Are interactive whiteboards necessary?

I used to wish my school would spring for an interactive whiteboard. This year, however, I got a projector in my room and recently added a wireless drawing pad. After using these, I don't see much need for an interactive whiteboard.

With google docs, sketchcast, and another tool I just found - Imagination Cubed, I can do most things I've seen iboards do. When I throw in the wireless sketchpad, I have even more freedom and the kids can "manipulate" things on screen themselves. ( I've written more about the tools I use on my blog).

All this comes for significantly less money than iboards. Does anyone else use a similar setup? Are there iboard users who think that a simple projector and sketchpad can't measure up?

Tags: iboards

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Permalink Reply by Vincent Mespoulet on April 18, 2008 at 6:27pm

Do you know the amazing way to use the remote of the wii ? It's the cheapest way i know ...

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Permalink Reply by Mike on April 18, 2008 at 7:28pm

Awesome, I'd heard about this, but hadn't seen the video. I might give it a try. Thanks for the link.

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Permalink Reply by Vincent Mespoulet on April 18, 2008 at 7:32pm

it works very well: we have built two interactive boards like this in my school :)

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Permalink Reply by Helen Otway on April 18, 2008 at 10:39pm

This is really cool. Thanks for sharing.

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Permalink Reply by Tim Owens on July 9, 2008 at 4:40pm

I did this just the other night with one of the remotes we had on hand and a quick trip to Radio Shack for a total of $6.50 spent (+$40 if you count the remote). You have to have some soldering skill but it is by no means difficult and it can be extended to use with a laptop as an instant tablet.

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Permalink Reply by John Sowash on April 10, 2009 at 7:27pm

I did the same thing last summer when I first learned about the wiiboard. Within the last year, several commercial IR pens have become available that work much better than home-made models. I have reviewed several of them on my blog. I would highly recommend the pens from Penteractive.

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Permalink Reply by Elena on July 4, 2009 at 1:44pm

You can get a pen from a company called penteractive for about 9.00. I am soldering challenged so this was a great alternative. Gotta love that free enterprise system :)

http://penteractive.us/

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Permalink Reply by Simon Borgert on August 10, 2008 at 2:17pm

That is very cool - can you just buy wii remotes?

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Permalink Reply by John Ingle on April 10, 2009 at 12:52pm

That's really cool!

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Permalink Reply by Bob on April 10, 2009 at 5:58pm

I am lucky enough to have a Smartboard and they are great for making the teacher's life easier. With a lack of software that can make use of the Smartboard though I find that they are more a teacher tool than a student one.

Also, I made one of the above Wii smartboard prior to getting one. The Wii smartboard is good. The only issue is startup time. You can use the Smartboard tools (software) with the Wii version.

IMHO, the airliner is a waste of time. Get a mouse that has bluetooth and you are good to go.

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Permalink Reply by Christopher Klein on April 10, 2009 at 6:48pm

Bob,

Legally you are not able to use the SMART software with the Wii board. You can use Notebook Interactive Viewer, but not the SMART Notebook software or tools unless it is on a SMART product.

chris