Technology and education go hand in and the goal for the merge is to facilitate the delivery of information from instructor to student. Chalkboards are practically a thing of the past along with projector screens. Whiteboards seem to be the norm in most grade levels currently, but once again, technology will quickly change that too. The easy access to cameras and free online streaming services means teachers can pre-record lectures or stream them to make them accessible to a student 24/7 or at their convenience. This is where a typical chalkboard or whiteboard shows a disadvantage as the teacher has to face away from the camera. For this reason, a Professor named Michael Peshkin of Northwestern University developed a new lightboard for classrooms. It is a transparent dry-erase board that lets you write with fluorescent markers.
The standard lightboard is a 4 x 8 ft panel of architectural glass lit by 8 ft strips of white LEDs stretching from the top to bottom of the entire frame. The use of a black background is very important in order to make notes and sketches more vivid. The board can also be used to superimpose images from a projector. How does a professor make sure the orientation is correctly displaying? He shoots himself and the board through a mirror. Best of all? There are many tutorials online on how to build your own…talk about convenient for the DIY type. But of course, anyone can purchase one ranging in price from a few hundred dollars to thousands. Either way, glass lightboards will continue to grow in popularity with high demands of interactive technology. Surely, options will be limitless in due time.
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