We use white boards in a team-based setting to allow students to draw ideas related to the problems they are trying to solve. These whiteboard drawings allow them to communicate with the instructional staff and each other. When a group of students are all looking at their computers at a small table, all they can see is their own screens. They have no idea what is on the screen of each other's computer. A whiteboard solves this problem and galvanizes group interaction in a very significant way.
The real benefit of the whiteboard may be that it forces each student to actually draw data, images, write what is known about a problem, sketch solutions, and work out mathematics - all while interacting with the other 4 people in their group. Anyone who remembers the days before computers and plotters will remember getting out graph paper, drawing axes and transferring the data, point by point, to the plot as they tried to make sense of what the data meant. This created a very close connection with our own data that we simply don't have any more when we push a button and see the plot appear on the screen. Using a whiteboard recaptures some of that and brings all students into close contact with their data.
The whiteboard also serves another very special purpose. The whiteboard forces students to draw pictures. This may not seem like a very important thing, but practically all humans retain our knowledge by associating it with images. Cutting and pasting an image from the Internet into a PowerPoint presentation bypasses this critical step for retention. By drawing the image, the potential for actually retaining those concepts connected to the image increases dramatically. The whiteboard may actually be one of the most critical components of the deep engaged learning space because it facilitates not only communication, but provides access to deep symbolic images leading to deep retention of information.