It Dries Up Again !! By Chris Kong on Jun 05, 2008 - Updated Oct 15, 2011

When my school first proposed that they are going to change all the blackboard to white board, I being vocal, was the first one to oppose the idea. The reasons why I opposed is for health reason : because those marker pens when dried and erased become powdery and may get into the lungs of students and teachers alike especially those students who are sitting right in front of the whiteboard. The second reason is: white board markers are so much more expensive than chalks. Despite of me saying NO , the plan still goes through and now we are all using these Artline517 markers.

They are not cheap , one marker costs RM 5 and every teacher are given 3 markers of 3 different colours, blue, red and black colours. There are 100 teachers on my school so 300 markers are used on the average every month . Each marker can only lasts for 3 weeks at the most. The problem is the marker dries fast even though it is written on the marker that "CAPS CAN BE LEFT OFF 48 HOURS WITHOUT DRYING OUT" . We tried but it dries out after 2 days of leaving it uncapped.

The pros about this marker is, it is very smooth to write, easy to erase and when new , the ink are dark enough for the students to see , especially those sitting at the back of the class. But after 2 weeks of using, it is pure frustrations trying to write clear teaching materials on the whiteboard!!