Chalk or Dry-Erase Markers?

1 September 2009 at 4:45 pm Peter G. Klein 7 comments

| Peter Klein |

I just committed a rookie teacher faux pas: wearing a black shirt to class in a room equipped with old-fashioned chalk and chalkboards. I do PowerPoint, but use the boards to make additional points and to guide Socratic discussion. Now I look like Woody Allen in the cocaine scene from Annie Hall. O Whiteboard with Black Dry-Erase Markers, Where Art Thou?

Now, I’m sure some professors and teachers among our loyal readership will have strong opinions on the chalk-versus-dry-erase controversy. Chalk generates more dust than markers, but the dust is easily washable and gives that disheveled, absent-minded professor look that many of us crave (especially when combined with tweed and elbow patches). Dry-erase boards are usually cleaner, but the dust and stray markings can ruin your clothes and make you look like a tattoo-school drop-out. What do you think?

NB: My favorite example of an academic Extreme Makeover relates to this discussion. When I was in grad school Andrei Shleifer came out to give a seminar, sometime around 1989 or 1990. He had the quintessential professor look — tousled hair, shirttail hanging out, chalk marks everywhere. I’m pretty sure there were no transparencies or PowerPoint slides, just Three Equations and a Cloud of Dust. Several years later, in the mid-2000s, I saw him give the keynote address for the ISNIE annual conference. This was after the Late Unpleasantness in Russia. In the transition to public servant, Shleifer had been completely transformed, now sporting a fashionable haircut, perfectly tailored Armani suit, bright purple tie, and legible PowerPoint slides (not up to Teppo’s standard, but a big leap for Shleifer nonetheless). Quelle difference!

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7 Comments Add your own

1. Russ Coff | 1 September 2009 at 5:00 pm

I try to go with loud ties too so there is something to keep the students awake…
2. REW | 1 September 2009 at 5:54 pm

So… let me recapitulate, Peter. (1) How you look at the end of class is more important than what you write. (2) What you write is more important than what you say.

The Presentation Zen approach (hidden behind Teppo’s name) has a useful lesson here.
3. jeremy hunsinger | 2 September 2009 at 11:21 am

aren’t real chalkboards against most health and human safety rules by now?
4. Glass Whiteboard | 2 September 2009 at 11:37 am

Ha, now there’s something new – a glass whiteboard like at http://www.GlassWhiteboard.com!
5. Ty Mackey | 2 September 2009 at 12:46 pm

I like to throw up a cloud of chalk dust in a student’s face before every class. Makes me feel like LeBron James.
6. srp | 3 September 2009 at 4:11 am

There’s nothing like that first white line on a black chalkboard–it’s like entering a cosmos. After that, though, it sucks big time as it turns into a smudgy, cloudy mess. Whiteboards are the superior technology by far.
7. Whiteboard Lover | 28 June 2010 at 11:22 pm

That’s hilarious. Entering a cosmos? I think that’s a bit far ;) Whiteboards are certainly more sneeze-friendly tho.