I have a dirty secret. It’s something I’m so ashamed to admit to that I’ve been hiding it for years. I am afraid of interactive whiteboards. The fear isn’t of the technology involved. It’s that I’m going to break it.

A long time ago, when I first started teaching, I ruined a regular whiteboard by writing on it with a permanent marker (they look just like regular board markers, OK?). In the end, we were able to repair it but the embarrassment in class when I wasn’t able to wipe off what I had written on the board is something that will stick with me for a long time.

The first time I saw an interactive whiteboard, I instantly thought “OMG, what if I write on it in permanent marker and ruin it?”. Since then, I have tried my best to avoid them and succeeded until quite recently.

Although I wanted iPads for our department, it looks like we’re getting interactive whiteboards. So, last week, I decided to take one for a test drive with a friend. After checking the labels on the markers (they really do look similar), I approached the board. To my surprise, I found that one of the best things about interactive whiteboards is that if you are well prepared, quite often you don’t actually need board markers. Obviously, there are different types of interactive whiteboards but if the ones we’re getting are anything like the one I had a go on, I think I’m going to enjoy using them.

I’ve seen some great MFL Powerpoint presentations that would work well on an interactive whiteboard and using real-life examples is going to be a lot easier than it was using the DVD player (whenever I was able to wrestle it away from ‘Scary Sue’).

I feel like I’m on a roll with overcoming fears now. Next week, I think I’ll try and get over my fear of crashing into windows.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 at 9:07 am and is filed under IT. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.