Common Whiteboard Format
It's interesting to see that Becta are trying to revive their drive to get a common whiteboard format. You can see the call for consultation here.
I seem to remember them trying this a few years back with the launch of the National Whiteboard Network, but they couldn't get the 'Big 2' of Smart and Promethean to agree to share. I get the impression that Promethean see their resources as their big selling point and so don't want users of other boards to be able to just load them up. Which is a shame.
I really feel for teachers who work in schools that have bought both boards and have to plan what classroom they are doing their lesson in so that they can make the flipchart or notebook file in the corresponding format. You can see why so many fall back on using powerpoint.
Personally, I am waiting on the day that Microsoft realise that they only need to add a few tweaks to the way PowerPoint actually works to turn it into proper Interactive Whiteboard software. The ability to work on slides while in "presentation" mode with images, capture etc and it would be something to rival ActivStudio and SmartNotebook. But for now it's not there yet.
I'm also interested to see what comes of the Open Source IWB software project although it seems to be very much in the planning stages just yet.
Some generic software would also help those users of boards that, quite frankly, have awful software such as the Hitachi / Cambridge boards. I have had to train on these and the software is very unfriendly, and trying to do anything that you can do really quickly on Smart/Promethean is a real trial. Even just trying to type some text and move it took several trips into the menu system. You have to spend a lot of time customising the toolstrips. Something generic that is written with an actual clue about what users want to do would really benefit the users of these boards.
My only concerns about the common standard is that a) RM is leading it and I don't really think they can be trusted to be impartial. I can just see them trying to level the playing field away from Smart and Promethean and into their favour instead and b) at the end of the day I can't see Smart and Promethean agreeing to work on a joint standard just like last time. Especially since these are worldwide markets and Becta is just a UK agency.
I guess only time will tell as to what happens here.
Labels: IWB, open-source, standards
posted by Danny Nicholson @ 12/08/2007 08:00:00 PM
6 Comments
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6 Comments:
Agreed, it's a massive market, so why would the markey leaders (Smart and Promethean) want to collaborate in a project that gives those third rate products (Webster, Hitachi, Cambridge etc) a chance to compete on something like equal terms. And if RM and Becta are leading it...
PS, do i get a prize for being the first to comment on your blog?
Yay for my first comment. No prizes though ;)
I agree in some ways. But the common format should not stop Smart and Promethean having very different pieces of software which can be used in different ways... it's just that the end product can be saved in a way that it can be opened in the other application.
it's the same way that Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro and Photoplus can all make JPG files. They all have different tools to help with the creation process and some find one easier or more powerful than the other.
But a jpeg saved in photoshop can be opened in photoplus and vice versa. Whiteboard files should be able to to swapped in the same way.. maybe not with full functionality but with most of the design and content already there.
At the moment its hit and miss because the Big 2 keep locking each other out of their file types with each new update.
Do you know that Activstudio 3 can import Smart Notebook files, retaining all formats? Smart Notebook can also import Activstudio 3 files. Unfortunately, Smart cannot activate lots of the Activstudio features.
I know you can also buy Promethean software for any make of interactive whiteboard in the UK and they have site licences for mixed Whiteboard schools. OUP, Scholastic and Pearson now all make content in Promethean's format that ships with Promethean software for any Interactive Whiteboard. You could get it with eLearning Credits.
I am not sure but I think SMART offer similar but I use a Promethean board.
Promethean also have a free Viewer so that any of the free lessons from the Promethean Planet website can be used on any Whiteboard if a SMART software update cannot import the file.
Given what Connie also says about SMART and Promethean already reading each other's files and the fact that virtually all Whiteboard software imports and exports Powerpoint as a standard - the argument that another standard is needed is actually quite suspect.
....Whiteboard files should be able to to swapped in the same way.. maybe not with full functionality but with most of the design and content....
Is already there.... Just use Powerpoint.
I also do not agree with JPEG argument... The fact is only photoshop lets you edit the original layers and get to the original data - the richness and original data is lost in an export from Photoshop to JPEG... You cannot do what you could do in photoshop using a JPEG - you need to read the Photoshop file!
I think that teachers will be frustrated if something shared with the format does not work as it did when used in the original software - and I think that is what will make it go nowhere.
I just checked my Promethean software. It can also save as Word, PDF, FLASH and HTML and also Images (JEPG and GIF!!!!)
I think any other software can read one of them!
The issue is I shouldn't have to fudge the issue and hope that the latest patch of my Promethean/Smart software can open the latest patch of my promethean/smart saved file - each new version may or may not lock me out. Its a lottery and its unecessary.
Yes I can export into powerpoint - and even as jpg etc, but I lose the interactivity, and that's the whole point. If I dont want interactivity why not just use powerpoint in the first place.
All a whiteboard file does is store images, animated gifs, flash animations, flash video, text, hyperlinks, sound and pen objects. it shouldn't be rocket science to make a file format that you can save to in both Promethean and Smart that you can then open in both Promethean and Smart and it works the same. If your software then has other extras, you run the risk of losing them, but thats OK.
The choice of Smart or Promethean then becomes an issue of HOW you choose to interact with the file. You all have your favourites (either out of choice, or who you work for) and so you just use that software for editing.
If we want the technology to be seen as a mature tech, and be useable all over the place, then a common file format is a given.
And don't be anonymous ;) Its nice to know who I'm talking to and where you're coming from.
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