Making Whiteboards Hi-tech

A couple of weeks ago, I began an experiment to keep a record of my whiteboard scribblings. The idea was to have a look at my thought processes after the lesson, and see if I could improve what I was doing. So far, I've been focussing on trying to capture good enough quality images and reflection has taken second place, but I thought I'd share what I'd learned so far.

How do I do this? I like using Evernote on my iPod to remember things for me, as I can synchronise it with my computer afterwards. It has an option for snapshots, so I use that to take a picture of the board just before I erase it. I should warn you – my students still find this kind of strange. Here's a typical snapshot:

My bad handwriting

It's not too bad, as I can get an idea of what we were talking about at the time. The good thing about Evernote is you can tag your notes and add more information to give you context. I tend to put the class name in there to help me remember which students this was for. It seems I'm not the only one with this idea, as I found a post the other day about using mobile phones with a similar result.

Later on, I imagine I could share these snapshots with my students or with other teachers at my school, but for now I can use them as quick reference before I teach this group again to refresh my memory of any problems. I'd be interested to know if any other teachers have had a similar idea and what their experiences have been.