Interactive Whiteboard Alternatives
A data projector lets you present material very effectively to a whole class but you’re tied to the laptop or PC to control the screen. If you have an interactive whiteboard, you can work at the board facing the class but this is an expensive option and is (usually) a fixed resource which can’t be moved from classroom to classroom.
Portable solutions which combine a short-throw projector with a board are available but are still very costly.
There are a number of alternatives to the interactive whiteboard that give varying degrees of flexibility in the classroom.
The ebeam is a small device which converts any white area into an interactive board. It can connect to the laptop by bluetooth (short-range wireless) or USB cable. It provides a portable interactive board solution. RM price here.
A similar device is the Mimio.
If you want to control the screen from anywhere in the classroom, there are two choices - RM classpad or gyromouse.
The RM Classpad (and other similar devices) is a small tablet that lets you control the screen using a pen on the screen. It can be used with or without an interactive board.
The gyromouse is great fun. You control what’s happening on the screen using a wireless mouse which you wave in the air to move around the screen. It’s much easier than it sounds. This is a cheap but very effective way of controlling your computer from anywhere in the classroom.
Video here. RM prices here.
Have you used eBeam? I saw it when it came out but wasn’t sure how it would actually perform.
Yes, we’ve tried out ebeams in a few schools. They are easy to use and set up, very portable (especially the bluetooth version) and you can alter the effective screen to whatever size you want. My only concern is that they appear rather flimsy - designed for business rather than education - but so far we haven’t had any breakages.
They’re certainly a lot cheaper than full IWBs. And after all, interactive whiteboards are not unknown to be marked with traditional pens by the teachers, let alone rough-handed students
I have a GTCO Schoolpad which I was given to evaluate. It is just ok - I have it on a 400Mhz iMac and really the computer is too slow. At times there is quite a time delay and it takes some time to open the clip art within the software. You also have to get used with looking at the board whilst writing on the pad. It is easier to write at the back of the class than at the side but the pupils don’t generally like you behind them. At £350 I would wait for a whiteboard.
I don’t know the GTCO Schoolpad but the RM Classpad is cheaper and easy to use. However, my own preference id the gyromouse which is cheap, easy to use and effective. It doesn’t provide the kind of interactivity that you get with an IWB but it does allow you to control the computer from anywhere in the classroom. It’s one of the few gadgets that really makes a difference to how you can present a lesson in a classroom.
We are trying the WACOM Graphire A5 Bluetooth graphics tablet in Argyll & Bute. It costs around £130 which is much cheaper than the RM Classpad, but doesn’t come with any whiteboard software. If you have a SMART board in the school, you can put the software on other machines, and use it with the WACOM tablet? Well worth a look. It lasts for 26 hours between charges, and can be easily passed around the room. We have a pilot running over the next session with 3 schools examining this (and other) technology, which we will have a blog for.
Sounds interesting. When the blog is set uo, let me have the details.
i want to have a fiddle with a inter active white bord on my computer.
from
elizebeth