Many parents and even teachers themselves will look back on their time at school and remember the most advanced piece of technology being a stick of chalk and a chalkboard. These days this is a far cry from what can now be found in the modern class room, a place that now uses many modern technology products to great effect in making learning more accessible and varied.
One of the biggest changes has been the introduction of interactive whiteboards; these involve a number of different products such as a computer, an interactive display that can act as an input and an overhead projector that projects the image from the computer. There are many different varieties of the electronic whiteboard available with Infra-Red pens, electromagnetic pens all able to offer a way to interact with the image being produced on the screen.
The number of ways to use interactive whiteboards has increased dramatically as they have become more prevalent in classrooms all round the world. Primarily used when writing or annotating in front of a class full of students (adults or children) they can also be used to display DVDs or educational videos or to compile a large amount of research on the board which can be saved for a later session too.
One other way the classroom of today is becoming more tech-savvy is the combination of these interactive whiteboards with other uses such as a learner response system. Infra-Red clickers can be distributed amongst the class to allow them to respond to simple multiple choice questions or surveys. More advanced instances have the ability to input text and numbers for a more detailed response.
The introduction of advanced and technological ways to teach has been something governments and learning authorities around the world have spent many millions on and have high hopes that this kind of technology will become common in every class room. Already research has found that the number of classrooms now fitted with an interactive whiteboard has increased to a percentage of 26% of British classrooms alone having them.
The equipment can be expensive with products such as the interactive screen and a projector being two main purchases, the computer that connects to the whiteboard typically can be any desktop PC or laptop that has either a USB, Serial port or even Bluetooth connection so that the board can be treated as an input device but also a monitor or display connection that allows the computer to output it's display via the projector.