What makes an Electronic Whiteboard different from a PC connected to a beamer?

What makes an Electronic Whiteboard different from a PC connected to a beamer?

Most things that are built in in the software that comes with an Electronic Whiteboard (like writing and drawing on the screen, showing movies, manipulating a ruler on the screen) can be done with a regular PC/laptop connected to a Beamer as well.

Advantages of the Electronic Whiteboard on top of using a PC/laptop connected to a Beamer are:

-Writing on the Electronic Whiteboard is more convenient than writing with the mouse on the screen.

-The presenter is not ‘hidden’ behind her PC, but is central and visible in front of the room.

The real difference: Interactive aspects

What makes the real difference are the Interactive aspects like:

-Asking students to come forward and show things on the Electronic Whiteboard

-Having a group of students discuss and arrange a problem on the Electronic Whiteboard that will be presented to the whole class later.

-Have students work or brainstorm in groups and 1 by 1 have them write results on the Electronic Whiteboard.

-Have the students make a Mindmap together on the whiteboard.


The Electronic Whiteboard and Active Learning

In Active Learning the students should get more opportunities to run the show and to be active with the teacher coaching.

Factors that stimulate Active learning:

-An Electronic Whiteboard stimulates teachers to have students run part of the show and to be active.

-An Island classroom setup helps in making the students mobile and interactive.

-An informal atmosphere stimulates students to be active and interactive and helps them to overcome the fears of running the show themselves.

Other factors creating an informal atmosphere are:

-Light colored walls

-Food and drinks allowed

The electronic whiteboard is probably most useful in combination with the Cooperative Learning Exercises like the ones mentioned in this article on Active and Cooperative Learning from California State University
.
http://www.calstatela.edu/dept/chem/chem2/Active/#group

Welcome

Hi,

this is my first BLOG entry ever. We are starting our first Staff Development Course on Innovative Learning for UNESCO-IHE tomorrow. The course was developed by CLU in cooperation with me and Erick de Jong. In the course I would like to introduce the participants to http://www.linkedin.com , which I think is a really great example of Social Software. I believe Linkedin combined with a link to a Blog at fe. http://www.Blogger.com is a great way of maintaining a network of professionals for your job, for you study or for your reasearch.