THE CHALKBOARD A Medium for Visual Symbols The

THE CHALKBOARD A Medium for Visual Symbols

• The chalkboard is not itself a visual material but a vehicle for a variety of visual methods. • It provides an opportunity for creativity and initiative, as one “visualizes” an explanation or a demonstration.

• It is a vehicle especially adaptable to visual symbols as coaches and teachers of engineering drawing, geography, music, mathematics, chemistry, and other subjects will readily testify.

History • Educational historians have found that the use of some kinds of wall boards on which to write is at least 400 years old. • Horace Mann, an American educator who learned about blackboards in Europe recommended its wider use ``Indeed, in no state or country have I ever seen a good school without a blackboard, or a successful teacher who did not use it frequently. ”

Uses To illustrate facts, ideas, and processes, often with the help of drawings, sketches, maps, diagrams, and other visual symbols; To present important facts and principles, such as new words, terms, rules, definitions, keywords to important ideas, outlines, summaries, classifications; To provide an efficient medium for student demonstration and practice;

Uses • To display a wide variety of materials, ranging from daily assignments, questions, and examinations to pupil-achievement records and materials that might otherwise appear on the bulletin board.