8 ms·

My god - no! As a former professor I was once (only a couple years ago) assigned a classroom with a chalkboard and it was easily the worst semester. They look

My god - no! As a former professor I was once (only a couple years ago) assigned a classroom with a chalkboard and it was easily the worst semester. They look nice when they are clean, but as soon as you erase something it ends up being unreadable. Not to mention I would end up covered in chalk at the end of a lecture.

dozzie 9y ago
> [Chalkboards] look nice when they are clean, but as soon as you erase something it ends up being unreadable. Depends on what chalk you use. If you use chalk from chalk (CaCO3), then yes, it's awful, but if you use chalk from gypsum (CaSO4 hydrate), it's readable on a wet board and erases well.
adrianN 9y ago
That was either a bad chalkboard, bad chalk, or it was poorly maintained. See this video for a reference https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCroFiwllH8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCroFiwllH8
bikenaga 9y ago
The modern green-colored boards are junk. When we had our building renovated, we had all the old slate boards removed and set aside, then reinstalled when the classrooms were done. They're pretty good, but I'm not sure they're made anymore. Some have minor dings, and if the surface has gotten "slippery" it's unusable. But I use nothing but chalk every day - many of my colleagues do as well - and it works great. I usually hold white and yellow chalk, writing with white and highlighting with yellow. I even got a box of big sticks (roughly 6" x 1") of blue "railroad" chalk for additional highlighting. The white is Crayola; I don't recall the brand of the yellow. A chalkboard pro-tip (suggested by a former colleague years ago) - get some of the foot-long "janitorial" erasers. We have them in every classroom. They erase very quickly, and pretty cleanly as well. [We also have projectors, document cams, and touchscreens (which I think are Cintiqs) in each room for people who prefer them. I think only one room has a whiteboard/smartboard.]

dozzie 9y ago

> [Chalkboards] look nice when they are clean, but as soon as you erase something it ends up being unreadable. Depends on what chalk you use. If you use chalk from chalk (CaCO3), then yes, it's awful, but if you use chalk from gypsum (CaSO4 hydrate), it's readable on a wet board and erases well.

adrianN 9y ago

That was either a bad chalkboard, bad chalk, or it was poorly maintained. See this video for a reference https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCroFiwllH8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCroFiwllH8

bikenaga 9y ago

The modern green-colored boards are junk. When we had our building renovated, we had all the old slate boards removed and set aside, then reinstalled when the classrooms were done. They're pretty good, but I'm not sure they're made anymore. Some have minor dings, and if the surface has gotten "slippery" it's unusable. But I use nothing but chalk every day - many of my colleagues do as well - and it works great. I usually hold white and yellow chalk, writing with white and highlighting with yellow. I even got a box of big sticks (roughly 6" x 1") of blue "railroad" chalk for additional highlighting. The white is Crayola; I don't recall the brand of the yellow. A chalkboard pro-tip (suggested by a former colleague years ago) - get some of the foot-long "janitorial" erasers. We have them in every classroom. They erase very quickly, and pretty cleanly as well. [We also have projectors, document cams, and touchscreens (which I think are Cintiqs) in each room for people who prefer them. I think only one room has a whiteboard/smartboard.]