Lively debate about IWB technology

Thank goodness for the free e-newsletter service from Education Week (http://www.edweek.org). I was just alerted to a featured blogger who wrote a criticism of IWB tools and how they are being used in the classrooms. You can find this posting at The Tempered Radical by Bill Ferriter (http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical) At the onset of his post, "Wasting Money on Whiteboards...", he warns "Blogger’s Note: I’m a bit worked up today, so this post has rant written all over it. It’s heavy on the Radical and light on the Tempered. Read at your own risk."
I am so grateful for the forums created by blogs. I plan to read the comments to this posting and join in the discussion with my thoughts about IWB technologies.
I need to make sure that I keep an open mind and wait to decide whether the IWBs (and Promethean Boards specifically) are worth the cost. I am concerned about the passivity of our local community of teachers and tax-paying residents, since I have never heard discussions about the schools' IWBs and how they are being used to increase student achievement and engagement. Why aren't people asking questions about the costs of putting IWBs in all classrooms, even the kindergarten classrooms? Why aren't the schools sharing results with community members about the measurable gains they are observing in their students? The middle school has been using these IWBs for more than 2 years now. The only time that I've heard a presentation about Promethean Boards was at a school board meeting last February, when a group of teachers and administrators publicly thanked our School Board members for sending them to an excellent training on Promethean Boards at the ASTE conference. I don't recall any questions by the board members about the effectiveness of this tool in the classroom.
I plan to talk with local teacher and administrators (with an open mind!) about how they have measured and reported on results to the School Board and community members.