Re: blackboard or whiteboard?

[Rick Tarara <rbtarara@SPRYNET.COM>]

 We have white-boards in our labs and chalkboards in the classrooms.
Teaching the 'liberal-arts' physics class I manage to avoid writing very
much at all on the chalkboards, but in lab the white boards get used a lot.
The MAIN problems with the white boards are:
1)  The markers dry out easily (especially if left uncapped).  I have bought
my own set, keep them in a box for only my use.
2)  Because you can use color (an advantage), you therefore are tempted to
do so (a disadvantage).  That is, I'm always going back to the box for a
different color marker or trying to juggle four different markers in my
hands.
3)  The most visible color is obviously black, but the black markers are
really difficult to erase.  Actually, once they have set in for several
minutes, most of the colors don't erase that well.  Probably not AS bad as
writing over an erased chalkboard though.

My lab is directly across from a classroom with a large chalkboard, and we
recently started optics (in lab only), but it invariably happens that the
one time a year when the house-keepers actually clean the
erasers is the day before I want to show the laser beam with chalk-dust!
;-(

Rick

*****************************************************
Richard W. Tarara
Department of Chemistry & Physics
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN 46556
219-284-4664
rtarara@saintmarys.edu

FREE PHYSICS INSTRUCTIONAL SOFTWARE AVAILABLE
see descriptions at:  http://www.saintmarys.edu/~rtarara/

Win9.x,NT versions of The Animated Chalkboard,
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*******************************************************
-----Original Message-----
From: paul o johnson <pojhome@FLASH.NET>
To: PHYS-L@LISTS.NAU.EDU <PHYS-L@LISTS.NAU.EDU>
Date: Saturday, April 03, 1999 6:43 PM
Subject: Re: blackboard or whiteboard?


> Comments from an old curmudgeon:
> I think better and faster when writing with white chalk on a black board.
> I believe my students learn more from such a presentation.
> The age-old mark of a teacher has always been chalk dust on hands and suit.
> Black ink on hands and clothes is the mark of a printer.
> You can't clap two whiteboard erasers together to enable your students to
see a
> laser beam in a darkened room.
> I've told my chairman I cannot teach in a room without blackboards and
chalk.
> poj
>
> "Spagna Jr., George" wrote:
>
> > Here's a new thread ....
> >
> > "Dry-erase" white-boards are now commonly used, especially in
computer-rich
> > classrooms, supposedly to keep chalk-dust from damaging computer
> > disk-drives. But, these boards also produce dust, albeit blue and red
> > instead of white. We've noticed that keyboards in these classrooms
develop
> > colorful patterns over time!  Also, the solvent used in the ink in these
> > markers smells, and some folks may find this an irritant, some may even
be
> > allergic.
> >
> > Are these boards really "better" in the computer-rich classroom?  Is
there
> > any reason to suspect the markers as a potential health hazard?
> >
> > ************************************************************************
> > " ... , the secret of my success is that at an early age
> > I discovered I was not God."  - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
> > ***********************************************************************
> > George Spagna
> >  Department of Physics
> >  Randolph-Macon College
> >  P.O. Box 5005
> >  Ashland, VA 23005-5505
> > phone: (804) 752-7344     FAX (804) 752-4724
> > e-mail: gspagna@rmc.edu
> > http://www.rmc.edu/~gspagna.html