Nowadays, electronic devices are more and more popular and essential. Almost everybody has a cellphone or a tablet, because it is affordable and efficient for everyone and, because our society wants technological progresses to make our lives easier. 

Even in the education realm, teachers use interactive boards and students kind of appreciate these ones, rather than the old chalk boards, but are they as efficient as we think?

The 21st century is already overflowing in technology innovations, electronic tablets only arrived on the market in 2010 and a lot of students in private schools have their own. Now, almost every classes has an interactive board.

High-tech boards seem to have a positive impact for students. Why? Because for teachers and pupils, these objects help to easily write & erase with an electronic pen, made especially for the interactive board. Let’s talk about this electronic pen. It is for some an advantage, because it is does not need ink or chalk to accomplish its fonction, so it’s worth it. Unfortunately, it is not as efficient as a good chalk; it is weak and it costs 50$, so you have to be careful with it. It may not work sometimes, because technology is not perfect yet.

This board shows everything that is opened on the computer of the class, like homework, videos, documentaries, student’s powerpoint presentations, PDF and even movies.On the other hand, there are some disadvantages about having this object. Unfortunately, back rows of the class don’t see much especially when the sunlight lights up the device. Students don’t really interact with the board, because they simply don’t teach. Although they show their powerpoints, there is not a concrete relation with it.

Philippe Champoux, a secondary three student, has a word to say about this subject matter: ” It’s a fast way to easily help teachers, but I think it costs a lot of money! ”

According to Mr. Marc-André, the school technician of La Camaradière, the average price for one unit is 5 500$, including the installation, the projector, the wires, the board and the computer if it involves a new software. This is paid by the Comission Scolaire de la Capitale, fortunately. There are 50 interactive boards at La Camaradière, for a total of 275 000 $.

Clément Gagnon, a student, likes this recent innovation, because it is efficient: ”It gives to the teacher a better way to share with students a more interesting content such as a visual or an audio-visual material.”

By comparing with other schools, we realize we are not the only ones to have such a great number of electronic devices, in contrast with private schools. The number of students of an average class in a private school is about the same as us: around 30 students. If every student of the class has a tablet, which costs around 500$, the amount is about 15 000$/class. With the price of an iBoard, we could get 11 iPads for a group at La Camaradière. But is that mean that the Comission Scolaire should pay tablets for students? Or it is a useless expenditure?

Almost all rooms of the school have a board, that replaces the old classic black boards. Related to this number, Philippe thinks there are too many of these in our school, which is something useless, because first: it is a lot of money so we could spend it on other things, like new desks or chairs and second: it may not be appropriate for every subjects.

Finally, a big improvement in school institutions has been made, in less than a decade. Who knows what is going to be created tomorrow? Our children will probably have so powerful technology in the future that it may affect education. Going to school may be a totally new thing in the future.