You’ve probably heard of smart whiteboards and how great they are for education, but does your classroom really need one? If you have doubts about how much a smart whiteboard can transform the way you teach, keep reading.
What is a smart whiteboard?
Our ability to determine how big an impact education technology will have in the classroom is dictated by our understanding of it. This is why it is necessary to be familiar with smart whiteboard technology, features, and applications before deciding whether or not your school would benefit from them.
A smart whiteboard is a large touchscreen that offers all the functionality of a conventional whiteboard in digital format. It comes with its own operating system, which not only makes whiteboarding possible, but also allows you to use other educational software.
There are different names for this specific kind of education technology: Among the most popular ones are smart board, interactive smart board, interactive whiteboard, and interactive display. For the most part, these terms can be used interchangeably, as they refer to the same type of product.
These boards are used by educators to whiteboard, display lesson materials, hold interactive activities, play videos, and give presentations. They are flexible teaching platforms with a variety of classroom tools that make both teaching and learning easier for everyone.
Interactive whiteboard for classrooms
Smart whiteboards improve education in a variety of ways. To help you understand how these match your particular needs, we touch on the biggest benefits experienced by schools that adopt interactive whiteboards.
Smart board for teaching: Easy to use and manage
Smart boards offer everything educators need to give effective lessons on a single device. They are flexible, easy-to-use tools for powerful whiteboarding that also facilitate multimedia-based classroom activities.
Some teachers struggle when adopting new classroom technology: the steeper the learning curve, the greater the struggle. When deciding on what to purchase, schools must look for as smooth a transition as possible. Smart whiteboards make it easy for all users to teach the way they’re used to, just better – whether that means connecting personal devices to present material or putting together lesson content directly on the board.
Another key point that often gets overlooked is ease of management. While most smart whiteboard providers focus on delivering effective teaching tools, not all of them understand the importance of making their solutions easy to manage and integrate with existing setups. The top smart boards for schools, however, come with comprehensive features like remote management, over-the-air updates, directory synchronization, and more, to make controlling the devices a simple task for all staff members. This lets teachers focus solely on doing what they do best – teaching.
If your school is in need of education technology that is powerful but also easy to use and manage, smart whiteboards are undoubtedly the perfect solution.
Interactive boards for classrooms: Increase student engagement
Other than wondering if smart whiteboards can make your job easier, you must also be concerned about how big of an impact they truly have on student performance
We know that behavioral and cognitive engagement are positively correlated to academic performance. Smart whiteboards encourage active engagement by enabling different ways of interaction, communication, and idea sharing in class.
For starters, most interactive boards come equipped with high-resolution screens and built-in speakers that attract student attention when used to give presentations, show videos, or just teach lessons. They help teachers boost engagement by supporting multiple points of responsive touch that make interactive games on the board possible for several students at the same time.
The interactivity of these smart boards shines the brightest, however, when it is used to whiteboard with the whole class. Allowing students to express their thoughts and explain their understanding of concepts on a shared canvas is a sure-fire way to increase active participation and improve learning retention.
Schools that are struggling with poor student engagement and a lack of interest in classes would benefit greatly from the incorporation of smart whiteboards.
Digital whiteboard for teaching: Better lessons
Smart whiteboards are teaching and learning platforms which set no limits on the types of activities they can be used for. By combining all of the digital resources that the boards offer, teachers can give more effective lessons with minimal effort.
Other than being great tools to provide visual aids, digital whiteboards help teachers organize and display information in a clear and concise manner, which in turn makes lessons easier for students to follow. Not only do smart whiteboards provide instant access to internet resources, but some of them also allow you to incorporate images, videos, and even documents into your whiteboarding session so you can elaborate on the material with maximum flexibility.
Teachers that need to take their classes online – whether it’s for hybrid or distance learning – will be delighted to discover that digital whiteboards can also be extremely helpful tools in those scenarios. The best smart whiteboards on the market support online learning and are compatible with different classroom setups, enabling teachers to give effective lessons every time.
To put it simply, smart whiteboards are extremely versatile and powerful tools that can help any school empower its teachers to give better lessons and its students to improve their performance.
Best smart board for classrooms
Once you recognize the transformational power of a smart whiteboard for education, the next step is to assess your options and identify the board that matches your school’s needs the best.
Among all the smart whiteboards available on the market, the BenQ smart board stands out for its versatility, powerful tools, and user-friendly features. BenQ Boards aren’t just easy to use, they also come with comprehensive management solutions that make managing devices and user accounts a simple task for everyone involved.
Built with educators in mind, BenQ Boards come with a responsive touchscreen, multiple touch point support, and built-in speakers to increase student engagement. To help teachers give more effective lessons, BenQ smart boards are packed with powerful software like the EZWrite whiteboard and InstaShare wireless screen sharing, which enable smooth whiteboarding, group collaboration, and idea sharing.
The BenQ smart board for education additionally enables a seamless transition to online teaching. It is compatible with all leading video conferencing software and its cloud whiteboarding feature gives teachers the option to interact with students on the same canvas from different locations.
To transform your classrooms with BenQ Boards, start by talking to an education expert.