Smart Boards®

Our school (BCE) is looking to order some interactive media boards. We want to order them, uh, a month ago or so. There are a few competing products out there, and we're trying to decide which is best for our needs. I wouldn't be surprised if a few of you find yourself in a similar situation, so I thought I'd make what we have come up with available. If you're not familiar with these at all, it's a system that uses a digital projector, and some kind of tactile input device that both the students and teachers can use. The goal here is to get your students working with information in a clear and easy format, and differentiating for visual learners, kinesthetic learners, etc. It's one more way to push ourselves to "Green it up" in our classrooms.

Smartboard is going to be the most recognizable name of the three that I was able to research, and also the most expensive. I think all three of these are good solutions, and hopefully I can outline some of the pros and cons of them.


First lets talk about the Promethean Activeboard.
Link to their site

I know there are several schools in our district (Jordan) that use this option.

The model that seemed the best for education (from this company) was the 78" Activeboard. This is something that will mount to a wall in your room. Jordan District has a contract with the company that allows us to get these slightly cheaper. They do not publish their prices, so you'll have to call a rep to find out what they'll do for you but if you want to know what to expect you can shoot me an e-mail and I'll tell you what I know. I can say that this was right in the middle of the pricing scale.
This company offers remotes, like a voting system, that gives you an opportunity for instant feedback on your lessons. I've had a chance to work with a feedback system like this, and it is very cool. Not only is it instant feedback for pre or post assessment, it can also be logged, so you have an evaluation that you can put right into your gradebooks. Definitely an example of how tech stuff can streamline our classrooms.
One nice thing about the Promethean is online lesson availability. If, for example, you're a sixth grade teacher and you want to teach a lesson on sound energy. You can check the Promethean site, and see if someone else has already done the same, and shared it. Then you can pull that lesson, and tweak it for your own class. Cool.
The Promethean has an "Activeslate" that you can use to pass around and easily have the kids interact with what is on the screen. Very similar to a Wacom tablet if you are familiar with those.



Next up, the Luidia eBeam
Link to their site
Currently this is my favored option. It's the cheapest, and that speaks loudly to those of us in education. This company DOES publish their prices, so I feel fine posting them here. I looked at the eBeam whiteboard model, and that comes in a wired USB version, and a wireless Bluetooth version. Their prices are, respectively, $750 and $1250. Obviously if you can get away with it, you'll be able to get more of the wired units with the same budget. Even better though, is that they will offer you an education rate. If you contact them, you'll learn that their ed. pricing is pretty generous. Perhaps they're trying to gain marketshare.

Another nice thing about the eBeam, which, if I'm correct, is unique to this product, is that it works with what you've already got in your classroom. Many of us already have a digital projector in our classrooms (If you don't, I'm sorry, it's awesome!). The eBeam works with your existing projector and whiteboard, and the components are simple. You stick a base-station to your board, plug it into your computer, and you're ready to go. No need for someone to come in and install for $300 or more. You use a combo stylus that is both dry-erase, and it communicates with the base station on your board.

Ok, so what's the catch? Well, this is the little fish in the pond right now. I think they are relatively new. That's bad because there is currently less availability for collaboration with other teachers, and benefiting from work that other eBeam owners have already done on their systems.
Another thing is that I don't think they have a remote option for the students. It's possible that one could still use the "clickers" available from the other two companies, but I've not personally done it or seen it, so no guarantees.
Maybe that ruins this one for you, but remember, you could likely get two of these for the price of one Promethean. Or three for the price of one Smartboard. If you can get a whole grade level team working with them, instead of just one teacher, it's going to be a far more effective tool.

Our third option, the big dog on the block, the Smartboard.

This isn't exactly their site, but it is one of their distributors. (Link)
Smartboard doesn't publish their prices also, but if you've been paying attention, you should have an idea.
The unit I looked at is their 600i, generation 2. This is another standalone kind of unit. You'd probably mount this permanently in part of your room. This probably makes a lot of sense for some teachers, but it seems silly if you have a projection surface and a projector already in your room. Maybe a better word would be redundant.
Some things I really liked about the Smartboard:
Popularity. This is the most common solution that schools have chosen in my experience. When I start asking questions of other educators, if they have any idea what I'm talking about, they've usually heard of or worked with something from this company. What that means to you, is the best availability of content and software.
They've been around a while. These guys were the first, and they've been making them longer. That probably means they've minimized the kinks and problems, and made it a pretty easy-to-use solution for your classroom.
Feedback systems - they've got remotes for this system too, and one of them even has a display on it. More of that valuable feedback.
I think the biggest downfall of this product is price. It's very expensive, even with education pricing.

I'm going to be meeting with some people who are already using these in their classrooms in the coming week, and hopefully this will give me a better impression of which is the best option for us. Obviously I'm leaning in one direction, but seeing it actually working in the classroom may change my mind. If you've got any feedback for me, or questions for me, please drop me an e-mail. I'd love any info or advice, and if you want to pick my limited knowledge bank, I'll make time for you.


Ok, lastly, if you just don't have the budget for it, but you do have a projector in your room, consider picking up a simple wireless mouse. They've come a long way in the last few years, and this is a simple and cheap way to interact with what's on the screen without being tethered to your computer. This was my solution last year, and it's surprisingly versatile. There's really no need to spend more than $30 on one of these, and it will open up your options a little.

Twitter link

This is my Twitter RSS link, but right now it's demanding a username and password. I'll try to fix it or figure it out, then I'll update.

Alright, update! I think I've figured this out. You need to have a twitter account yourself in order to check my RSS feed. 

A blog you say?

Ok, it's Friday. Technically today is the day that we are learning about blogs, and setting up our own account on Blogger. I did this yesterday afternoon, but I was pleased to find that this is another thing under the Google umbrella, so I don't need to create yet another username and password.

We also experimented with Google docs today, which is an easy way to collaborate with friends, coworkers, or family. If you ever find yourself pulling your hair out trying to organize something, this will honesty ease your suffering.

My iSight camera wigged out on me a couple days ago, and I was a little frustrated. This computer is only a few weeks old, and the camera had previously been working. I tried a couple simple thinks, like restarting, and fiddling with preferences. I finally figured it out this morning. I had to shut down, remove the battery and power supply, push the power button, then reassemble and restart. Apparently this resets the power management unit, which tells the computer what to do when the lid is shut. This worked perfectly, and I've got my camera back, yay!

I set up a Twitter account today, so I'm experimenting with that. I found a way to post from my mobile phone, so I can keep all of zero people updated on what I'm doing. It still seems cool though.

Engaged classroom

I'm creating this blog as a part of a program I'm involved in called "21st Century Engaged Classroom". The program is a series of classes, meetings, and work in the classroom. The goal is to get us and the other educators in our building to integrate technology into our classrooms, and get our students exposed to and working with some of the new, fun, techy stuff that is available. Students will be transforming knowledge and skills into products, skills, and new information.

One of the best parts of this project is all the great gear we get for our school and classroom. Our school got a "mobile lab" as a part of this program, which consists of twenty macbooks in a rolling cart that we can bring to our classrooms. We'll also get a variety of other tools like document cameras, digital cameras, digital video cameras, projectors, software packages, ir remotes for student response, audio enhancement systems etc. Needless to say, it's a no-brainer to sign your school up for this program. I'm really excited to push my class in this direction in the coming year.

In the last few days of inservice, basically classes for teachers, we've been exposed to a befuddling array of new software, and we've been working in new programs to learn them, assembling portfolios, publishing, and sharing what we've done through wikis, social bookmarking sites, and now blogs. By tomorrow afternoon, we'll even have RSS feeds up to subscribe to. It's a lot to take in, but it's one of the best professional development classes I've had the opportunity to participate in.