I decided that this week I would post about what seems to be the three most popular options for incorporating an interactive whiteboard into your classroom.
My school has recently purchased a Smart Board and after a few discussions with my classmates regarding the uses of SBs in the classroom, I would have to say they are way more versatile than I had originally thought. The drawbacks seem to be the portability and cost. Smart boards run anywhere from $1,400 – $10,000 depending on your needs and desires. It seems as though the type of projection (front / rear), can really effect the efficiency of this product. When using the SB in class, we were noticing that the projector and lighting in the classroom were affecting the touch sensitivity and calibration to of the SB. Our school has debated on wether or not to mount the SB in our conference room, or, place the SB on wheels and make it portable. After playing with the SB, I can say I think it would be more beneficial to have the SB on wheels so that teachers can check it out and use it with their students. The software that accompanies the SB has some awesome interactive lessons, if this is mounted in the conference room, I cannot see the benefit to students. The drawback I see to making the SB portable is having to hook up, unhook, and calibrate the SB into every room it is moved to. This could be a nuisance.
Next, I looked at the Mimio. The main differences between the SB and the Mimio are size, portability and price. A Mimio will work on almost any surface, you can use the whiteboard you already have in order to create an interactive whiteboard, and you do not necessarily need a projector to use a Mimio. Mimio’s only cost around $500-and up, again, depending on your needs. The calibration does not seem as difficult and these seem much more portable and affordable to place in additional classrooms without having to replace all of the whiteboards which already exist. I did not find the same amount of resources / galleries of lesson plans for educators with the Mimio as I did with the SB, but I just might need to do some additional research.
The new kid on the block seems to be the Wiimote. I found a lot of information and various ways to create a Wiimote. The gentleman in the video below is quite handy and makes the Wiimote look extremely user friendly and easy to use. The portability and versatility of the Wiimote seemed to match that of the Mimio. Although the Wiimote seems to be less hardware to purchase, but I can see that my school would need to purchase a lot of hardware to create an interactive whiteboard using the Wii. We would have to purchase the Wii – $300+, plus the additional items to create the Wiimote which I am guessing would cost $100-$300. So, I might, or might not be saving money for hardware when compared to the Mimio. Again, I did not find a bank of resources / lesson plans to use with the Wiimote, which could be a setback when compared to the SB.
I have decided to start using the SMART Board and its software, and see how my staff responds to incorporating an interactive whiteboard into their curriculum, and then decide if we need any additional interactive whiteboards in our building.
After our coursework regarding software and hardware, I think I would be able to help my father to build a system that would be current with the capability of being upgraded further in the future, when something bigger and better comes along.
