What are advantages and disadvantages of SMART Board?

Traditional Chalkboard

Classroom

Classroom is the epicenter for learning on the school campus. It is a major component that helps nurture knowledge in the education system. it comes in different sizes and shapes which depend on its audience. At the heart of every classroom are the tools teachers use to conduct lectures. Traditional classrooms use conventional blackboards for chalk, markerboard, and overhead projector equipment in other to deliver lectures and learning materials to students. The markerboard and the overhead projector are considered to be outdated technology for many reasons. They are insufficient, hard to maintain, and not environmentally friendly.

Smartboard

Everything changes with the introduction of the smartboard. It revolutionized the classroom setting by putting everything at your fingertips, so you can be more productive. Overall, the smartboard gives teachers abilities to teach and allows students to learn better. Let’s look at the pros and cons of the smartboard.

Smartboard advantages in the classroom

The smartboard is one of the biggest leap in the classroom setting tools for learning. It digitizes everything from PowerPoint contents to interactive learning materials. It reduces the number of devices needed in the classroom setting for effective lectures and connects the classroom with the web. With the 4K display, it surpassed the overhead projector in screen clarity resolution. The smartboard comes with many advantages that help push the boundaries of what is possible in the classroom. Here are some of the advantages that come with the smartboard.

• Increase students’ interaction and team collaboration
• Promote real-time videos and audio lessons
• PowerPoint presentation becoming second nature in the classroom
• Eraser and board cleaner are things of the past
• Paperless lesson keeping the environment clean
• Promote hybrid learning
• Seamless integration with LMS
• Save money
• Eco-friendly

Smartboard disadvantages in the classroom

We can agree that the smartboard is pack with a lot of advantages, but it also comes with some disadvantages. The biggest disadvantage is the upfront cost of the device. The price for a smart board can range from $2000 and up, based on the size and company. Here are some of the disadvantages that come with the smartboard.

• Expensive
• Costly repair
• Fragile
• pen can easily get lost.

The capacity of education technology to resolve the issues occurring in the traditional classroom education enabled it to pave a path to real-time and scientific teaching and learning methods by integrating, improving, and including appropriate technological resources such as smart technology, computer-based training, m-learning, and LMS in education. The Interactive electronic whiteboard is one of the Edtech innovations capable of replacing the conventional blackboard and chalk teaching method and the outdated overhead projector equipment in order to properly enhance the social-emotional and physical development of students. However, certain advantages and disadvantages of smart boards in the classroom manifest the technology to various benefits and drawbacks, which are easy to notice. The easily noticeable pros and cons of using digital writing board in classroom restrict as well as expand the ability of teachers to teach and students to learn better.

Advantages of Smart Board in classroom

Many researches have demonstrated the advantages of using smart board in classroom. One of the benefits of implementing smart technology is the creation of blended and personalized learning environment, which enhances the mental and physical development of students. Moreover, the tech empowers the teachers with the latest smart and virtual teaching method tools to strengthen the theoretical and practical academic foundation that supports interactive, engaging, and fun learning atmosphere in the classroom.

• Improves student-teacher collaboration and interaction
• Encourages teachers to teach in real-time with audios and videos lessons, visual multimedia & PPT presentations, 2D & 3D virtual space, etc.
• Paperless advantages
• Enhances Real-time blended teaching and learning methods
• Creates Web and Internet-based teaching and learning platform for teacher and students respectively
• Improves distance learning
• Contributes to the mental, physical, and social-emotional development of students
• Seamlessly integrates with other technology-enhanced learning (TEL) applications such as LMS to share study materials, course curriculum, assignments, reading resources, and many more
• Furnishes E-learning
• Encompasses Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in education
• Gives students fully engaged and hands-on learning experience
• Facilitates mobile integration facility

Disadvantages of Smart Board in classroom

One of the main disadvantages of using a smart board in classroom is its cost of affordability. Unlike a blackboard and chalk, which cost very cheap, an electronic smart whiteboard price varies extravagantly from a few hundreds of dollars to thousands.   

• Smartboards are expensive
• High maintenance and complex to handle
• Very delicate and not simple for every staff member to handle
• Risk of breakage and high repair costs
• Software difficulties and problems