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Why Do Many Prestigious Universities Use Chalkboards Instead Of Whiteboards?

Gizmo j

Gizmo j

Platinum Member
Since beginning elementary I have always had whiteboards in my classes but when i watch university lectures on YouTube from places like MIT and Yale most of the time i see professors using chalkboards...

Aren't Whiteboards easier to write on and also easier to clean?
 
Chalk dust is bad for computers, and computers are bad for the brain. It's to discourage use of computers and to make people listen more in class.

Seriously though, I always found chalk boards were fairly standard, except in any room that has computers they would use white boards. The dust is actually the reasoning I remember hearing.
 
Expense. All those major universities have been around for nearly 100 years. Imagine how many classrooms each has. Most of those chalkboards are built into the walls. So you would have to spend a ton of money to remodel all those walls to hang whiteboards. Plus chalk is dirt cheap as well. Now the better option is to connect your computer to a projector. Use a whiteboarding program and project that on the screen. MS Whiteboard would allow you to join your tablet to a shared whiteboarding session and the professor could use their tablet to whiteboard instead.
 
lxskllr said:
We always had chalkboards, but I'm old. Chalkboards are more aesthetically pleasing, and you can't hide a piece of dry erase marker in the eraser, like you can with chalk ;^)
Click to expand...

LOL I remember doing that too... the erasers had "layers" so you could shove it in it and erase but still make a line.

The math teachers always had the coolest chalk board instruments too for making circles and stuff, oh and music teachers. Like those chalk holders to make the 4 lines for drawing notes. I think I'm aging myself. All that stuff is probably all in power point now days. 😛
 
/shrug

Everything when I was in school wasn't on chalkboards or white boards either really. Everything was either presented via presentations, or one of those overhead projector thingys from what I recall.

Though maybe a whiteboard in the smaller more specialized classes now that I think of it. Wasn't really used much though.
 
My University switches over as they renovate class rooms, which isn't very often.

Lots of professors used Elmo's to a projector even in the early 2000s, or just power points.
 
Because the instructors are masters at flinging chaulk pieces at inattentive students. Always hit them in the head too.
 
Because white boards are garbage and stain eventually, and are harder to erase. Mine at work is toast after a year of covid, has some nonsense from a year ago on it permanently. Chalk is the way to go even though imagining the sound it makes sends shivers up my spine
 
repoman0 said:
Because white boards are garbage and stain eventually, and are harder to erase. Mine at work is toast after a year of covid, has some nonsense from a year ago on it permanently. Chalk is the way to go even though imagining the sound it makes sends shivers up my spine
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Or some jackass comes along and uses a permanent marker on the whiteboard, making it a pain for the next person to use.

During grad school, when I TA'd, I liked white boards because I didn't have to breathe in chalk dust. But I hated white boards because you basically had to supply your own markers and hope someone didn't use a sharpie on the board.
 
Brainonska511 said:
Or some jackass comes along and uses a permanent marker on the whiteboard, making it a pain for the next person to use.

During grad school, when I TA'd, I liked white boards because I didn't have to breathe in chalk dust. But I hated white boards because you basically had to supply your own markers and hope someone didn't use a sharpie on the board.
Click to expand...
You're a chemist, I know your ass dragged a TLC vial's worth of acetone or ethyl acetate to one of those boards to erase the offending sharpie marks 😂
 
SamQuint said:
Expense. All those major universities have been around for nearly 100 years. Imagine how many classrooms each has. Most of those chalkboards are built into the walls. So you would have to spend a ton of money to remodel all those walls to hang whiteboards. Plus chalk is dirt cheap as well. Now the better option is to connect your computer to a projector. Use a whiteboarding program and project that on the screen. MS Whiteboard would allow you to join your tablet to a shared whiteboarding session and the professor could use their tablet to whiteboard instead.
Click to expand...

Don't know that it's "expense" so much as just conservatism/conservation. "Old" is prestigious.
 
Gizmo j said:
Since beginning elementary I have always had whiteboards in my classes but when i watch university lectures on YouTube from places like MIT and Yale most of the time i see professors using chalkboards...

Aren't Whiteboards easier to write on and also easier to clean?
Click to expand...
Honestly, it's the faculty's choice. We've had some dry erase boards replaced inclassrooms because some faculty members made a chalk board contingent on their hiring. I have my own suspicions as to why.

Brainonska511 said:
Or some jackass comes along and uses a permanent marker on the whiteboard, making it a pain for the next person to use.
Click to expand...
Protip, if you scribble a dry erase marker over the permanent one, it'll erase off. Still a dick move to even have permanent markers in the room.
 
uclaLabrat said:
You're a chemist, I know your ass dragged a TLC vial's worth of acetone or ethyl acetate to one of those boards to erase the offending sharpie marks 😂
Click to expand...
Having worked in a protein lab, we had no acetone. And it had crossed my mind to carry some ethanol, but I didn't really feel like it, since the classrooms were all over the campus.
 
repoman0 said:
Because white boards are garbage and stain eventually, and are harder to erase. Mine at work is toast after a year of covid, has some nonsense from a year ago on it permanently. Chalk is the way to go even though imagining the sound it makes sends shivers up my spine
Click to expand...

I think nearly every white board ever installed anywhere in the world has about 1 month of use life before some asshole ruins it with a permanent marker.
 
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