LCD projectors alone vs. smartboards

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Lauriene Tschang on November 24, 2008 at 12:07pm

We have the same issue in our school. Each of our teachers (PreK-8th Grade) has laptops and LCD projectors in their classrooms. Our middle-school teachers have Interactive White Boards and only 2 of them are using it the way it should be.

Our elementary unit has SmartBoard that is collecting dust. What I noticed is that the teachers are comfortable with using just the LCD projectors.

I am trying to find ways as well on how to break this "comfort zone" so that the elementary unit start using the SmartBoard. Either they are afraid that it might not work or they are just not interested.

Permalink Reply by Cary Harrod on November 24, 2008 at 1:08pm

Interesting post, Fran. It seems like everyone is jumping on the Smartboard wagon. Our district opted to give teachers a tablet pc and LCD projector. There is something so incredibly ppwerful about having a laptop/tablet in your possession; it almost becomes an extension of yourself because it fills both a personal and professional need. For students, we are trying to get as many laptops in the hands of kids as possible. I will say our primary teachers are becoming more interested in the Smartboards but I have yet to be completely convinced.

I have two main concerns about Smartboards...

1.) I know many schools cannot afford to give each of their students a laptop; however, the Smartboard seems to encourage the traditional idea of the teacher at the front of the room and the kids in their seats. I observed a teacher in our district who was using the Smartboard. While I felt the student interacting with the Smartboard was completely engaged, the other students appeared disinterested and off task. Bottom line...once you got past the WOW factor, it wasn't much different than a chalkboard.

2.) The skills for 21st century learning really emphasize the idea of collaboration. The idea being that the classroom becomes more of a community with the teacher acting in a more facilitative role. If a school is unable to afford a laptop for each student, I would prefer to see the students working in small groups with a laptop shared amongst them.

Don't get me wrong...I think the Smartboards are pretty cool; but when push comes to shove, I'd spend the money on five laptops and an LCD projector in a heartbeat. I'd be anxious to hear what others think about Smartboards. Thanks for starting this conversation, Fran.

Permalink Reply by Lynne H on November 25, 2008 at 6:12pm

Our school has all kinds of combinations of IWB/projectors. The teachers who have them love them and the students do as well. It helps to have a well trained colleague help introduce the technology to the faculty. (one that knows all the special features and has some of the add ons) One of the things they really like is the Senteo add on to the system. It is the student response system (clickers) that record the response of students to whatever is on the board. I have seen it used not just for traditional quizzing but also to gauge anonymous responses to difficult questions. At another school I know the kids love the software that has football math for the smartboard. The classroom rocks.

For what it's worth, I do agree it is expensive technology but it can be a very exciting tool for teaching and learning.

Permalink Reply by Rebecca Ronald on November 29, 2008 at 1:55pm

The IWB vs projector debate is really interesting - at our school we have 4 iwbs and two rooms with projectors only. I use a projector and don't itch for an IWB, although maybe I have less need for one as I am in the computer lab, and can show any student's monitor through my projector (thanks to ABtutor control software). I am not taken by IWB's, partly becasue people often jsut use the projector part of them, and also becasue of the cost - our school desperately needs more computers than the current one-per-classroom, and I would like to see money go there, then projectore, then IWB's. Do you think my order of spending priority is sensible? I'm by no means an expert!
REbecca

Permalink Reply by Elena on December 9, 2008 at 12:35am

I agree with all of you about the cost and the difficulty to integrate it so that many students are involved in the learning not just the ones acutally touching the board. All of our teachers have LCD projectors and they love it. I have found an affordable way of having a smartboard like application in the classroom that came to just under $100.00. If you haven't heard of Johnny Chung Lee you ought to check him out. He Is a PhD student at Carnegie Mellon who has developed and offers free software to turn any computer into a smartboard with a few pieces of support software. I actually made one and amazingly it works well. I have included in this post the "recipe" for this as well as links to the products. I just think this is cool beans :)

A Kool-Aid Budget Whiteboard

Software you will need:

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/projects/wii/ Here is the website that you will find out more information on turning a wiiMote into a white board tool.

FREE - Download Wii software for your operating system. The download is located midway down the webpage.

$29.99 Charge station - http://shop4.frys.com/product/5111446?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

$39.99 Wii mote –
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$19.99 Wii wireless sensor bar –
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$8.00 Infrared pens –
http://penteractive.us/

Total = $97.99 plus tax

I'm not endorsing any of these products but sure beets a couple of thousands of dollars each. Please contact me if you have any further questions.

Permalink Reply by meL on December 17, 2008 at 1:09pm

Many teachers are hesitant until you can get them to actually use one - once they start using it, they won't give it up. All our teachers are equiped with laptops and LCDs. Our high school math teachers all have IWBs and even our non-techies are now using them. We also placed SMARTBoards in our low-functioning special ed rooms (SMART since fingers can be used) - these teachers can use video recordings of students at the boards as part of alternative assessments. Random other teachers have IWBs. We also have Interwrite SchoolPads available to all teachers - but like your school, often unused. The teachers with IWBs were trained specifically for their curriculum. They were provided access to ready-made lessons, and they were taught how to create their own lessons. Teachers at all schools also have access to Interwrite SchoolPads - often unused until individual teachers are taught how to use it in their room. I have found that teachers are more apt to use either an IWB or SchoolPad if they get personalized, one-on-one training. If we simply say we have these, please use them, it is not going to happen. I tend to handpick the teachers I think will use it and say here, I have this great tool and this is what you can do with it.