Interactive Whiteboards
January 17, 2007
I spent the day yesterday in Dunkeld finding out about the new SmartBoard models from Steljes. The presentations also included a look at new EDAs (educational digital assitants – a PDA that doesn’t break as easily) and interactive voting systems.
The new boards don’t look a whole lot different to what is typically going in to school just now. What was interesting was the addition of the scratch pad without needing a computer. if a teacher comes into a class and there is no computer but there is a whiteboard then they can still use it.
A lot of schools are using SmartBoards and the numbers are increasing dramatically at the moment due to the extra money from the Scottish Executive. Our supplier for these boards, Wilson and Garden, have been responding very well and doing a great job at the installation.Schools need to make sure they get their orders in early to ensure delivery and installation before the end of March.
What is really good to see is where these boards are now being used effectively in many schools to embed ICT in teaching. Pupils are also getting to use them to engage, enhance presentations and generally develop a lot of different skills in many areas of the curriculum.
A good day with the chance to actually get some hands on experience of new devices without having to go to London in January!
Entry Filed under: ICT, IT, education, in-service, interactive, learning, whiteboard. .
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1.
Andrew | January 17th, 2007 at 10:59 am
Whiteboards do make a huge difference in the classroom, but I have just one gripe about SmartBoards – how do you ‘mouse over’?
2.
gordonmckinlay | January 20th, 2007 at 11:47 am
I am not sure that I know what you mean. If you can explain what you mean I’ll try and tell you whether it is possible or not.
3.
Andrew | January 24th, 2007 at 4:47 am
Sorry Gordon – it was a very cheeky loaded question. Any ‘on roll over’ or ‘on mouse over’ activity on a resource or website cannot be done on a Smart Board. Imagine a site that when you move the mouse over an object (without clicking to select it) and the screen alters to show another image or further bit of information. (The best example of this kind of thing is a ’screen tip’?) On a Smart Board, by touching the location you will have by definition ’selected it’, therefore any ‘on mouse over’ or ‘on roll over’ event is not triggered and therefore not displayed. For this reason (and many others, too numerous to mention here!) I would never encourage schools to purchase Smart Boards. IWBs are great, but Smart are just a bit limited IMHO.
4.
Winning a watch at wherei&hellip | January 26th, 2007 at 9:19 am
[...] Secondly, it removes the problem I have with SmartBoards, yet is significantly cheaper than any other whiteboard option. You could kit out two classrooms with this for the price of one SmartBoard. [...]