Why is Interactivity Limited with Interactive Whiteboards?

Since I present professional development workshops to a wide variety of participants -- administrators, tech leads, teachers -- I always send out a pre-workshop survey. My goal with this survey is to ultimately figure out where my participants' knowledge falls along the technology continuum...are they aware of basics such as 'save' vs. 'save as', do they understand audio/visual components of their computers, how SMART Notebook savvy are they, etc. The feedback is extremely valuable to help inform me what examples, websites and lessons is most appropriate to show during the instruction portion of these sessions.

What I didn't expect to discover is that amidst the hundreds of filled out surveys that I've received thus far, one glaring commonality is hidden within the results: the vast majority of teachers aren't using their SMART interactive whiteboards for much student interactivity. Why is that? Since I don't currently have a comments section in this portion of the survey, I can only speculate from my own past experience as well as informal dialogue with my colleagues. Perhaps it's the fear of not knowing how to manipulate the software to produce interactive components. Maybe teachers with SMART Boards never really asked for them in their classrooms in the first place. It could be the lack of professional development workshops that address adding student interaction -- it's sometimes hard to visualize how to get students using the SMART Board outside of the standard 'one student at a time while the rest of the class watches from their desks' scenario. Maybe, just maybe, it's the lack of prep time that teachers have, and the thought of adding just one more thing to their plate of marking, prepping, student discipline, maintaining contact with parents, coaching and meeting PLC requirements makes most teachers' stomachs turn.

I suspect that while it may be a combination of the issues presented above, it is the final description that most teachers identify with. It is a shame that adding interactivity is viewed as an enormous task that only the most tech-savvy teachers with an abundance of time on their hands can accomplish. What most don't realize is that pre-loaded templates in the SMART Notebook Gallery can quickly be edited to fit their own curricular content, or that there are an infinite amount of websites dedicated to adding interactivity to a lesson. This interactivity also doesn't need to be some massive 90 minute activity with all students manipulating content throughout the duration of the lesson; sometimes all it takes is a brief excuse for students to get out of their desks and have a bit of control over a portion of the content explored as a class. I can't tell you how many teachers have commented on how quickly their mindset changed after they were shown a simple demonstration of some quick and easy interactive elements that they hadn't previously been aware of.

What hurdles do you feel are the largest for teachers to overcome to increase student interactivity in their classroom?

How do you incorporate student interaction with your interactive whiteboard?