A Complete Guide to Interactive Whiteboards for Classrooms and Offices

Interactive whiteboards like the Vibe Board S1 are becoming more common both in the classroom and the workplace. With the ability to use a display as a touchscreen device, an interactive smart whiteboard allows you to accomplish a wide range of tasks. By using this tool, multiple people can engage in a collaborative experience to take notes, annotate content, and share screens.
Ready to stop saving your work with “Do Not Touch” signs on the standard dry erase board and jump into the future? Read on to learn more about interactive whiteboards, what they do, and how to use them in business or classroom settings.
How is an interactive whiteboard useful?
Interactive whiteboards are a better way to collaborate and save your work for future use. Using a stylus pen or your finger, you can draw, highlight, or interact with elements via the board’s touchscreen surface. By recording thoughts and ideas on the smartboard, you can share, archive, and save your notes as digital content, removing the painstaking process of rewriting notes later.
Plus, they allow for integration between mobile devices such as laptops, tablets, and smartphones. You can connect devices to Vibe either wirelessly or with an HDMI cable. From there, users can easily annotate on top of the content pulled from the connected device. Conversely, you can share your Vibe project from the board to another Vibe board, computer web browser, or tablet for real-time co-creation and collaboration.
Directly sharing content from devices makes presentations more fluid and cuts down on time spent organizing notes. And when you’re done, there’s no need for physical storage space. The annotated content is saved on the Vibe cloud to use later on your choice of connected device.
Related: Project Planning from Start to Finish with the Vibe Smart Whiteboard
What is an interactive whiteboard used for?
Interactive whiteboards are primarily used as an engaging way to collaborate, brainstorm, and present information. You’ll often find this kind of technology in education settings. Interactive whiteboards for classrooms have made remote and hybrid learning more accessible than ever before. Many of these same benefits in education cross over into business as well, and smart whiteboards bring teams together in new, unique ways that bring collaboration to life.
Man marking performance metrics on a Vibe Board during an online business meeting.
Some of the top activities that you can use an interactive whiteboard for include:
- Improved collaboration by allowing multiple participants to contribute ideas simultaneously on the same digital canvas.
- Engaging presentations with real-time annotations, multimedia integration, and interactive content manipulation.
- Effective brainstorming through digital idea capture that can be easily organized, saved, and shared.
- Seamless hybrid meetings connecting in-person and remote participants in a shared visual workspace.
- Enhanced visual learning through interactive multimedia content that improves understanding and retention.
- Simplified document sharing with real-time markup and comments visible to all participants.
- Interactive training with hands-on digital exercises that promote active learning and skill development.
- Better data visualization displaying complex information graphically for easier comprehension and analysis.
- Inclusive participation through features that accommodate different learning and communication styles.
- Digital record-keeping with automatic saving of all whiteboard content for future reference and distribution.
Is there a difference between interactive whiteboards and smart whiteboards?
Interactive whiteboards represent a broader category of touch-sensitive displays that allow users to interact with digital content, while smart whiteboards offer enhanced functionality with built-in features. Interactive whiteboards typically provide more affordability and compatibility with various third-party software applications, whereas smart whiteboards come equipped with advanced touch recognition capabilities and proprietary software suites.
The fundamental difference lies in how they function – interactive whiteboards work like traditional boards with added touch functionality, while smart whiteboards essentially operate as a dedicated computer with interactive capabilities. Both technologies enhance engagement and collaboration in education and business environments, but they differ in their specific features, software integration options, and price points.
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Benefits of interactive whiteboards in education
It’s difficult to capture the attention of an entire class when so many things are fighting for students’ attention. Keeping their attention while using technology to your advantage can be even more difficult. Similar to how the best teachers can integrate life, art, and science, the best technology combines experience, design, and science to solve your problems efficiently. Many educators have integrated technology into their teaching with fantastic results, the same can be done with interactive whiteboards for classrooms. Top benefits of interactive whiteboards in include:
Enhance classroom engagement
Traditional teaching methods often struggle to capture students’ attention, but interactive whiteboards transform the learning experience. This technology allows teachers to incorporate multimedia elements, interactive exercises, and visual demonstrations that appeal to different learning styles, keeping students actively engaged in the lesson.
Teacher using a Vibe Board in a K–12 classroom to enhance student engagement through interactive teaching.
Support diverse learning needs
You can easily accommodate various learning styles and abilities with an interactive whiteboard. Teachers can quickly adjust content size, use text-to-speech features, and incorporate multi-sensory learning activities that help all students access the curriculum regardless of their learning preferences or needs.
Save instructional time
Educators who use interactive whiteboards have discovered the efficiency benefits in lesson preparation and delivery. Teachers can prepare lessons in advance, save and reuse materials, and transition seamlessly between different activities without the disruption of erasing boards or changing physical materials.
Improve information retention
Traditional static presentations limit how students interact with content. Interactive whiteboards allow students to physically engage with learning materials, manipulate objects on screen, and participate in collaborative problem-solving, which significantly improves information retention and understanding of complex concepts.
Interactive whiteboard options in the classroom
Learning is becoming increasingly digitized. Luckily, technology is also becoming more intuitive and takes less time to implement. Despite these digital improvements, many classrooms still use standard dry erase boards or projector-based whiteboards.
Traditional dry erase boards, while once a staple in classrooms, are increasingly less effective in meeting the demands of modern teaching environments. They lack interactivity and rely solely on manual input, limiting student engagement and collaboration. Issues such as marker failure, glare, and ghosting can also hinder accessibility and usability, especially for visually impaired students. Further, dry erase boards fail to integrate digital resources or multimedia content, making it harder for educators to create truly engaging, dynamic, multisensory learning experiences that cater to diverse learning styles.
Teacher guiding students as they draw and interact with content on a Vibe Board during a classroom activity.
Projector-based interactive whiteboards require more time to install, adopt, and warm up. The calibration process can be more complicated than simply mounting a display. Plus, the integrator will have to ensure the image fits and touch capabilities function like they should. Even with professional help, installation can take time and adoption rates are often low.
Between changing bulbs and replacing filters, projector-based solutions can be more expensive to maintain long-term. Comparatively, display solutions like digital whiteboards eliminate the costs of overhead plastics and filters. Maintenance is solely on an as-needed basis.
Interactive whiteboard technology such as the Vibe Board S1 can quickly and easily be installed and implemented in your classroom or boardroom. There’s no projector, so installing a fully integrated interactive display takes less than an hour and doesn’t require any significant wiring or programming during setup.
Benefits of interactive whiteboards for your business
Having an interactive whiteboard can significantly enhance the way your business runs. From presentations to meetings, brainstorming sessions to project planning, interactive whiteboards offer a range of features that clarify communication and decision-making processes. They bridge the gap between in-person and remote participants, ensuring effective collaboration regardless of physical location. Here are a few benefits of using an interactive whiteboard:
Collaborate at meetings
Meetings have always been group discussions, but with an interactive whiteboard, meetings are changed for the better. This technology allows everyone to access the same content through their own device. Teams can share and edit content in real-time, allowing for maximum collaboration.
Woman presenting insights on revenue optimization using a Vibe Board during a business meeting.
Include remote attendees
You can easily use the same technology to add remote attendees to meetings. Interactive whiteboards can help those remote employees participate in real-time during presentations. Gone are the days of inactive remote meeting participants, all attendees are all able to engage with collaboration just as effectively as those in the office. These remote meetings can also double as webinars. Easily print or share materials post-meeting with absent coworkers.
Connect everyone in the room
Designers of interactive whiteboards have accounted for the interaction levels that traditional meetings have. As long as your device has the correct app and internet connection, everyone can participate through the shared digital whiteboard app.
Reduced supply costs
Traditional whiteboards need markers. They dry out and need to be replaced often. Depending on how often your team writes on it, traditional whiteboards need to be completely replaced on a regular basis. Interactive whiteboards use stylus pens, or you can even just use your finger, which means no more markers, erasers, or the frustration of being unable to read the board.
Related: How to Design a Remote-first Workplace
Implementing interactive whiteboards at the office
Implementing interactive whiteboards at the office can revolutionize how your team works together, whether they’re on-site or working remotely. Similar to using this technology in a classroom setting, there are many ways to use a smartboard to improve engagement and efficiency at work.
Whether your office decides to use traditional interactive whiteboards or a projector-based one, both are easily installed in your current settings. The integrator will set up the touch capabilities and help with installation. (Remember, though, that projector-based options can be more expensive to maintain long-term.)
Create collaboration opportunities for distributed teams
It’s becoming increasingly more normal for a company to have multiple offices in different countries. With a digital whiteboard, you can conduct virtual meetings and also have an endless amount of canvas to jot down ideas with coworkers all over the world . Keeping a record of meetings is beneficial for employees, especially new hires who are still learning the business. Even if offices open back up to the level everyone’s used to, a digital whiteboard is a great tool to have.
Streamline note-taking
With a digital whiteboard, the entire presentation is saved so that you can access it later without missing a moment of the meeting when it’s happening in real-time. A standard whiteboard doesn’t have this function.
Easily annotate documents
This technology allows you to work off of other materials. Highlight important information on an old training PowerPoint with this interactive system. This allows everyone attending the meeting to add their own annotations.
Team using a Vibe Board in a meeting to improve communication and collaboration.
Vibe Board S1: A Leader Among Interactive Whiteboards
Interactive whiteboards have revolutionized the way we collaborate, teach, and present ideas, and the Vibe Board S1 stands out as the ultimate solution for both classrooms and businesses . Its integration of hardware capabilities and software features transforms traditional workflows into dynamic, engaging experiences. With features like real-time collaboration on an infinite canvas, split-screen functionality to work and video call, and effortless app integration with over 250 popular tools, Vibe empowers users to connect, create, and share like never before. By enabling seamless remote participation, interactive multimedia integration, and efficient content sharing, the Vibe Board S1 amplifies productivity and engagement in any setting. Whether you’re leading a brainstorming session, teaching a hybrid class, or delivering a high-stakes presentation, interactive whiteboards deliver unmatched engagement and versatility. Elevate your workspace or classroom today with the Vibe Board S1 —the smart choice for modern collaboration.