Interactive whiteboards
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Any one on an expert on these? We're looking at installing a Smart Board M680 in our conference room. I've never used (or even seen) an interactive whiteboard before. I know they're popular in schools now. In my day it was all chalk and blackboards! I'm not convinced ours will actually get used that much, but the MD thinks it will and they're not particularly expensive. Any gotchas to be aware of?
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@Carnival-Boy said:
Any one on an expert on these? We're looking at installing a Smart Board M680 in our conference room. I've never used (or even seen) an interactive whiteboard before. I know they're popular in schools now. In my day it was all chalk and blackboards! I'm not convinced ours will actually get used that much, but the MD thinks it will and they're not particularly expensive. Any gotchas to be aware of?
We use them and they are just silly. They are in every room and people just treat them as monitors and draw on paper or real whiteboards instead. Total waste of money in my experience.
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Thanks. That's what I suspected.
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I like them as a user, but then I also took the time to learn how to use it. I only ever see them used for basics in business.
My 4 year old has one in her preschool classroom though and they at least use it to move things around. In the morning the teacher has an attendance thing on there with everyone's name on the "Home" side and the kids have to find their name and move it to the "School" side.
The teacher does other stuff with it also during the class day.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
Any one on an expert on these? We're looking at installing a Smart Board M680 in our conference room. I've never used (or even seen) an interactive whiteboard before. I know they're popular in schools now. In my day it was all chalk and blackboards! I'm not convinced ours will actually get used that much, but the MD thinks it will and they're not particularly expensive. Any gotchas to be aware of?
one of my first gigs 10 or so years ago was installing 40 of these in an elementary school in my home town. Prometheus Boards if i remember correctly. They were neat, teachers used them for 2-3 years. then they quit for the most part.
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Another way that is much cheaper to do this would be to use an iPad & projector with Splashtop whiteboard.
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@Hubtech said:
one of my first gigs 10 or so years ago was installing 40 of these in an elementary school in my home town. Prometheus Boards if i remember correctly. They were neat, teachers used them for 2-3 years. then they quit for the most part.
I would blame that on no one thinking outside the box on how to actually use the technology in the classroom. Also, 10 years ago would have been ahead of the curve on tech in the classrooms.
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government grant for under privileged schools.
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How inexpensive are we talking? Also, how hard would it be to move it to another location? About the same as a flat-screen TV? Now I kind of want one for homeschool...
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@Dominica said:
How inexpensive are we talking? Also, how hard would it be to move it to another location? About the same as a flat-screen TV? Now I kind of want one for homeschool...
The ones I use are like enormous monitors. They are basically just touchscreens.
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For schools maybe, but for us (a Civil Engineering company) I'd have a riot if we didn't. To be honest, most of the time it is collaborative rather than markup. I personally like the good ole whiteboard myself.
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the ones i setup used a projector, and special "pens" for the markups on the board. pretty limited as far as applications, but this was literally 10+ years ago.
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@hubtech that's exactly what I'm looking at.
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@Hubtech Prometheus boards are what my kids' elementary school put in all the class rooms over the summer.
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these were probly gen 1. Or prototype. Lol
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What's your view on projectors versus televisions? A few years ago we replaced the projector in our training room with a 50 inch telly, and people complain it's too small. But you can get a 60 inch LED now for the price of a decent projector, and a 70 inch for a fair bit more. I'd prefer a television, as I find them simpler to operate and I like lots of HDMI connections. A 100 inch touch-screen monitor is probably a few years away for us.
It annoys me when people complain they can't see something and I ask them if they have glasses and they say "Yeah, but I never wear them at work".
