Are Smartboards 'smart'?

In my content seminar we've been asked to do weekly(ish) readings from The Teaching Gap. In the recent chapter we read about the use of projectors vs. chalkboards in Japanese classrooms vs. American classrooms. The authors talk about how in Japanese classrooms there is no projector simply a chalkboard, which provides record of problems and solution methods. This is the opposite in American classrooms in which there is a projector that's used to focus students attention and demonstrate the procedures. These different methods of "projecting" the lesson really speaks to the approach that each country takes in mathematics education. In the U.S the approach is very much review, demonstration, practice, and corrections. Whereas in Japan the approach is review presentation of a problem, student work through the problems, discussion of solution methods, high lights and summarize. The learning is much more student centered in Japanese approaches which speaks to the minimal use of the chalkboard. If the chalkboard is used it's used to help enforce the importance of student discovery not teacher demonstration.

This use of projectors and boards tends to lead one's thinking to the newest 'board', the Smartboard. How would Japanese teachers use this in their classrooms? Would they even find it helpful? Or would they think were more of a hinder than a help with the 'normal' structure in the classroom? My thoughts are: Smarboards can be very helpful when used to show demonstrations of concepts, especially when they involve figures which one can manipulate on the Smartboard. I think when looking at their use like this, Japanese teachers would see the benefits of the board to help students discovery and understanding.

The use of the Smartboard in classrooms tends to bring teacher's practices to more demonstrations and presentation because with the board the presentations are much more interactive and teachers are able to manipulate the figures used, which is very helpful in geometry lessons. I think that it's really important that teachers don't take using the Smartboard to the extreme and refuse to differentiate from that method of instruction. Yes the use of Smartboards can add to the effectiviness of lessons and lead to deeper understanding of the material but it's important to keep in mind when using them that it's not the ONLY effective method of instruction...