, as always!

[IAppleLearner]

Wow?! I couldn't agree with you more. Great points. He could have bought an iPad 2 for each classroom and covered his whiteboard thrill and then some but served the needs of five times as many teachers and every student in his school. How sad he was caught in a vendor trap and impulse buying.

[Kevin Hodgson]

Thanks for another great post to get us thinking.
Kevin

[KDerushia]

Wow...I have bought IWBs many times but never paid $3,000/ea. Educational funds are being misspent daily.

[EdTechSandyK]

Or 45 interactive slates which offer the same technology as stationary IWBs but don't tie the teacher (or students) to the front of the room AND depending on the brand allow for interactivity between teacher and student slates, as well as formative assessment options when integrated with a student response system. Anyone looking at IWB technology should check out eInstruction Mobis (I don't work for eInstruction, but I have used their products and feel they are very education centered and offer high quality integration options.)

[Timeoutdad]

Until teachers learn how to integrate the technology into their teaching and their students' learning, spending that 18 grand on other technology can still be a waste of money.

iPads, iPod touches, Livescribe pens, netbooks etc. sound awesome to have in the classroom, but if teachers don't know how to transform their teaching and students' learning with these devices, they can easily become expensive toys or dust collectors, rather than tools.

iPads, iPod touches, and netbooks lose much of their value if you don't have good WiFi in your building, especially if you want the students to access the internet with them.

The biggest problem is that we are spending before planning. It takes TIME to really think about how to use these devices for our students' learning.

If there is no active planning on how these things are to be used effectively, then we should buy BOOKS with them. No tech issues to deal with and lots of effective learning can still happen.

[Joie]

Well said, bold and realistic. I like it. If that was me I would use it to pay for students who are smart but their parents can't afford the tuition fees.

[crazedmummy]

I am so used to "you can have input, but we already decided" that this does not surprise me. The gap between the words "investigative learning" out of their mouths and the supported practice of silent rows of students in lectures or on fill-in-the blank worksheets (these are the "good classes") is so prevalent, I wonder whether administrators really understand what the words mean.
Sales of these devices should be covered by the same consumer protection, whereby if you sign up for anything at a conference you get to retract that agreement once you come to your senses.
Yay for Livescribe!!

[Andy]

I agree wholeheartedly with 'Timeoutdad.' It's not about the tools, it's about the connection you make WITH the tools (through proper training) and the ability to use them effectively with what you teach.

Are you arguing that IWB's are too costly or ineffective teaching tools? The former is certainly up for debate, but the latter is most definitely not. There are thousands of good teachers out there who have learned how to make connections with IWB's in delivering effective whole group instruction. Thousands more have taken it one step further and integrated formative assessment into those lessons via LRS devices for even greater gains in student achievement.

I've seen IWB's used as back drops for the morning announcements and I've seen a hundred broken laptops sitting in a tech's offoce a month after a 1-1 initiative was implemented. Fundamentally, it's not about the tools, it's about the teachers and the training.

[D Mailloux]

We bought on IWB this year, our first . As well we purchased 5 media carts, 5 projectors and 5 sets of laptop speakers for our middle school. The teachers all have laptops already to use with the purchased equipment. The rational wasfirst funds and the best use for the entire population of the school. Technology changes very fast and do we need to be consumers or educators with effective quality tools. It is a good lesson for the students to also see .

[Bill Ferriter]

Andy---in a comment that echoes the thinking of timeoutdad----wrote:

I agree wholeheartedly with Timeoutdad. Its not about the tools, its
about the connection you make WITH the tools (through proper training)
and the ability to use them effectively with what you teach.

Yall are preaching to the choir here, Andy and Time Out Dad. I couldnt agree more that spending technology monies without a clear vision for how those tools and services are going to support meaningful learning in your classroom. In fact, Ive written about that a bunch of times. Here are two specific posts:

Does YOUR School Have Technology Vision Statements?
http://bit.ly/fSXYAI

Making Good Technology Choices
http://bit.ly/gqeU7T

And thats one of the reasons Im so passionately opposed to Interactive Whiteboards. Nothing that Ive seen done with IWBs----or that I actually did with the IWB that I had in my classroom for a year as I wrote professional development courses for Promethean and Pearson----supports any of my own personal beliefs about what good teaching and learning looks like in action.

I think its important, Andy, to specify that many of the progressive teaching practices that people attribute to IWBs are really a result of peripherals that you can buy without ever investing in a $2,000 board. I have nothing against sets of student responders or the tablets and slates that IWB companies sell. They all support the kinds of teaching and learning practices that I believe it.

But the board itself should be dragged out of our buildings and burned! It promotes a vision of teacher-directed learning that needs to be shelved.

And Time Out Dad: Id support spending the $18 K that my buddys principal blew on IWBs on ANYTHING else. Books, tutoring, teacher professional development, field trips, OR technology. My central point is that IWBs are an irresponsible purchase and a waste of taxpayer cash.

This kind of unintelligent waste makes me want to join the Tea Party.

(I never thought Id actually say THAT!)

Any of this make sense?
Bill

[LisaRead]

I hear you....oh boy do I hear you.... We have 3 IWBs in our Middle School. One gets used a little. One gets used as a Movie Screen, and the 3rd gets used as a screen for the Overheads (no lie). For the cost of 2 of those boards, we could have gotten LCD projectors for every class. Drives me nuts. Several posts on my blog dedicated to the "Bright Shiny" philosophy.
http://readlisaread.edublogs.org/2010/11/06/smartboard-sure-smart-teaching-im-not-convinced/

[Jessica]

Bill (and everyone else who commented),
Thanks for providing a physical conversation that I am able to show to everyone in my school. I am the local "Bill Ferriter" in that I am outspoken against IWB where I am. We are considering some big IT purchases in the near future and I will definitely be showing all of these points to the admin before the purchases are made. Thanks for (hopefully) stopping another waste of money on IWB.