I enjoy teaching.
But I really hate blackboards.
I’m not sure what the results of Chad’s latest poll will be, but I’m betting that I’m in the minority of scientists. The scientific community contains many former social outcasts who grew up flaunting the social rules, and yet have completely bought into the idea that using blackboards makes you look like a Real Scientist.
Well screw that. Students in the back can’t see what you write. You get dust all over your clothes. The chalk dries out your finger tips. The dust gets all over the floor, making a mess for your overburdened cleaning staff. For a community that prides itself on moving forward, why are we stuck with a 200+ year old technology that doesn’t work all that well?
Now, white boards have their problems too. They’re easier to see, but the markers are always dried out (and expensive to replace as well). They also are somewhat dusty (though not nearly as bad as chalk). Progress, but not perfect.
The solution, however, currently lies in your toddler’s grasp.
The Magna Doodle.
|
| The Magna Doodle works by having small chambers filled with a thick liquid and magnetic filings. You drag a magnetic pen across the surface, and the metal filings jump to the surface, making the small chamber dark. To erase, you pull a lever that drags a magnet along the back surface, pulling the metal filings away from the front, making the chamber appear white again. No mess, no fuss, no need to replace any parts |
|
It also is substantially easier to write on than the Etch-a-sketch. At least for most of us.
September 23rd, 2009 at 12:04 pm
Very much interested! But you have to scale up the size to use in offices or classrooms. Anyway, got an idea for presents for my kids. Thanks!
September 23rd, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Have you not tried a SMART Board?
September 23rd, 2009 at 12:10 pm
A technology hundreds of years old goes well with a teaching method that is of the same age: lecturing.
Regards
Gordon
September 23rd, 2009 at 12:25 pm
I actually like blackboards, but schools in my country changed to witeboards (mostly because of children with asthma).
I would really like to see a magna doodle school board. It’s like a low tech e-ink display. The writing is pretty comfortable (the whiteboards offer too little resistance while writing). But the one thing I would miss is color.
September 23rd, 2009 at 12:43 pm
This quarter, which starts Monday for us, I am dumping the Powerpoint (Keynote, actually) slides and going back to the blackboard. But the chalk they give you here sucks, it’s too faint and it breaks, so I am going to buy a bucket of kids’ sidewalk chalk and see how that works…
September 23rd, 2009 at 12:44 pm
You can simply add a pen tablet to the mix. A computer and a projector do not solely exist for doing a slide presentation.
September 23rd, 2009 at 12:45 pm
@ David:
Smart boards have problems too. The computer isn’t connecting, the markers aren’t connecting, spontanious power losses…
September 23rd, 2009 at 12:50 pm
Something about the resistance when writing on a chalkboard makes my penmenship much much much! better than on a white board. Same reason I cant use pens.
September 23rd, 2009 at 12:58 pm
The smell of dry-erase markers makes me woozy, but I also don’t like getting dry chalk dust on my hands, clothes, lungs, and computer hardware. I think you’re on to something with the Magnadoodle! I bet it’d be cheaper than a computer-based solution, too.
Having studied both humanities and science, my favorite part of that poll is answer #5.
September 23rd, 2009 at 12:59 pm
I also hate blackboard and chalk with a passion, and also would like to see more electronic whiteboards around. Then again, once the students don’t have to be busy copying what you write on the board, they’ll have to find something else to do (listening to what you say is only one option).
September 23rd, 2009 at 1:04 pm
As Gordon alludes to, books were extremely expensive once upon a time, and lecturing was the only economical way to transmit knowledge.
I’ve been in good and useful lecture classes, but I’ve also been in many which could be made completely redundant by simply posting the lecture notes online. Weirdly, in some of those redundant lecture classes, the professor does post the notes online, yet all students still show up, carefully transcribe everything by hand, and don’t ask any questions.
Aside from the unthinking continuance of tradition (on the part of both professors and students), I think the primary reason that lecture-based classes continue to predominate is that learning difficult things by reading books is an acquired skill. Probably the single most useful skill one acquires in an undergrad science program is the ability to pick up a science book, read it, and learn the material. Most freshman, including the smart freshman, haven’t done that before and can’t do it very well at first.
I do think science education would be improved if more classes expected students to read the book and learn some things (not necessarily everything) from it. And there’s no good reason for students to spend their time transcribing lecture notes. Post them online. Please.
September 23rd, 2009 at 1:05 pm
I like the pen tablet suggestion. Indeed that does seem to be an under-utilized technique. Then you can actually save your scribblings, and the university doesn’t have to purchase an overpriced smart board. Maybe I’ll actually get one.
September 23rd, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Another downside to the magna-doodle suggestion: you can’t erase things selectively.
September 23rd, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Nooooo!!
I hate, hate, hate, and hate whiteboards. Everybody writes too small on them, because the pens make lines too narrow for read-across-the-room writing. And if someone ever actually made a whiteboard pen with a thick enough point for that, the fumes would knock the speaker out.
I also agree with Tom’s comment about the friction between the chalk and the board. I really do have better handwriting when using chalk.
I don’t like the dust or dry hands I get using chalk, but I’ll take them over the alternatives.
September 23rd, 2009 at 2:32 pm
My drug of choice is the whiteboard marker.
September 23rd, 2009 at 3:02 pm
Ah, the great white vs black board debates. We’ve had them at our university. Those in the Physics department (where I am) prefer whiteboards. But the nasty chemists prefer blackboards AND colored chalk. White chalk is bad enough in terms of dust etc, but colored chalk is very difficult to erase. Try lecturing after an organic chemist has put all kinds of colored rings on the board! So, I have taken to using keynote and abandoning the blackboard completely. If I really need to be interactive, I can use a smart panel in our lecture hall to annotate my slides, which is pretty cool.
And, I do post my slides, but only after the lecture. I try to convince the students not to take notes, but to try to listen to what I am saying (and to watch the demos), but to no avail. Note taking seems to be a hard-wired thing. If you are not taking notes in lecture, then why are you there, I’m guessing that’s what they are thinking…
September 23rd, 2009 at 3:17 pm
“I try to convince the students not to take notes, but to try to listen to what I am saying (and to watch the demos)”
My mind doesn’t retain anything unless I take notes. And notes I can refer back to years later.
Whiteboards are ideal.
September 23rd, 2009 at 4:58 pm
“Students in the back can’t see what you write” when writing on a black board with chalk, says Julianne. From my experience this is absurdly false. I recognise then many, many advantages of white boards over black boards (almost all of which come down to one thing: dust), but the one thing that still makes me prefer black boards when I’m in the audience is legibility, especially at a distance. Size, contrast and handwriting all tend to be better.
However, as a few people have mentioned, it is neither necessary nor particularly desirable to always rely too much on black/white boards. You can prepare your lecture notes beforehand and post them for the students to print, and then you can use projectors, boards, transparencies or whatever happens to fit the lecture best.
And Bob, I think you are making a big mistake by waiting until after the lecture with posting your notes. Especially if you want the students not to take notes. It is the best thing ever, in terms of taking notes, to have your own printed copy of the lecture notes with you to the lecture. Then you can follow the lecture and listen to everything while also keeping an eye on the notes. Then you just have to fill in whatever extra information you get from the lecturer that you want to add to the notes. If you only get the notes afterwards, you still have to try to take your own notes during the lecture because you don’t know what you get otherwise.
September 23rd, 2009 at 6:02 pm
I hate whiteboards. Chalkboards generate more dust, but it’s inert stuff that you can pat off or dust off fairly easily. Whiteboard dust from dry-erase markers is nasty sticky stuff that smudges books and stains clothes. (And stinks.)
My experience with handwriting is the same as those who say it’s neater on a chalkboards. The friction level is right for me, resulting in better handwriting and neater drawings. Chalk is my medium and I hate it whenever I’m scheduled to teach in a whiteboard room instead of one of our remaining chalkboard rooms.
One of my colleagues recently asked when we would “finish” getting rid of the chalkboards. Over my dead body.
September 23rd, 2009 at 6:17 pm
Ever used the magna-boards at length?
I have, in a classroom setting (with 25 2nd graders doing math or literacy).
They’re not that great.
The writing tends to be messy in appearance, the resistance thing is even weirder than whiteboards, the “erasing” with the magnet poses problems, and above all, they don’t last. With second graders having personal slates, at least, after a couple years the magna-boards are barely functioning as writing platforms.
September 23rd, 2009 at 7:18 pm
At my university, several rooms employed a projector and a camera. You wrote in ink, on paper, and the results were displayed on the screen. Need a fancy graph? Get the source and show it. Flip a switch and you have your laptop screen displayed instead. It worked great, and it allowed dust-averse professors to lecture with something besides PowerPoint, which might as well not be lecturing at all. Established, versatile technology. Why you would do anything else is beyond me, though it does work better if you’re right handed, since your hand isn’t covering what you just wrote.
September 23rd, 2009 at 7:29 pm
Julianne,
My advice would be to replace blackboard – chalk/whiteboard – markers/overhead projector/computer white board – projector/magandoodle/crayola coloured crayons with a large metal board (white or black – black if dyslexic as I am) then use those coloured magnetic alpabet letters and notations – those used on fridges. For pictures you could use long bendy ones or even putty. You could create three dimensional visual effects with the putty, for the students to see theories better with, thereby cutting the amount of space used on a flat vertical plane, that otherwise would be used when writing things like inverse square law eqations. The putty will have ferrite mixed with it so would have to wear gloves over along period of time. In that case, the gloves could have an in built microphone (on the back of the hand area) whereby the sound from the lectuer, reaches the students at the back of the lecture hall.<- less of an excuse for not handing in homework.
Claire
September 23rd, 2009 at 7:36 pm
You can’t fool me Julianne–you just hate blackboards because they limit you to under 15 slides per minute.
September 23rd, 2009 at 8:27 pm
@17 and @18: I should elaborate: several studies[insert missing references here!] have shown that you can do best by not taking notes during the lecture, but rather listening and participating (I ask discussion questions once or twice during a lecture). Then, that very same day, that evening at the latest, print out the copies of the slides and annotate them. Don’t wait for the next day or you will forget things. The important thing is that it appears that writing and listening (for comprehension) tend to be incompatible. Too often I see students who are so intent on writing down everything that they don’t even know what it is that they are writing. And, by the way, I have tried put up my slides ahead of time, and I still see people writing furiously on them.
September 23rd, 2009 at 9:11 pm
Claire — Or, I could illustrate the whole lecture in interpretive dance.
September 23rd, 2009 at 9:36 pm
[...] Blackboards versus whiteboards versus Magna Doodle. [...]
September 23rd, 2009 at 10:54 pm
One of my best physics classes was a Stat Mech class where the professor made the notes for the semester available at the beginning of the course (bought from the university printer). He encouraged everyone to buy the notes, and pretty much everyone did. The notes were good enough that it was nearly verbatim what he said in class. At first I felt like I should be taking notes, but after a while, I just learned how to annotate parts that confused me. The class was much more productive than normal – all of us actually listened to understand during the class and people asked questions when the didn’t understand.
September 24th, 2009 at 2:28 am
If you’re worried about getting chalk dust on your clothes the obvious solution is not to wear any. I’m sure that would also increase attendance at your lectures.
September 24th, 2009 at 7:05 am
I once had a math teacher with wild, flying hair and a weird german/polish accent. Class was in the 2nd floor of an ancient building with large triple hung windows. He worked on this long stage/riser that was level with the window sill, and the window was open because we didnt have A/C and it was spring. He would race back and forth, madly deriving Laplace transforms, and we were always afriad he would get so excited he would fall out the window. NOBODY missed a class.
Try THAT with powerpoint.
September 24th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Magnadoodle is fine. But chalk and blackboard is still the low cost, low tech, low energy, renewable solution.
Chalkboards are little more than plywood and a specialized paint. Chalk is very basic. Expenditures in energy and oil for both are fairly low. Magnadoodle, not so much.
You have a point about visibility of chalkboards but this just suggests small class sizes. Perhaps some sort of technical improvement in chalk to make it more visible.
September 24th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Julianne,
Yes good idea! LOL!
I was laughing my head off your comment!
(At first, I was going to put what you said too, or expressive dance at least, before the silly comment I made). Of course I was just being jokey and for that reason I actually think the Magnadoodle idea is very good.
It’s a difficult one as it’s your job day in day out. Maybe you could have a chat with your University bosses to see what they can arrange. It’s been a while since I have been at Uni (early 90’s) so not sure what the situation is with regards to how lecture theatres are kitted out these days, especially in the US.
Cheers,
Claire
September 24th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
The magna doodle idea I have seen implemented in Kyoto. Actually, the company that produces the board is not Japanese, if I remember correctly. I want to buy this board for my office, because can’t stand neither the chalk dust, nor the smell of the aceton. Strangely, I cannot locate the company on google (tried various key words). Probably, because this type of board is not very widely used.
Mario
ps: the board is about 4feet x 6-7feet and it costs quite a bit.
September 25th, 2009 at 6:59 am
I like whiteboards for small groups, and one on one discussions, or for personal use. But Powerpoint rules the day when it comes to presentation and explanation. There’s a lot of cool tricks you can do with powerpoint, and I rather like spending my time trying to explain that what I am saying makes sense.
September 27th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
Wow I never realized my physics department was such an anomaly here- we have a historic building meaning during renovations a few years ago there was a fight to keep our blackboards to the jealousy of surrounding departments (in large part because whiteboard markers always seem to be in critical shortage, whereas chalk never seems to have that problem). And now that I TA this year I too write on a chalkboard and find it much more satisfying than the alternatives!
September 28th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
Well, I share the hate of real blackboards; chalk dust is one of the very, very few things I seem to be allergic to. Love whiteboards but understand why some people don’t like the markers. and I NEVER, EVER make my notes available (I can understand how that works for upper division and grad classes though; my best class in grad school was taught by an atrocious lecturer who had the good sense to make his hand written notes available) as I sorta want my intro students to actually show up. but I tell them the truth: aside from simulations and movies etc., mostly my slides are for MY benefit and they should NEVER, EVER attempt to copy slides down verbatim.
Interesting factoid: try writing on the board (of any type) with your off hand. You may be surprised by the results.
November 16th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
We install blackboards at our University (University of Toronto) because:
low maintenance
wide appeal (not all, of course)
low cost
no training required
Whiteboards are more visible, but have the marker-cap and smell issues. so they are not as bullet-proof. Electronic options are great – but require training and have down time. Of course, with a screen in front (hopefully allowing for the screen and part of the blackboard to show at the same time), a number of the electronic options can occur in conjunction with blackboards. So we use the blackboard as the ‘lowest-common denominator’ interface. It is not the best for all. But in terms of being a reliable base level for the greatest number, it is very effective.
A number of the comments above fall into concerns about which is the best or worst teaching method. Of course, most rooms or blackboards will outlive one user, and everyone will agree that not all teachers should be forced to teach in exactly the same way. So it comes down to providing options to accommodate many styles of professor and student. When I spec a room, I want as much blackboard as I can get on the front wall (24′ sounds good to me) – and then we can start worrying about the harder parts; data projectors etc.
When I was a TA, if I didn’t want to use the blackboard, I’d just go digital. I almost never used the blackboard myself, except for posting announcements etc. But I’d spec it in a room every time.