IWBUsers.com - International Interactive whiteboard user forum - users of all brands are welcome to share lesson activites between teachers for all types of subjects and schools.

The market for IWBs explodes as expected and a lot of new asian brands see the market.
What should you choose and what is a "good IWB" ?

Well it is as often "in the eye of the beholder" but first you start to look at what are your needs?

Do you want to be able to create faboulus lessons that inspires your students or do you want to use the whiteboard as a big screen for movies / youtube clips?

Do  you want to have the freedom that touch based IWBs give you or do you want pen based products ?

Our opinion is that SOFTWARE is the key - when looking for a interactive whiteboard take a deep look and test the software that comes with the product.

Are there good licence agreements for the software, does it come in your local language, are there user forums for lessons created locally ?

We also think that touch for many people gives the best solution - since you can use a pen anyway but on a pen based product you can never use your finger instead..

Do you have any ideas how many interactive whiteboard manufacturers it´s out there? Well just send us a tip at the contact us button for each manufacturer you see and we will put together a list. Note that many manufacturers do OEM which means that same product can have a lot of different names.

Insecure what to choose still?  Well look at marketshares and see which brands have a lot of users and choose from there.

Some people say interactive whiteboards is just a computer connected "black bord".

That the teachers continue to work with the new fantastic IWB just like they did on their old green / black / whiteboard.

And yes in some cases I belive this is true. The teacher is still only human and do what is easiest and most convenient for her och him.

But this I have noticed have nothing to do with the age of the teacher. This thinking comes from newely graduated teachers as well as the ones that are soon to be retired.
It all comes down to feeling relaxed using a computer and then the IWB.

And how do we achive this goal? Just like the way we should do with all the young people = the students in our schools by getting educated.

You can´t (normally) just jump up on a bike and start to cycle without having done some training before. The same thing comes with almost everything and specially with computers and technical products.

So all of you headmasters - principals who invest in this new wounderful technology see to that you also invest in certified training for the users. Make som users super users who can get some hours per weak just to learn more about their new IWB and you will see it will pay of. You can easily get them to train new teachers and there you willl save money on and on.

Training is the key to success!