Black Board Vs Smart Board

 

L. Sri Varsha, Dr. Thenmozhi M S, Dr. Asha Ramesh

¹Undergraduate Student, Saveetha Dental College and Hospitals, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Chennai-600077

²Department of Anatomy, Saveetha Dental College and Hospitals, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Chennai-600077.

 

Abstract:

Background: For decades, black board has been the only way to teach school and college students in class But as years passed by, technology has been very efficient in bringing new electronic gadgets. Now with the new technologies, many colleges and schools have started using smart boards instead of blackboard. This study is being done to find out which is more efficient - black board or smart board, from the students of Saveetha dental college, Chennai. Materials and methods: This research was done by interacting with 100 students from different batches and analysing which was - either smart board or black board, was more efficient and user- friendly. Results:61% of the students preferred smart board and 39% preferred black board. 59% of students felt that smart board was more user friendly. 31% of the students felt that smart board was more complex when compared with black board. Conclusion: From this research, it will be evident which system is more approachable to the students and thus, it can be implemented in their respective schools and colleges.

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION:

From earlier days, blackboard has been used in schools and colleges for teaching purposes.A blackboard or chalkboard is a reusable writing surface on which text or drawings are made with sticks of calcium sulphate or calcium carbonate, known, when used for this purpose, as chalk. Blackboards are manufactured by thin sheets of slate stones which is of black dark colour. These blackboard are made in a way that these thin sheets are smooth as well.

 

A blackboard can simply be a piece of board painted with dark paint (usually black or dark green). The marks made by the chalk can be easily cleaned off by using a wet cloth, a sponge or a duster which is made up of a blackboard eraser containing a wooden block covered by a pad to hold with hand. However, chalk marks made on some types of wet blackboard can be difficult to remove.

 

The smart board is starting to be used as a replacement for blackboards in many schools and colleges. The Smart Board interactive whiteboard operates as part of a system that includes the interactive whiteboard, a computer, a projector and white boarding software - either Smart Notebook collaborative learning software for education, or Smart Meeting Pro software for business. The components are connected wirelessly or via USB or serial cables. A projector connected to the computer displays the desktop image on the interactive whiteboard. [1]

 

In this study, a questionnaire is prepared asking various questions regarding blackboard and smart board and the students are asked to fill it out to find out which is more approachable-either black board or smart board, and which system they prefer better.

 

The result will be helpful in making changes accordingly in schools and colleges to make education and teaching more approachable and easier for students.The aim of this study is to compare the difference between black board and white board methodology of teaching and also to find out which system is better to approach to students so that it can be implemented in near future.

 

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

A set of questionnaire was prepared and given to 100 students of Saveetha dental college, Chennai. The questionnaire was on the topic smart board vs black board. The questionnaire consisted of many questions whether the student preferred smart board or black board, if the student felt smart board was complex, if they understood black board drawings better or smart board animations better, if smart board has decreased the teacher’s interaction with the students, which is not up to mark – black board or smart board, which is user-friendly: black board or smart board, if some information are cut out in smart board teaching. The questionnaire also listed questions asking about the advantages and disadvantages of both black board and smart board. From these questionnaire given to 100 students, the results can be analysed and the percentage will be more helpful for schools and colleges to understand which method of teaching reaches the student best and which should be set up in their respective schools and colleges.

 

RESULTS:

Table-1 shows the number of students preferring black board and smart board

 

Table 2 shows which is user-friendly and which is not upto mark

 

Table-3 shows the number of students who feel smart board is complex

 

 

Figure 1 :  Black board Vs Smart board

 

 

Figure 2: Is smart board complex

 

 

Figure 3: Which is user-friendly

 

 

Figure 4: Which is not up to mark

 

DISCUSSION:

From the set of questionnaire answered by 100 students, 39% of students believed that black board was much better while the rest 61% of students preferred smart board as shown in the figure 1. Just above half of the students who participated in the study (59%) felt that black board was more user-friendly since they have got more exposure to black board due to many years of usage as they have learned from it since their childhood times where the smart board is just at the beginning stage of emerging in schools and colleges. On the other hand, remaining 41% of students felt that smart board was more user-friendly than blackboard as illustrated in the figure 3. 31% of students felt that the smart board technique was more complex and confusing to adapt whereas the rest 69% believed that it was much simple, convenient and is easy to access as illustrated in the figure 2.

On questioning the participants regarding the establishment of both methods of education, the black or white board system in accordance to their level of satisfaction or expectation, 35% of students admitted that they felt black board was not quite upto their expectations, while 45% of students felt that smart board was not up to their expectations. Whereas the rest 20% of students had a dilemma as they had little idea in distinguishing whether both the systems were good or not which is depicted in figure 4. Now for the question about the use of colours while teaching, Seventy Seven out of hundred participants preferred colourful teaching while nineteen participants preferred conventional black and white teaching. The remaining four participants found comfort in both the methods.

 

Then the students were as asked about their preference of diagrams or animations for black board and white board respectively. 27% of students responded with their ability to understand with black board diagrams was better. On the other hand, 61% of students believed smart board animations were way more attractive and easier to remember when compared to black board diagrams. The rest 12% of students believed that both were helpful.

 

Certain questions were included to gather knowledge about smart board teaching its merits and demerits. One of them is the information obtained by the students through smart board teaching. Regarding the amount of information delivered through smart board teaching, 46% of students believed that many information are cut in case of smart board teaching whereas the rest 54% believed that enough information was provided in smart board and there was no cuts. A question was raised about the interactions among the teachers and students in classrooms during smart board teaching. Total of 47 participants felt that there was less interaction between the teacher and students with smart boards teaching and rest 53 participants believed that there is enough interaction between the teacher and students using smart board similar to that of conventional method of teaching.

 

For the questions regarding the merits and demerits of both the system blackboard and white board, students responded about their views regarding both the system respectively. Considering the advantages of black board, most of the students said that it was user friendly and does not cost much for its set up and that black board was more eco-friendly. Whereas regarding its disadvantage, the students felt that it was more time consuming and it was lot of work to write on board and that it did not have colour images or animations. On the other hand about the whiteboard, the students said that it can incorporate images and videos and can be viewed like it is real [19]. When asked about the disadvantages of smart board, many said that it caused stress and strain to eyes and that it caused lot of power consumption and is complex to handle.

 

Dori and Kurtz et al checked to what degree the use of technological means contribute to understanding the study material and to students’ motivation. Their research findings indicate that most students report that learning in a technological environment boosts their motivation and enhance their learning experience. The major contribution of technology as perceived by students is in increasing access to a variety of tools that contribute to understanding the study material, organization of the information, efficacy in carrying out assignments, and to development of knowledge. [2]

 

The functions of smart board are as follows:

Touch Feature:

In this feature, the mouse requires the touch to the surface of smart board or a screen. Apart from using the mouse, users are used to open and close documents with Windows applications, to be clicked web links, and also objects or pictures can be moved by finger swiping on the board [3,4].

 

Writing and Deletion:

Feature of Smart board images and text to help existing users to write, draw and delete. Written text and images can be erased with a magnetic erase. It works like a hand eraser. In addition, the intelligent keyboard may be brought up on the board when needed [5,6]

 

Drag and Download Feature:

Suitable for any course that requires drawing, such as mathematics or engineering. These techniques are achieved by moving the stylus [7,8].

 

 

Recording and Playback Feature:

One of the advantage of using smartboard technology is that users can record any application seamlessly onto the board. These files which are recorded can be played again if required also on any computer [18]. The files which are recorded can be played using Windows Media Player. Users are able to save speeches and even their own voices, and are able to listen to them again. In addition, video files, which would play on all types of computers, can be created by users [9].

 

Many researches have been carried out to find out the use of smartboard to extend its limits. These researches have proven that educational advantage of use of smartboard for the students with special needs, it states that those types of students gain an opportunity study and obtain knowledge in a differentiated way which enables them to learn in a multi-sensory approach. This is a huge advantage to the students, particularly to those who have learning disability. The use of smartboard changes their disability to potentially able through increasing their attention, motivation to improve their learning process and also helps them to engage in the classroom activity [10].

 

Whiteboard has many merits and demerits. Some of them are listed below.

 

PROS: 

1. A tool which is powerful to teachers:

To keep students engaged, the teachers can create lessons which has incorporated videos, moving diagrams, animations and certain contents from online which helps in explaining difficult matters to students. This is possible by the use of interactive whiteboard. Whiteboard has a capability known as multimedia [11] where a teacher can explain an information in many possible different ways. This makes the lecture more interesting a lot more as it involves student participation. For instance, if a teacher is teaching a lesson on some country like India, they can show the maps through Google Earth, making Power Points [12,13] regarding the country’s population and certain histories and also an education video from YouTube regarding the wildlife present in India. This makes the student to involuntary participate in topic discussion.

 

2. Ability for students to interact:

As mentioned early, the students can participate in the classroom activity by writing on them, using certain objects as a part of activity session, playing games related to topic, or by voting an answer to the question by using handheld devices. These activities makes the students engaged and interested during lecture hours [17].

 

3. Display student projects:

These Boards helps teachers to show the students who had made projects by using PowerPoint software in order to motivate the student to participate and involve in learning process. Showcasing their projects helps the student enjoy their work as they take it as an appreciation when their work is displayed on a big screen in front of other classmates.

 

4. Cost of Establishment:

Regardless of the pros of whiteboards, their cost becomes a major concern. These boards are not cheap and there is an idea is that paying salary will the do the job of teaching rather than spending it on these boards. 

 

5. Teachers Experience:

Use of whiteboard depends upon the teacher’s adaptation and use. Certain teachers like to stick to the traditional way of teaching using black boards preferably than adapting to the technology advancement. This makes the use of white board a major concern as the school may lose experienced teacher who has been in teaching conventional method due to sudden change in teaching methodology [16]. And also use of whiteboard requires some area of expertise in operating them to provide some knowledge to the students.

 

At last while teaching, the teachers do not like the students being distracted from listening to lecture for the sake of notes or important points of the topic. Hence, the key points of the topic can be prepared in advance by the teacher by means of a PowerPoint [14, 15] slide or other methods like chart, tables, maps e.t.c, as it allows the students to pay attention to the lecture by following the teacher and those points can be noted after the class hours during leisure time. This can be used as an alternative strategy for making the students actively participate in the learning process but cannot be used as a substitute for not attending the class lecture [20].

CONCLUSION:

From the above data, it is evident that the students prefer smart board over black board. But both had equal advantages and disadvantages. While the smart board has lot of power consumption and is complex to use, black board consumes a lot of time and it cannot incorporate animations and colourful images. But when we look at the bright side, smart board has the ability to bring many images and animations virtually that is more helpful in understanding concepts. When it comes to black board, it is more eco friendly and it helps the students to understand the diagrams better as the teachers will draw it in front of the students and in that way, the students will learn the technique to draw the diagram. So, if the institution is planning on setting up smart boards, the students will look forward for learning as the learning session will better with images and animations or if the institution is planning on setting up black boards, we can save lot of current (which is very essential) and it will also be easy for the students to understand.

 

Teachers play a major role as they influence the students towards the path of acquiring knowledge. Hence, a teacher should be aware in order to deliver the correct information through a technology so that it does not misguide the students. They should be comfortable and left to their own choice on selecting the method of teaching. If doubt arises, setting up both black board and smart board would be the finest options were the teaching can be done in smart boards while the diagrams can be taught using black board. By this way, teaching will be more approachable and efficient to the students.

 

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Received on 21.10.2019       Modified on 31.10.2019 Accepted on 08.11.2019      ©A&V Publications All right reserved Research J. Science and Tech. 2019; 11(4):275-280. DOI: 10.5958/2349-2988.2019.00039.1