Interactive whiteboards (IWB) are a
recent technology that has taken center stage in education. The IWBs have been
shown to better engage students within the classroom by tearing down barriers
and bringing technology that surrounds them in their daily life into the
classroom. This paper aims to examine, not only the social consequences of IWBs
in education; but also the ethical, legal and security concerns. Ethical
concerns entail asking the questions if not enough IWBs are assigned to a
school, how do administrators allocate such technologies. Further in regards to
legal and security issues, there exists a question of copyright and
distributing of material among students, as well as what can and should not be
displayed within the classroom when IWBs are used to access the Internet.
Technology training that equips teachers against such concerns seem to be a sufficient
remedy to the legal and security consequences of IWBs. Since the ethical, legal
and security costs of IWBs can be overcome, the positive social benefits of
IWBs are enough to out way the negatives and promote IWBs integration into more
schools. This research aims to motivate teachers are on the fence about IWBs
that this technology although perhaps unfamiliar does in fact better the future
of the United States, the students.
Keywords:
interactive whiteboards, student engagement, classroom technology
