An unusual day, part 2 (or "My lease is up! Now what?")

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Smart Boards...: Are Smart Boards such a great idea? Those projectors are all good and
nice but there are other ways to achieve the same thing...

The Interactive whiteboard is a compelling technology for teachers, it
closely mimics what they're already used to. But there are weaknesses.
Firstly using a whiteboard is a skill, turning your back on the class
writing at arms length (so you don't obscure the view of students) all
quite hard. Given that teachers have (mostly) gained these skills, it is
perhaps understandable they don't want to give them up.

However the technology that I think is better for technology to
emulate is the OHP (the "Over Head Projector") you can face the class
and this can give a more intimate teaching environment (you can
choose to sit closer to the class). Critics of this approach say that the
whiteboard approach is easier to get students to "interact" by visiting
the board, however I think the skills barrier is higher than a OHP-
inspired solution.

OK, so what how to do this? Well the biggest strength of the
interactive whiteboard is the "direct manipulation" of elements of the
display - this should be maintained. So what are the problems? Well
there are the few already outlined, but the system also introduces a
few of it's own. Firstly the user (be it teacher or student) must learn to
avoid looking directly at the projector (this is harder than it seems) the
content you are interacting with is rendered invisible (unless you have
transparent arms!) which makes fine interaction tricky.

An alternative does away with the projector, and uses a large display
instead (a very large wall-mounted television might be suitable) and
then uses connected to a "touch enabled" computer - either a Tablet
PC, or something like a Wacom display (this allows the use of
Macintosh systems). However things that are important are NOT using
systems that cannot be "folded flat" to a large degree - there houldn't
be any barriers introduced, also writing on a vertical surface is quite
unnatural, especially while sitting (so while it might be tempting to use
new "touchscreen desktops" these are probably not suitable). It may
also be useful to enlarge the onscreen representation of the "mouse
pointer" to allow students to more easily follow what's going on. The
other big advantage is that rooms can be more naturally lit than
projectors typically allow. Of course, if there is an existing investment
in projectors these can be utilised.; Posted by: jeremychappell Posted on: 11/06/09 (Edited: 11/06/2009 @ 02:39) You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use