Interactive whiteboards are commonly called whiteboards or SmartBoards (a brand name,) and there are several other well-known brands available, such as eBeam, Mimio, Webster, and ActivBoard. They take the place of whiteboards with erasable markers, or paper flip boards used in the past. What comes up on the interactive whiteboard is anything that can be seen on a computer monitor. The concept allows the teacher to present material at the front of the classroom and encourage students to come forward to help instruct the class. The interactive whiteboard is especially good for teachers as they can save material to be presented again - a benefit for students who need clarification or repetition to learn well, who have been out of school, and for the entire class as they review and prepare for exams.

The Instructional Technology Department of the Wichita Public Schools system lists ways in which interactive whiteboards can be used, and these may serve as tips for teachers when searching for the best uses of this teaching aid.

* Absentees benefit from lessons that were taught in their absence and recorded in the system for their use.

* Software applications can be taught by actually showing, for example, the development of a graph or a spreadsheet in Excel.

* Geography and social studies lessons are no longer boring when the whiteboard is used to show maps of continents, countries, states, cities, capitals, bodies of water, forests, mountain ranges, and more.

* Students can create presentations as assignments; teachers can create presentations for teaching.

* Whiteboards can be used to create "e-folios" containing samples of their own narrated reports.