ghtboards Offer a Cost-Effective Alternative to Interactive Whiteboards
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Students and
teachers can
participate in
a brightboard
lesson from
anywhere in
the room.
culates and displays the changes in
angle sizes in real time as a result of
the user’s input. The main difference
between a brightboard and a whiteboard is that those same Geometer’s
Sketchpad manipulations can be driven from anywhere in the room, with
a wireless mouse or pen tablet passed
quickly from one user to another. You
don’t need to be tied to the board at
the front of the room. And just as a
whiteboard will remember what is
written on it and make the notes available to students in digital form, the
pen tablets can allow users to save and
transmit their handwritten notes using
the software that comes with them or
open source software such as Skrbl, an
online collaborative whiteboard.
ready has projectors and computers—
which may be required to operate
whiteboards, anyway—in each class-
room, your only hardware expense
is the pen tablet, and you can buy 10
wireless pen tablets for the price of
one $3,000 whiteboard. Because of
the smaller size of the components,
brightboards are also more portable
than whiteboards, allowing you to
share pen tablets among classrooms to
save even more money.
engaging opportunities for teachers of
young children.
Which Board Is Best for You?
Whiteboards are still more appropri-
ate than brightboards in some cases.
For instance, young children and
pre-adolescents may be better suited
to the whiteboard model. Classes for
these age groups are typically smaller,
and the children often sit on the
floor or clustered closely around the
whiteboard. The tactile nature of the
board—so long as the children can
reach to the top of it—the colour and
movement, and the ability to walk and
talk while they click and drag present
In contrast, adolescents are more
comfortable when they are all facing
the screen rather than being asked to
“star” at the front of the room before
peers. This configuration also allows
the teacher to be out among the classroom participants rather than holding
court at the front of the room like a
“sage on a stage” while staring into a
bright projector and jumping around
shadows so the screen is visible to all.
A powerful dynamic emerges in classrooms when the teacher’s control is
appropriately shared with students.
There is a place for both models, but
teachers and administrators must consider many factors, including cost and
how the board will fit in with a particular
course’s pedagogy: How will the board
be used to achieve teaching and learning? Is it the software that does most of
the work? If so, what is the most appropriate way to have your students interact
with the software—at the front of the
class or from elsewhere in the room?
Another brightboard bonus is that
the projection area at the front of the
room can be as large as the wall and
projector will allow. You don’t need
to buy a display screen; just paint the
wall white. Brightboards will also
work in large school halls or theatres
with the same interactivity, and even
the people at the back will be able to
see clearly. If the school delivers video n demand via the computer network, students can also view instructional You can buy 10 wireless pen tablets for video on a big screen. In these budget-conscious times, [ the price of one $3,000 whiteboard. ]
perhaps the biggest benefit of a brightboard is the cost. If your school al-
