Interactive whiteboard

I read in Newsweek that a group of teachers subdued themselves to be duct tape to the to a gym wall while students hit them in the face with pies. The reason why they did this is because they wanted to raise enough money to buy an ‘Interactive whiteboard’. This ‘Interactive whiteboard’, is the same as ‘Blackboard’ I supposed? Mathew Philips also reported that it is the most “coveted piece of educational technology on the market right now”. I’m just wondering if he is right. What is the most coveted piece of educational technology in the school system? Mathew Philips from Newsweek also reported that in the “U.K.-70 percent of all primary and secondary classrooms have interactive whiteboard, compared with just 16 percent in the United States”. Studies showed that in the classrooms where interactive whiteboard was installed, the attendance rate raised and classroom participation increased. We have teachers that are stilled accustomed to writing lesson plans with pen and paper, so how are they going to learn something that they would be scared of learning. I know that we can train them to use it but if they don’t, it is just another expensive technology being unused.