September 7th, 2007
OK, I give in...Interactive whiteboards are pretty cool
I finally got our Mimio boards working this week and I have to admit they are far more useful than I expected. They had about as much appeal to me as tablet PCs used to, and, frankly, I bought them because the state told us we needed to be using them, not because I thought they had too much value.
True smartboards are basically giant touch screens that look great in a corporate boardroom but whose $5000+ pricetags make them a tough sell in public schools. Our “interactive whiteboards” from Mimio, however, seem to be a nice compromise. They are full-blown whiteboards, so they can be used standalone with any dry erase markers. They can also output everything you draw to a PC or Mac (I haven’t found any Linux hacks yet) using special covers for the dry erase markers.
They can pick up a variety of colors and their resolution is quite good. The Mimios can also be used in conjunction with a digital projector to redisplay any of your captured whiteboards. Thus, it’s possible to go back several steps in a lecture and re-project the contents. What my students have found most valuable is the ability to post a series of whiteboards from a lecture on the web for later reference. The software that makes all of this happen is quite intuitive, as well, making for easy publication in a variety of formats (including complete website corresponding to a given lecture and standard image formats).
There is a bit of a learning curve to manage the computer, projector, and just give an effective lecture. However, for those of us who still favor a whiteboard over PowerPoint shows (or like to use both), interactive whiteboards offer a nice way to provide students with lecture notes online and revisit items in class.
Follow Chris Dawson on Twitter! Christopher Dawson is the technology director for the Athol-Royalston School District in northern Massachusetts and a member of the Internet Press Guild. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations, but always keep in mind that the opinions expressed here are his own and not those of his daytime employer, even if he talks incessantly about his day job.
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| 09/08/07
