I grew up writing on blackboards, so obviously this is purely my subjective preference, but I also find blackboards much better to think on than whiteboards. One thing I particularly don't like is that I tend to write quite fast; the faster you write, the more likely it is that a marker will leave a thin, washed out, barely legible stroke, whereas chalk is always nice and clear. I also tend to leave things up on my board for a few days, after which a lot of dry erase markers become a pain to erase, whereas chalk always erases nicely.
I have a whiteboard in my office, but if I could get it switched out with a blackboard without bothering my nice office manager who already has way too much work to be bothered by my weird requests, I'd do it in a heartbeat.
I was not allowed to have a blackboard in my office because the boss said the chalk dust gets into the computers and causes problems (or makes you have to clean them frequently). We were a software company, so there were a bazillion computers around.
I don't know if this is true or not, and if it is true whether or not with careful use you can avoid the problem, but if you ever do ask for a blackboard, make sure you have some answer for this in case someone brings it up as an objection.
I was at a university some years ago that had blackboards in all the rooms except the computer labs, which had whiteboards instead, also citing this reason. At the time I believe whiteboards were more expensive (and less familiar), so they were put only where "needed", i.e. rooms with computers. These days I see mostly just whiteboards everywhere, though.
It is nothing compared to the quantity of chalk dust generated. I've used chalkboards for years though in computer labs and around other electronic equipment, it has no noticeable effect.
On the topic of writing-surface ergonomics, I've always been curious about what it would feel like to write on a sufficiently-large magnetic drawing board (i.e. a scaled-up version of one of those toys containing iron filings that comes with a magnetic stylus.)
Whiteboard surfaces become harder to erase if cleaned with alcohol, which is quite common. I find that you can write quite quickly if you use high quality markers and I tend to bring my own markers everywhere just to make things easier.
My father was an old-school physics teacher before he retired. He had the last blackboard in his school. It was glass, painted with special blackboard paint. There were signs hung both sides warning the cleaners never to touch it, ever. Apparently there had been an incident when they'd cleaned a blackboard with silicone polish and completely ruined it.
I don't speak spanish, but I'll forever remember "No Borrar Por Favor", because it was written on a large sign stuck to every single blackboard in my high school and college.
> I also tend to leave things up on my board for a few days, after which a lot of dry erase markers become a pain to erase, whereas chalk always erases nicely.
This. If they could fix this with whiteboards, I figure they'd be a lot more popular--and no I don't need to know tricks to clean the whiteboard, indeed even deodorant spray works well enough, but it'd be nice to have a whiteboard that just wipes clean as well after a few days as it does after an hour :)
That, and the problem with pens running out. But that's a problem I feel I could have more control over if I were to use a whiteboard more often :)
I find the erasability of blackboards and whiteboards is a function of the quality of materials. Crappy markers look washed out and yet erase poorly, as does crappy chalk. Better markers (I bring my own into work for this reason) write smoothly and erase nicely. Obviously the quality of the boards themselves also plays a role.
I recently discovered that common alcohol-based hand sanitizer works very well to remove stubborn white board marker. Not sure if it just works on my particular brand of markers or if the solvent is more universal, but give it a try.
I've found that people keep repeating this but it doesn't work. So a couple of places in our office have permanent marker marks with smudges all around it from where someone tried to wipe it off with alcohol then a dry-erase marker.
I've found the opposite, IME; perhaps the issue is with your boards? We regularly have this happen at work and the permanent marker is always removed. It also works on plastic containers - I've successfully done this hundreds of times on both reusable plastic bins for my food at work, as well as items I buy (and resell) from Goodwills and Savers / Value Villages. I've not yet run across a plastic container that this hasn't worked on.
I've obviously not tried this with "hundreds" of whiteboards, but the one we have on the fridge at home works as well as the several size and types we have at work.
Drawing over permanent marker with a white board marker does work provided the permanent marker hasn't dried yet.
Or, at least, I have done this successfully before now - so my current working assumption is "people are waiting too long after which it doesn't work", but since I like my white boards I'm unwilling to run the necessary experiments to test this.
I don't think time has anything to do with it. Rather it's the solvent in the dry erase marker. I used to use dry erase markers to remove extension numbers from the little tabs on 66 blocks back in the days before IP phones. Sometimes those numbers had been there for 15+ years.
So, my advice would be: if one brand of dry erase marker doesn't remove your permanent marker mark, try a different brand. I think I used Expo.
I have a whiteboard in my office, but if I could get it switched out with a blackboard without bothering my nice office manager who already has way too much work to be bothered by my weird requests, I'd do it in a heartbeat.