IWBs in the language classroom

So, here goes; let's open the metaphorical 'can of worms' as Mr Dudeney has called it.

In 2005 I walked into my first British Council job to find that all the clasrooms had IWBs installed and no back up whiteboard! After my first induction session (with the IWB) I was overwhelmed. I'm a bit of a nerd, I love technology. So, I was really excited but scared stiff at the same time. I had ten days (lucky, I know) of induction before being expected to go in to a classroom and teach with this thing, I didn't think I would be able to do it; the intro session was a farce, ran by someone who knew next to nothing about IWBs or the software that ran on them. I was as I have said, filling my trousers with fear.
I locked myself in vacant classrooms for the next 2 weeks at every available moment and went through the manual and did the level 1 Promethean course. When I eventually walked into a classroom to teach, I was confident I could use the thing, but not really sure how it was going to enhance my teaching; besides looking neater and more prepared that is.
How wrong I was and how quickly I began to feel; how will I ever go back to not having one of these things in my class. Here's why:-

1. As I've said above, I can prepare my class and the things I want to board beforehand, it looks better, more professional and opens the board up for student interaction (see below for more details).
2. In the classroom when questions arise or areas of weakness become apparent, I'm able to respond in a way that I wouldn't be able to in a classroom not equipped with tech. Sure I could draw a pic for a vocab question, sure I can model the pronunciation of new words, sure I can show them common collocations and wrack my brains for authentic examples of usage. I can also drag a pic from the resource library to illustrate vocab, or bring up the internet and do a Google image search.
I can bring up the Longman interactive / Oxford multimedia dictionary, which will show learners where the stress is, common collocations and opposites, authentic usages from newspapers and literature and I can play them the pronunciation in both British and American English thus exposing them to different accents to my own; which o you think is better?
3. It gets learners heads out of text books or stops them staring at worksheets and handouts, when learners heads come up; they start looking around and lo, they start talking to each other!
4. Once again, if I walk into class with something that I soon realise is not actually what the learners need, but what the syllabus or can do statements tell me to do, I can react! I can give....OMG...surely not....but yes...a dogme lesson! I can throw my planned lesson in the bin and draw from an infinite number of resources to give my learners what they need, it may be a piece of software that allows us to explore stress patterns or other elements of phonology, it may be a video that exemplifies a certain state or feeling, a newspaper article with examples of difficult language areas and / or models and examples of different genres.
5. Maybe most importantly, I can give control of the board and therefore the control of the lesson to the learners! They can board their work, they can come and correct others work, they can come and manipulate images and words in a way that a standard classroom does not allow. We were watching a youtube clip the other day, a student asked a question about a scene (in this case a beach / surfing scene) so i took a screenshot of the scene, put it on an IWB flip and the learners using their collective knowledge annotated it, I facilitated the screenshot and the watching of the video; the learners did the rest.
6. Have you ever shown learner clips of film that are 7ft by 5ft and backed up by a decent sound system? Impact! That's what we are talking about!

I don't really think I need to go on. I know the common argument, "they take over the lesson and become the focus!". No, they do not. If something takes over your lesson and becomes the focus, you're doing something wrong, don't blame the tech! "It's too expensive for the common or garden developing country". So! A laptop / desktop is too expensive for most schools, so is a decent smart phone or digital camera in such places. Should I not use them if I can? I'm in a developing country, my school is wealthy enough to have them, should I not exploit the technology, because others don't have it? I don't see this as an argument against them. We all use computers and mobiles and digital cameras, do we stop using them because others in the world can't?

I love IWBs, I can't imagine going back to a classroom not equipped with one! Teaching with one is a million times better than without. It's not the focus of my lesson, never has been. It enhances my lessons in countless ways, that if you've never used one, you wouldn't know.

Please, I want to know what you all think. Tell me.