Using bluetac on ACTIVBoards

[Kevan]

Hi

At the British Council we have removed traditional whiteboards from all the classrooms and replaced them with ACTIVBoards in most of our teaching centres in South East Asia.

One issue that's currently being discussed on our forums is whether or not it's OK to use bluetac to stick pictures and cut-up card on the ACTIVBoards.

My own view is that it's OK and I do this a lot. However, some teaching centres tell teachers not to use bluetac because it leaves behind a residue which affects the boards!

My question is - does anyone use bluetac on their ACTIVBoards and do you find it affects them?

I guess most schools have an ACTIVBoard and a traditional whiteboard in the classroom so you can stick pics etc on the traditional whiteboard but if you have any views on this please post them here

Kevan Cummins

[daverosthorn]

Hi Kevan,

To be honest, I'd never need to stick things to the board as everything is on the computer! Tried scanning in these cut-outs and pictures??

Dave.

[Margaret Allen]

Good answer Dave :D


As far as we are aware there is no problem. +wave+

[Kevan]

We teach young learners English as a foreign language and we often want to do activities where several students are writing on the board at the same time - an example activity is a board rush where each team has a differnt colour pen and when asked a question ( eg Name three types of food that start with the letter 'o'?) a student from each group runs up to the board at the same time and writes their groups answer - first group to write answer and return to their goup wins.

We can no longer do these types of activities where more than one student is writing on the board at the same time (only one board pen!!!).

A solution is to write answers on card and students can come out several at a time and stick these cards on the board using bluetac. As we have removed all traditional boards from classrooms we don't have the option of sticking card anywhere else but on the ACTIVboard.

I guess this is a problem that you wouldn't have in classrooms with a traditional board together with an ACTIVboard. Perhaps also in main stream education you wouldn't usually want to have more than one student writing on the board at the same time.

[m-rice]

I agree with the need to be able to stick things onto, and write on the board with ordinary whiteboard pens. Pull-down, clear rollers are available for this, and have been used successfully here at Newbury College. I'm not absolutely sure why you can't just write on the interactive whiteboard itself. I once did this accidentally, and the writing came off OK!

[Margaret Allen]

The reason we don't advocate it the whole time is that inevitably after a while you will get a "shadow". You can see these shadows on dry wipe boards so it is bound to happen on such a matt surface.

However, as a teacher if I had one dry wipe pen working well I felt pleased - Iso to have every colour in the rainbow coupled with any thickness why would you want to revert back to the limited nature of a conventional pen.

[John Fearn]

I agree with Margaret about not using pens. Every now and again a supply teacher "sins", and we always manage to clean up the boards ok. However, in the long term the surface will degrade, as does any whiteboard surface.

We do have a number of blutac users, and this causes no problems at all.

[Kevan]

Pull-down, clear rollers are available for this, and have been used successfully here at Newbury College.

Thanks for the replies - we would love to be able to use marker pens but the issue of long term use affecting the boards prevents us from doing this. I'd be interested in knowing more about the clear rollers you use at Newbury College - is there a link to the supplier that you could post here?

[Jon' Allen]

Roller covers are available direct from Promethean. Think they are about £90 exc VAT. Call 0870 241 3194 and ask for sales and they can give you exact pricing and order code.

[Kevan]

Thanks for the info