Blackboard or whiteboard - is that the question?

What should guide our choice of medium for instruction?

So maybe whiteboards should be provided for some, blackboards for others, overhead projectors for yet others, and for the risk takers a data projector.

But what should determine our choice when deciding on the medium we will use as the core tool for facilitating our teaching? Unfortunately research on the ‘blackboard/whiteboard/OHP/data projector’ debate is hard to find. However, some issues to consider might be:

• Would our students prefer us to use a blackboard or whiteboard?
• Is there a workable match between the pace at which we can write on a blackboard/whiteboard/OHP and the pace at which our students are expected to record (and learn from?) what we write? What does this say about our conception of teaching and learning?
• Does one medium enable us to engage more with our students during the lecture?
• Are our students likely to learn more or less effectively if we use a blackboard, whiteboard, OHP or data projector?

What is the teacher’s comfort zone in using different media when teaching? What is the student’s comfort zone when attempting to learn during the teaching event? Isn’t that (attempting to learn) what we are expecting our students to do as we teach? How can we best help them with that process? Perhaps the answer to this question isn’t actually found in pondering blackboard/whiteboard issues.