Standard Whiteboard Pens - Safe to Use?

[wistful]

Near the SmartBoard in my classroom there's a severe notice warning against using whiteboard markers on the board.
But on an old SmartBoard doc I found on the web, it says it's fine. There's the normal advice about removing permanent ink - the scourge of traditional whiteboards.

Is there anything about more recent SmartBoards that justifies banning the use of the board as a regular whiteboard, using regular whiteboard markers?

I don't like signs that frighten teachers away from using technology. When they're already fairly technology averse, it's the last thing they need. Unless, of course, there are valid reasons for that prohibition.

Cheers.

[john]

Standard Pens erode and damage the surface of the board meaning that you need to then have it resurfaced. IT also makes it messy and dirty as no-one likes using the highly stinky pens that are the best ones to use on it which don't smear and streak.

[wistful]

Wow - that was quick! Thanks for the advice.
(I was just revisiting this post as I realised I should have placed it under Hardware.)

So while the surface looks like a normal whiteboard, the pressure sensitivity or whatever is affected more by regular pen usage than a normal board would be? Or is it just that with SmartBoards you can avoid the inherent erosion that would occur with a normal board anyway?

No matter if there's no reply to this. I think the point is that the issue is chemical, not physical. Before that was pointed out, I couldn't see how the soft and fuzzy point of a normal pen could be harder on the surface than the relatively precise point of a SmartBoard stylus.

David

[Ric_]

No matter if there's no reply to this. I think the point is that the issue is chemical, not physical. Before that was pointed out, I couldn't see how the soft and fuzzy point of a normal pen could be harder on the surface than the relatively precise point of a SmartBoard stylus.

Correct... it's the ink in the pens that stain and damage the surface of the boards. Some brands of board fair better than others but it's usually best to avoid using pens.

AN advantage of not allowing pens to be used is that it will force the adoption of the technology. In classrooms where I've installed interactive boards alongside traditional boards, the adoption of the interactive boards use has definitely been slower.