Interactive Whiteboards are very expensive to have in every classroom in a school district. Many schools are turning to IWB's versus using the 'old school' white boards. The intentions are very good. The main ideas are to be able to get the students more involved with the lessons. The IWB's are suppose to make it more convent for the teacher and the students to be able to bring up the internet and be able to draw, and make marks on the power point, or whatever the teacher is using for the lesson.
However, there are a few issues with this. Not only does the technology not work at times, many teachers do not know how to use the IWB's correctly. It is very hard for teachers who have been teaching for years to want to learn to use a new form of technology. Therefore while IWB's may sound like a great idea, many older teachers may not care enough to learn about it, let alone use it in the classroom. Another issue with the IWB's is that although students may be very excited about the IWB's at first, sooner or later the students may get bored, and just not care again. I believe that it is up to the teacher to make the lesson interesting, not up to the technology to make the lesson interesting.
According to
"The Journal", many schools are jumping on the IWB's because it is the 'new' technology. When the schools need to want to use the IWB's because it is for educating the students. This is a sad thing because many people are just trying to fit in. So schools go out, and spend a ton of money on the IWB's and then they are just sitting in the classrooms.
I think that the IWB's would be good for students who may need additional help with certain subjects. If the teacher has activities on the IWB that could help the student learn, and is fun, then the students would be able to help improve their academics. This could be a great tool for teachers to use because they would be able to use it as a 'center', therefore while the students are playing, the teacher could be watching the students closely and see where they are struggling and how they can help the student.
The issues with the new technology is the teachers who do not want to unlearn, and relearn in order to be updated on the current technology. Not only do educators need to be able to unlearn and relearn, students also need to be able to do the same thing. Students are introduced to certain types of technology and throughout the years the students are introduced to much more technology. The students need to be able to relearn how to use the new technology, they however do not need to unlearn how to use the 'old' ways of learning.
It is difficult for anyone to change what they already know because when you teach someone something one way, and they are in the habit of doing it that way. Many people do not want to learn how to do something a different way because they do not care. Once you already know how to do something such as use the white board in a classroom, not many people are going to want to relearn how to use the interactive white boards. 
