Whiteboard vs. Blackboard — What's the Difference?

A collaborative tool allowing several users to write and draw on the same shared display.

A blackboard (also known as a chalkboard) is a reusable writing surface on which text or drawings are made with sticks of calcium sulphate or calcium carbonate, known, when used for this purpose, as chalk. Blackboards were originally made of smooth, thin sheets of black or dark grey slate stone.

A whiteboard (also known by the terms marker board, dry-erase board, dry-wipe board, and pen-board) is a glossy, usually white surface for making nonpermanent markings (an evolved version of the blackboard). Whiteboards are analogous to blackboards, but with a smoother surface allowing rapid marking and erasing of markings on their surface.

A large board with a smooth dark surface attached to a wall or supported on an easel and used by teachers in schools for writing on with chalk.

A panel covered with white, glossy plastic for writing on with erasable markers. Also called dry erase board.

A smooth, hard, dark-colored panel for writing on with chalk.

A writing board finished with a hard white material, which can be written upon using special non-permanent markers and subsequently wiped clean.

A large flat surface, finished with black slate or a similar material, that can be written upon with chalk and subsequently erased; a chalkboard.

To use a blackboard to assist in an informal discussion.

A broad board painted black, or any black surface on which writing, drawing, or the working of mathematical problems can be done with chalk or crayons. It is much used in schools. In late 20th century similar boards of a green slate as well as some colored white became common; wrioting on the slate bioards may be done with chalk, but writing on the white boards is done with colored pens, such as grease pens, which leaves a trace that can be easily erased. The newer boards, usualy called chalkboards are nevertheless still sometimes referred to as blackboards.

Sheet of slate; for writing with chalk