Three years ago I moved from a classroom with a v. v. small blackboard to
a class/lab with two large (4 m?) whiteboards. Like other people, it
drives me crazy how quickly the markers dry up and also how the older
markers become less and less dry-erase and more and more permanent...
(start to lay down lots of pigment with less and less solvent?)
What I have really come to LOVE about whiteboards is this:
I have a projector for my computer and the whiteboard works pretty nicely
as a screen. This means that we can dim the lights and project data or
graphs on the board and then mark up the image with markers. I find that
more and more frequently I take data with a ULI, project it up on the
board and ask a kid to answer questions or make notations. This combines
the speed and accuracy of computer output with the ease and flexibility of
freehand notation. It helped me explain experiments to my intro kids and
prompted some terrific conversations with my AP kids.