Are IWBs destined for the technology museum?

Published by Chris Ogilvie-Taylor, CEO of Marsden Grant on 30 December 2013

Having been given the latest Kindle e-book reader for Christmas, I asked my daughter if she would like to use my previous model purchased just two years ago. Her immediate reaction was one of shock and horror! That’s ancient technology she cried. Send it to the British Museum! Well okay, it is the original model which is lit by an LED on the end of a retractable stalk which I acknowledge does now look a bit dated but even so.....

But that’s technology for you. Changes in hardware are rapid and unrepentant. Classroom technology however has not developed at such a rate. Interactive WhiteBoards (IWBs) manufactured today are not really that very different from those made five years ago and the very first IWB launched in 1998 used pretty much the same technology as IWBs do today. But now there is a serious step change in edutech with the launch of Interactive Flat Panel Displays (IFPDs) which deliver all the benefits of IWBs without the disadvantages of presenter shadowing, low resolution and the requirement for independent projection. IFPDs really deliver the WOW factor in the classroom that today’s digital native pupils sorely need to become engaged and absorbed with their lessons given that most of them have in their possession high definition mobile devices which they have come to accept as the norm for consuming media and content..

If you’re not familiar with IFPDs, take a look at our range on this site by clicking on the Clevertouch LED tab above.

IWBs are not yet destined for technology museums as they still have an important role to play in classrooms but if your current IWBs are due for renewal or updating in 2014 then IFPDs are the way to go.