17.01Interactive Projectors – IWB’s without the whiteboard
At BETT there were several companies demonstrating projectors that had their own built-in system for detecting a pen, giving the same functionality of an interactive whiteboard, without the whiteboard bit.
Epson were demonstrating their 450i Model (click for specs) which looked pretty interesting. I had a play with it on the stand and it seemed pretty responsive. It’s also a very short throw projector so it casts less of a shadow as it’s mounted directly above the board.
This projector means that any piece of wall could be used as an interactive surface.
Like many cheaper IWB solutions it suffers with the software that’s bundled with it. The Epson was was pretty limited – write on board, basic shapes, whole screen capture (but not area). You’d need to get hold of third party software to do anything more than present with it – but it’s certainly a game-changer. Pricewise it works out cheaper than a projector + whiteboard solution.
Definitely a technology that’s worth keeping an eye on.
Related posts:
- Whiteboards – a beginners guide #1
- 20 Interactive Whiteboard Resources for Teachers
- 11 Ideas for Music Lessons on your Interactive Whiteboard
- 13 sites for MFL teaching with your Interactive Whiteboard
- Whiteboards – a beginners guide #2
These show great promise – and lets be honest – how many teachers actually use SMART Notebook or Activ-doodah on Promethean boards???
The eBeam software looked much improved this year as well.
January 17th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
I think the software’s important – but there are many good websites out there with games/tools etc that are also great on an IWB and would work well on these bits of kit.
January 17th, 2010 at 2:00 pm
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January 17th, 2010 at 4:19 pm
Good Interactive whiteboard/projector must be a good combination of hardware and software. Hardware alone is not enough.
January 18th, 2010 at 4:03 am
Hazman:
I would argue then that there is still no good software available. I have worked in 3 schools with IWBs in every classroom. so that’s probably 180 teachers with IWBs, and I reckon no more than 6 of them really used the software at all. Perhaps it’s a training issue, but I saw much training going on, and delivered some myself. In the end it came back to the fact that it took too long to create resources for them – far easier to use free stuff off the web, or just use it as a projector and finger driven cursor.
Dan
January 23rd, 2010 at 4:29 pm
Is definitely a training issue. The number of schools that spend thousands on kit, then won’t spend the £500 to get the staff trained to use it effectively.
A benefit of using “mainstream” boards such as Smart and Promethean is that there is a wealth of ready-made resources out there on the web that you can download and use. Minor boards don’t have that user base and so it’s very hard to find anything for you.
You can find powerpoints etc out there, but they are not interactive, and so you fall back into just presenting.
January 23rd, 2010 at 4:39 pm