IWB's Interactive whiteboards

I have just viewed the YouTube presentation by eSN TechWatch: Interactive Whiteboards: Boon or Boondoggle which was a little technical and heavy to watch but yet informative. I also just watched MIT sketching which I found really engaging and entertaining. Wow......when will these come into our Mackay schools!! I recall on the first presentation that 1/3 of schools in the US have them in their classrooms and 1/2 of schools in the UK have them in their classrooms. I would like to know what percentage of schools have this technology in Australia and when is my class getting one. By watching the MIT sketching. I myself as a teacher found this engaging and I was thinking how great this tool would be to use in the classroom setting. In my last post about PowerPoint's used with projectors was great but this just blows it out of the water. Interactive whiteboards as stated by Wichita Public Schools, (2009) say, "interactive whiteboards (IWB) allow teachers to record their instruction and post the material for review by students at a later time. This can be a very effective instructional strategy for students who benefit from repetition, who need to see the material presented again, for students who are absent from school, for struggling learners, and for review for examinations". To use this in my own class would be a great advantage to my learners - especially my students that have a short attention span. The IWB can be used in many different ways. As listed by the Wichita Public Schools, (2009) the IWB's:

• Save lessons to present to students who were absent
• Create video files to teach a software application, a lesson, or as a review to be posted to the server or web. Example- How to create a graph in Excel or hoe to burn a projects to Cd's
• Use the built in maps to teach continents, oceans, countries, or states and capitals.
• Present presentations created by student or teacher
• Have students create e-folios including samples of their work and narration
• Digital storytelling
• Teach whole group computer or keyboarding skills
• Brainstorming
• Take notes directly into PowerPoint presentations
• Reinforce skills by using on-line interactive web sites
• Creating a project calendar
• Teach editing skills using editing marks
• Use in the 6 trait writing process
• Use highlighter tool to highlight nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.
• Use it with Kidspiration or Inspiration
• Teaching students how to navigate the Internet
• Illustrate and write a book as a class. Use the record feature to narrate the text.
• Use the Interwrite software to create lessons in advance at home or at school. Then save them for future use or to be shared with other teachers
• Diagramming activities
• Teaching steps to a math problem.
• Have students share projects during Parent/Teacher/Student conferences
• Graphics and charts with ESL learners and special ed students.
• Teaching vocabulary
• Electronic Word Wall
• End each day by having students write one thing that they learned

Yes, there are negative and as they said in the first YouTube clip a good teacher can engage all students no matter where they are, I believe having a tool like this is a good push in the right direction..........where do I get one?

Picture - Children using an interactive whiteboard C/O Susan stone