Electronic whiteboards

Yorky

The school which a friends child attends are raising funds to purchase four electronic whiteboards at a cost of €4000 each for the senior classes to use. My friend has reservations about the value of these when one or more of the teachers they are for are not computer literate and there are other priorities such as upgrading the computer suite which is about eight years old.

Does anyone have any views / advice on this?

Ostrom

Yorky wrote: »

The school which a friends child attends are raising funds to purchase four electronic whiteboards at a cost of €4000 each for the senior classes to use. My friend has reservations about the value of these when one or more of the teachers they are for are not computer literate and there are other priorities such as upgrading the computer suite which is about eight years old.

Does anyone have any views / advice on this?

We have them in a few of our lecture halls, I never use them. Most of the other staff dont use them - I can see the advantages but I dont think anyone (nevermind computer literacy) has the time to put into producing material to use with them.

They are a nice idea, but nothing you cant do in half the time with an OHP and acetate (especially if basic computing isnt your thing)

I would spend the cash on computers for the kids


http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=5s5EvhHy7eQ


Our ones are slightly different and much cheaper, its a podium mounted touch-tablet that lets you write in real time (with data projector and screen)

Honestly, installing a PC and one of these will probably cover your needs at half the price if you need to, there are so many web-based resources now (maps, tables, whatever...) that I just go to the web during lectures if I need to use a visual supplement or video

riverstick

we have a couple in our school. a total waste of money. the writing comes out very bad even if your writing is normally a1 standard. theres also not a lot of room to write on as the writing is so big. its about half the size of the normal whiteboard. finally if you leave it be for 5 minutes it can frequently freeeze and you will have to restart the computer.

Ostrom

riverstick wrote: »

we have a couple in our school. a total waste of money. the writing comes out very bad even if your writing is normally a1 standard. theres also not a lot of room to write on as the writing is so big. its about half the size of the normal whiteboard. finally if you leave it be for 5 minutes it can frequently freeeze and you will have to restart the computer.

Forgot about that, the writing part is completely useless. Also if you can install your setup right, you can move between blackboard and projector easily. Total waste

byhookorbycrook

Like any tool, depends on how they are used, check on the threads on www.educationposts.com/forum

I have seen them put to excellent use for all age groups, but they are v expensive if they are only going to be used as glorified overhead projectors.

Delphi91

Yorky wrote: »

The school which a friends child attends are raising funds to purchase four electronic whiteboards at a cost of €4000 each for the senior classes to use. My friend has reservations about the value of these when one or more of the teachers they are for are not computer literate and there are other priorities such as upgrading the computer suite which is about eight years old.

Does anyone have any views / advice on this?

I haven't tried this yet, but I'm gonna. 4 whiteboards at €4000 a piece is €16000. Why not invest in a few wii hand controllers, a little bit of (free) software and a digital projector and create a similar effect: http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=QgKCrGvShZs

Very impressive result, I think!

Mike

littlebsci

Delphi91 wrote: »

I haven't tried this yet, but I'm gonna. 4 whiteboards at €4000 a piece is €16000. Why not invest in a few wii hand controllers, a little bit of (free) software and a digital projector and create a similar effect: http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=QgKCrGvShZs

Very impressive result, I think!

Mike

I'm planning on doing this too. I've found a few good "how to" sites for fiddling with the wii remote but I'll admit I'm a bit a wary of that part......I might take a trip down to the technology dept in school and look for a bit of help if needs be!

If you go ahead with it in the next while will you let us know how you get on? Think I'll use the bit of free time I'll have during the mocks to try it out!

Saruman

The company i work for has started to sell these, well promote them anyway. They do seem like excellent tools, not just for schools but for business use too. You can use smaller tabs and network them and then then if you had a video conference, someone in another country could manipulate what is on your smartboard.

Expensive sure but they are pretty good. While they might not be "necessary" im sure kids would find them interesting, and finding something interesting usually means they pay attention.

That Wii hack is very interesting though.

Edit* i have no IR pen to test with but i got the Wii mote detected on my PC in a few seconds and downloaded smoothboard which picked up the wii mote.
I "think" the smartboard pens are IR so i will grab one in work and test it out.

implausible

In our school, they fundraised for a massive tv in the canteen. It's far too noisy to show dvds and presentations and basically it's a very swanky noticeboard. They would've got a few data projectors for the price of it!

I reckon some schools just like to boast of having this technology regardless of how useful it actually is.

Ostrom

Ours (third level) have gone untouched all year, completely. They do lots of nice things its just...you dont really need to do them very often

spurious

They seem like a terrible waste of money to me. For a lot less, we can install a PC and a data projector. There is still a lot to be said for blackboards and chalk.

One innovation we get a lot of use out of looks like an office lamp and works like an OHP but without the acetates. It shines on a page of a book or of writing and displays it on the screen. It has turned out to be very useful. I'm sorry I don't know what its real name is. Perhaps someone here recognises it from the description.

Saruman

Unfortunatly the smartboard pens do nothing. They are just the same as a stylus so no good to test.
I did test with a standard remote control (sky) and it works in the sense that i can move stuff around but i have no control over it due to it not actually being designed for the job.

Might have to get me an IR pen to play with.

Edit** Just ordered one from http://www.penciil.com/
works out at €11.85 with shipping. It includes batteries too

freire

I'd like a proper 'go' on one before I made up my mind, though 4k is serious moolah. Is it really any better than data projector and laptop? I suppose it may suit some subjects better than others, all academic where I'm concerned at the mo anywho as there's 2 chances we'll be getting any around here anytime soon.

Saruman

I think the real smarboard advantage, apart from its advanced networking and conferencing solutions is the software.
The wii hack is still excellent and better than just a projector but the software is not as good and only one user (teacher) could use it where as the smartboard has the ability of each child having a smart tablet and can manipulate the board so they could answer maths questions and everyone could see etc.

TheDriver

Tried a smartboard during summer and its great fun and excellent but awful waste of money, they are much much cheaper abroad too. A Projector and pc will do all what you want anyways and save a packet. They seem a right buzz at the moment, a fad

freire

Saruman wrote: »

smartboard has the ability of each child having a smart tablet and can manipulate the board so they could answer maths questions and everyone could see etc.

This sounds v interesting. Unfortunately that's not really on planet freire, I mean it's just a little ideal world sounding. I suppose the kids don't throw them around or use em for bats or whatever. Nice.

TheDriver

Sorry Sir, left my tablet at home/covered in tippex because I was bored in a free class/ can't afford it yet look at all my designer gear!

Fast_Mover

My school has two electronic whiteboards. Got them few weeks back.
One is installed in a classroom and the other is installed in the computer room.

I only fiddled around with the one in the computer room for the first time last week as one of the other teachers laptop was connected to it. (She had be doing the story of chicken licken with her infant class..the story (along with many other topics/subjects/games) was already pre installed on it.
It's alot of fun and something different for the children. Getting their attention is half the battle!!!

I say the more experience you have with it, the more you can get out of it/niftier you will become.

I'm young and quite computer literate but yet it is kinda tricky to get used to as there so many buttons and options you can choose on screen! I couldn't imagine the older members of staff who are already computer illiterate already to work it easily. But practice makes perfect.

vdaly

I have a Wacom Bamboo slim tablet and at about 60 EUR is a much cheaper version. Of course you need a projector but I find it pretty good. It's not as interactive but acts very much like a modern day OHP.

Saruman

Saruman wrote: »

Edit** Just ordered one from http://www.penciil.com/
works out at €11.85 with shipping. It includes batteries too

Just thought i would let people know that my penciil arrived this morning
Pretty good as i ordered on Thursday.

I tested it and it works fine. I just used it on my 19" lcd to make it touch screen. It will work better if i can fix my Wii mote instead of holding it in my hand though.

Oh im using the smoothboard software.

MathsManiac

spurious wrote: »

They seem like a terrible waste of money to me. For a lot less, we can install a PC and a data projector. There is still a lot to be said for blackboards and chalk.

One innovation we get a lot of use out of looks like an office lamp and works like an OHP but without the acetates. It shines on a page of a book or of writing and displays it on the screen. It has turned out to be very useful. I'm sorry I don't know what its real name is. Perhaps someone here recognises it from the description.

Sounds like an epidiascope. I remember the art department had one in the days when I used to teach sums (indeed, even back when I was learning sums!)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opaque_projector

Hillel

Yorky wrote: »

The school which a friends child attends are raising funds to purchase four electronic whiteboards at a cost of €4000 each for the senior classes to use. My friend has reservations about the value of these when one or more of the teachers they are for are not computer literate and there are other priorities such as upgrading the computer suite which is about eight years old.

Does anyone have any views / advice on this?

They're not that difficult to learn to use but I'm not sure they're worth the money.

I thought they were a great idea when they came out first. I went to a lot of trouble to get a top class professional installation. Once the novelty wore off we rarely used it. Instead we use whiteboards, Flip Charts and PowerPoint. (This is in an Industry Setting.)

I only ever taught in Third Level but, if I was working there now, they'd be way down my shopping list.