Who wins the battle of the boards?
Chalk boards a thing of the past
Sieglaff, John
Issue date: 11/17/05 Section: Fun House
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In the year 2005 we must decide on which writing medium is more appropriate in the classroom: Whiteboards or chalkboards.
It is a question that has been boggling the minds of scientists and professors ever since the dawn of the whiteboard. The smart professors chose the whiteboards long ago, but those evil instructors out there (you know who you are) kept the nuisance of the chalkboard alive.
The chalkboard is nothing but a tool symbolizing the old way of teaching. Anyone who willingly uses one should know that they are only making things harder for the pupils in the classroom and themselves.
The ugliness of a chalkboard is easy to see. The way the words are written on a chalkboard is smudgy and unclear. For instance, if a writing teacher wrote a sentence that included the word GOGGLE, the crappy chalk could smear and the second G could look like an O and the students may think it says GOOGLE and everyone would be confused.
Another downside to the board for chalk is that when parts get erased, there is always a fog of dusty chalk particles that remain scattered sporadically all over the board. The only remedy of the chalk-dust cloud is to wash the board thoroughly with water and even then, no one can be too sure about just how much it helps.
Even easier to see than the ugliness of a chalkboard, is the beauty in a whiteboard. I mean, c'mon! As long as you professors out there who are cool enough to use a whiteboard keep to one marker color (black is what I prefer), the board will never be smeared or unreadable.
I think students would all agree that it is much easier to read black, or any other dark color, on white rather than white on black (or green for that matter). It can be easily proven that black on white is the preferred font and background color.
What color is the printing you're reading right now? Black! And what is it printed on? White! Well…I suppose it's more of a gray kind of shade, but it is a newspaper, it has to be gray. Otherwise we break some sort of newspaper etiquette or something.
Another great thing about whiteboards: a single swipe of one's finger along a letter and the marker is clearly and cleanly erased from the surface of the whiteboard! Try doing that with a clump of chalk.
So, basically, my point is that continuing the use of a chalkboard is a sin. It has served its purpose but now we have moved on to other better things.
If we keep on using chalkboards, what's next? We might as well throw all our calculators in the garbage and go back to the abacus. Or better yet, why don't we just have all our houses, apartments, condominiums, and all other buildings bulldozed to the ground and start living in caves and trees again? My point is simple: LIVE IN THE NOW!
Oh yeah, and one more thing. No one is going to think that white chalk dust on you is cocaine. It won't make you look like a badass, just a dumbass.
It is a question that has been boggling the minds of scientists and professors ever since the dawn of the whiteboard. The smart professors chose the whiteboards long ago, but those evil instructors out there (you know who you are) kept the nuisance of the chalkboard alive.
The chalkboard is nothing but a tool symbolizing the old way of teaching. Anyone who willingly uses one should know that they are only making things harder for the pupils in the classroom and themselves.
The ugliness of a chalkboard is easy to see. The way the words are written on a chalkboard is smudgy and unclear. For instance, if a writing teacher wrote a sentence that included the word GOGGLE, the crappy chalk could smear and the second G could look like an O and the students may think it says GOOGLE and everyone would be confused.
Another downside to the board for chalk is that when parts get erased, there is always a fog of dusty chalk particles that remain scattered sporadically all over the board. The only remedy of the chalk-dust cloud is to wash the board thoroughly with water and even then, no one can be too sure about just how much it helps.
Even easier to see than the ugliness of a chalkboard, is the beauty in a whiteboard. I mean, c'mon! As long as you professors out there who are cool enough to use a whiteboard keep to one marker color (black is what I prefer), the board will never be smeared or unreadable.
I think students would all agree that it is much easier to read black, or any other dark color, on white rather than white on black (or green for that matter). It can be easily proven that black on white is the preferred font and background color.
What color is the printing you're reading right now? Black! And what is it printed on? White! Well…I suppose it's more of a gray kind of shade, but it is a newspaper, it has to be gray. Otherwise we break some sort of newspaper etiquette or something.
Another great thing about whiteboards: a single swipe of one's finger along a letter and the marker is clearly and cleanly erased from the surface of the whiteboard! Try doing that with a clump of chalk.
So, basically, my point is that continuing the use of a chalkboard is a sin. It has served its purpose but now we have moved on to other better things.
If we keep on using chalkboards, what's next? We might as well throw all our calculators in the garbage and go back to the abacus. Or better yet, why don't we just have all our houses, apartments, condominiums, and all other buildings bulldozed to the ground and start living in caves and trees again? My point is simple: LIVE IN THE NOW!
Oh yeah, and one more thing. No one is going to think that white chalk dust on you is cocaine. It won't make you look like a badass, just a dumbass.