SmartBoard: Not Cool

When the SmartBoard is not malfunctioning, being used by someone who is trained and knowledgeable of its programming, and is an affordable option, it is a great tool to implement interactive technology into a classroom setting. However, a lot of times these setbacks render the SmartBoard more of a hassle than a help. As my classmates saw during our presentation, the SmartBoard can be very glitchy at times and even someone as familiar as I am with this technology couldn't get it to work for a majority of our presentation. In order for a teacher to become acclimated with this technology, it would either take a great deal of their personal time to self teach or the school would have to pay for instructional seminars for the teachers, which can be expensive. The price a school would have to pay to train its teachers would only be added to the actual expense of purchasing enough SmartBoards for each classroom in their school. And considering SmartBoards range from $2000-5000 depending on size and model, a school with a measly 20 classrooms would be looking at a minimum $40,000 purchase and $100,000 for larger or newer models.