Interactive whiteboards(IWB)

What is it and how does it help teachers and students?? Well the interactive whiteboard is a form of digital pedagogy that helps teachers demonstrate all sorts of key subject content to their learner and through its interactive display, engage the students using its touch screen functions.
The application though is a little difficult as it requires practice and patience, but in my humble perspective it can be very useful. Steve Krause’s blog criticised the practicality of an IWB vs the classical use of a normal blackboard or projector system with a desktop computer or both, considering they basically perform the same function. Alternatively, I recently came across IWB in my teaching practices at Stellenbosch University and I found that the interactiveness of whiteboards are a very handy feature, otherwise not provided by the projectors or blackboards. That is the ability to stand away from your desk, to maintain a certain level of eye contact with your students without constantly having to look at the computer screen or the stand hovering over the keyboard in order to change from one slide to the next. The same principle applies to the blackboards, ones back doesn't face the students when presenting a concept diagrammatically, not to mention they are not as messy as blackboards and one does not have to go hunting in the middle of class for a stick of chalk. These two main comparisons promotes IWB as a system of group interaction whereby students collaborate with one another, engage in group discussion and participation. Exemplified in that IWBs provide a means for teachers to write out ideas, answers and make mind maps in the class based on the students feedback, which can be later provided to them via electronic means.  The resulting effect is that students will feel they had an interactive role in their own education, effectively motivating them to maintain a good level of participation in the class.
Although I advocate the use of an IWB as a teacher I have to consider if it can be used as an effective and transformative tool. There are admittedly other tools such as remotes, that challenge the efficacy of whiteboards, that can be used in conjunction with computer-projector based systems to in effect nullify the use of an interactive whiteboard, but this is not the only concern challenging the use of IWB. Concerns that are oriented around the use of IWB as a transformative tool include, teachers focussing more on the technology than on their learners resulting in loss of conceptual understanding of the subject content or the focus placed on mundane activities and the time needed to perform interactive board tasks, where the students need to take turns, rather than something that might not involve the whiteboard but provide a better understanding of the material.
Ultimately the requirements for the effective use of a whiteboard is up to the teachers dedication to developing their classroom pedagogical strategies and willingness to learner and understands the workings of the IWB.