I know my kids have tons of interactive whiteboards at school. I know they cost a significant amount and there is special software and content for them I have seen demoed at BETT. I have no idea whether good interactive whiteboard support is important or not, but I would like to display my ignorance by throwing out a few questions that a passing teacher with IWB experience may care to answer:
- What are they?
- How do they work?
- Do they need special drivers?
- Do they work with Linux/Mac?
- With the ones with coloured pens what does that look like from the point of view of an application?
- What applications work well on a whiteboard?
- What applications or bits of applications are a pain in the posterior?
- Are there guidelines on how to work nicely with the whiteboard in terms of colours, contrast levels, font sizes etc?
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> What are they?
Pen input devices, like an extra-large drawing tablet nailed to a wall. The input part operates separatly from the display part of things, a source of much confusion for teachers.
> How do they work?
Smartboards (or similar) are pressure-sensative, with membranes (of some kind) that register a connection when you touch the board. This means you can write with your finger (or any other body part), although in more robust schools they can occasionally get damaged. The writing-with-different-colours feature is actually done by sensing which writing implement has been taken out of the tray and changing the pen colour appropriatly.
Promethian (and similar) boards need a specilised "passive" pen that, I assume, works on some kind of induction from the board. The board can sense when the pen is close to it. This makes the pens more expensive (£30 each?), but the board a bit more hard-wearing. Some people dislike the Smart system exactly because of the way you hands can register as writing implements - if you're used to leaning your hand on the board as you write you'll have to change to use a Smartboard, whereas with a Prmethian board you'll be fine.
Mimio and E-Beam systems use "active" pens that communicate with a positioning sensor via ultrasound (I seem to remember). This makes replacement pens more expensive than Promethian (er, £100 each?), but the oiverall system dead cheap - £300 or so buys you a pen and sensor.
There's also Microsoft multi-touch to consider, which, I think, is handled by cameras sensing finger tip positions from the underside of a transparent (glass) surface.
> Do they need special drivers?
Yes.
> Do they work with Linux/Mac?
I know Mimio works with Linux, I asked the chap on their stand at BETT in January.
> With the ones with coloured pens what does that look like from the point of view of an application?
I think most drivers simply interprent pen-touching-the-board as mouse-being-clicked-at-X,Y. For Smart boards, the changing pens bit is handled by the dedicated Smart software, outside of that application it just registers as mouse activity.
> What applications work well on a whiteboard?
Educationally? I know lots of people in the primary sector like the "interactiveness" enabled by the Smart boards - children can come up and touch the screen to make things happen. On-board annotation of text, say in an English lesson, isn't quite as easy as people might think - 1024 X 768 resolution makes for chunky, crayon-like writing, you're better off using a wireless keyboard to type your notes.
> What applications or bits of applications are a pain in the posterior?
Anything that requires a right-click, as this can be a palavar to do with a pen.
> Are there guidelines on how to work nicely with the whiteboard in terms of colours, contrast levels, font sizes etc?
Probably the same ones as for PowerPoint or similar - don't forget, an "interactive whiteboard" is just the pen-input part, the display is separate.
I know that the Smartboard software has a working Linux port and I have seen an EEPC running Ubuntu operating an interactive whiteboard perfectly.
I was the first person to import Hitachi IWBs into the UK. Mainly to inject some competition into the market when Promethean were on their own. In all that time I have trained people on all sorts and came to the conclusion that really the data projector is the most significant item and an interactive touch screen is in many ways better than standing in front of the screen and staring into a bright light. Rather like using an OHP compared to a chalk face. Ironically, seems to me that the IWB is popular because it allows teachers to keep working in a rather old-fashioned but familiar way. they are also quite spectacular so the political symbolism for "wowing" parents and the media is high.
BECTA has funded a project for an Open Source Whiteboard viewer so that you can view stuff across whiteboard types - they commissioned that well-know Open Source company RM to do the work and omitted to let any of the smaller FOSS companies bid. But I digress, there is a clear case for a cross-platform application for IWBs that supports an international standard file format to enable teachers to share resources.
OpenOffice.org and .odf, ISO 26300 would fit the bill. If you look at most IWBs, they have some sort of multimedia notepad app and OOo Draw is very close to these (actually its far better specced than most and a decent programmer could build on that as part of a mainstream global open source project. If BECTA had contributed to the OOo project we could have an interactive IWB program that was not only file compatible with a significant ISO standard but also has superb support to import and export to all the major MS formats. What a missed opportunity to lever a significant resource. They could also say that no more public money will be spent on IWBs unless the manufacturers support the ISO odf standard. Since odf is XML based it should be easy for the IWB manufacturers to write filters to export and import odf files to their proprietary software as an interim step. Of course they won't want to but that is why a quango like BECTA could be some use. What is more important the customer or the supplier? Value for the Taxpayer or upsetting some commercial interests?
There was an interesting thread about this last March, and Becta's Rob Englebright presented on this at the Unconference in July.
Thanks Miles, had some jolly useful and constructive conversations at the Unconference...
Just to update on this, Ian is nearly right, BUT the main aim of the project wasn't a Viewer (it's a secondary output)... The main aim was to get the various vendors to agree on a file format that could be shared across all the various applications.
The idea being you could save in common file format, on your promethean board, then take the resource and use it on your Hitachi, or SMART, mimio, einstruction, RM, e-beam, ice cream doohickey board, and vice versa.
The file format is stable (ish), and as Ian mentions there is a Viewer application released under LGPL licence.. but the point of the viewer is to act as a test harness for those vendors integrating the format into their applications. It works fine, but I wouldn't want to use it for teaching.
There is also a Library released under a liberal BSD licence to help those trying to embed the format.
We've just finished the development phase, and I've put the Library and Viewer, and sample files up on Sourceforge.
We are now entering the support phase to help vendors embed the format, and are working on a conformance regime.
In terms of ongoing community development there have been thoughts around building a browser based tool, and I think there's overlap with some of the stuff that the OLPC project are doing ... all thoughts most welcome.
https://sourceforge.net/projects/iwbcff/
Rob (Becta bloke running the common file format project)
The Ubuntu project has Jams, sessions where people get together to learn about and to improve the vast collection of Open Source software that goes into Ubuntu (pretty much all of which works on other Linux distributions and lots of it works on Mac and Windows too).
I am thinking that an interactive whiteboard specific jam session would be really interesting. It would need a school located in an accessible area willing to open up on a Saturday or during holiday and provide a classroom or two with as many interactive whiteboards as can be arranged (not sure how portable they are) and a teacher or two to show how they work and how they are used to teach with. The objective would be to improve understanding of the issues, and observe what works and doesn't (filing bugs against bits that don't). If the result is that something like Audacity gets a few UI tweaks to become even more Audacious or Freemind allows teachers to free more minds then that would be great. Any other educational kit lying about might yield interesting results such as USB microscopes, robotics stuff, sensors etc. Maybe there are some Gimp plugins like liquid rescale that would work really well with a microscope. Maybe using Hugin to stitch together panoramas from microscope images would be cool. Perhaps a python library to control a robotics kit would allow students to do interesting things.
So, good idea or bad idea?
Any volunteers to host?
Good idea, it's just the time it takes to do it. Really I think such things should focus on whole class interactive learning not one piece of hardware that is IMHO rather over-rated.
We use IWB's in all classrooms in our school, mostly using win XP. All supplied by Promethean. I agree that using right click is a pain, however since being loaned a tablet pc, I know which I prefer. I don't need to turn my back to the class, as I would when I use any type of board. and I can use whatever software I choose without having to worry about drivers. The ultimate would be a tablet that I can connect wirelessly to the projector, to give more mobility around the room. Also I'm not limited to a particular size of screen.
As for guidelines, 1, don't look at the light from the projector, you can damage your eyes.
2, have a look at RNIB's website for some high contrast really clear ideas, (like always left align so that people with visual impairments know where the next line will start).
and 3 help pupils with dyslexia by using Yellow text on dark blue background or vice versa, (though I always think that you need sunglasses when it's done that way round).
and any other guidelines that are out there for OOo impress/powerpoint.
One thing about promethean, I think that there are linux drivers for their boards but currently I don't think they have ported over their software tools.
[quote=dwillmot20]The ultimate would be a tablet that I can connect wirelessly to the projector, to give more mobility around the room.[/quote]
Use your standard Tablet PC connected to your standard wireless network and use VNC to control the screen of the PC hooked up to the projector. Video probably won't transfer over a wireless link very well, but you don't have to worry about that - video would show on the projected screen just fine, your VNC session would just show the occasional frame or a blank box. This way, you avoid some propitiatory system that tries to use the same chunk of wireless bandwidth as 802.11 and messes up your wireless network.
Older Tablet PCs are available second hand at a quite reasonable price, mainly because nobody could think of anything to do with them in most contexts - handy for those with a front-of-class display to control.
The current version of Edubuntu needs a few tweaks to get VNC working nicely with it in this way (it defaults to per-session VNC sessions, and you need to install a different VNC server for it to use a per-machine connection), I've got a step-by-step guide written down but I want to get it working with 9.10 when it comes out next week
Think about cost too. How much does an IWB cost? Then you need a computer. A tabletpc gives both functions so you lower costs - across all classrooms in all schools it is significant. Focussing on a device rather than the learning style is a fundamental mistake.
I'm not a big fan of tabletpcs for general purpose use (I have a Samsung Q1 I replaced with an Asus netbook) but as a replacement for an IWB they do have a niche function mainly because of the possibilities for annotation and overlay.
Data incompatibility across IWBs is a classic case of the need for government leadership in establishing technological standards and not just leaving it to commercial interests. Developing an Open Source viewer is missing the point, its about Open Standards not Open Source. If they had said no government money is to be spent on any IWB that does not support OpenDocument and W3C standards for data structures produced in it's core applications no manufacturer would have been able to take the risk of not complying. Such simple steps are far more practically useful than over complex frameworks that largely have the effect of reducing competition or commissioning RM to produce a token Open Source application. But hey, this is bureaucracy we are dealing with :-)
well I certainly take your point about open standards, however it seems to me (uninformed opinion coming up . . .) that a viewer format for an interactive whiteboard is missing the "interactive" part of the point. The IWB isn't just a data projector. "Death by Impress" (other presentation tools are available) doesn't really do justice to what the IWB can really add to the situation. Things like using VNC to cast a student's PC screen up onto the big screen and then working on something collaboratively there would be a powerful tool. Also applications such as turtle art on the OLPC/Sugar on a stick would I think be great IWB applications.
A good point, well made. The big plus of the IWB was not that it allowed a teacher to show
PowerPointImpress slides to a class, or even that it allowed teachers to keep copies of all their board work for later re-use (by pupils, colleagues or their older selves), but that it allowed a whole class of children to share a computer between them, with all the opportunities that opened up for collaborative working.As we move to a time when all pupils will have their own palmtop devices (LiMo, Maemo, Android? I believe there are other phones available), sharing direct control of the big display around the room becomes a really exciting prospect - VNC is a good starting point, but even just the occasional
twitterstatus.net fall or Gobby / Google Wave session would be a good start. I've enjoyed sharing work my students post into Moodle on our IWB as a starter for reflective discussions.> "Death by Impress" (other presentation tools are available) doesn't really do justice to what the IWB can really add to the situation.
PowerPoint actually has a bunch of very handy tools for use with an IWB - highlighter, writing pen - and handles different media like Flash and video well. Impress, certainly the last time I tried it around 6 months ago, still didn't.
> Things like using VNC to cast a student's PC screen up onto the big screen and then working on something collaboratively there would be a powerful tool.
It strikes me that the large front-of-class display available in a large proportion of all classrooms (50%?) around the country now is still somewhat under-utilised. I have still to see a collaberative application designed from the start for a large front-of-class display. I'm thinking something probably web-based, where pupils work in groups on some task, sharing one PC between a group to contribute to something that adds to a display at the front. Using VNC or similar to do a round-robin style "Okay everyone, let's see what X is doing on their machine..." is certainly a good start, but it'd be nice to have some classroom activities designed specifically for a collaberative display.
There are collaborative voting systems available. A lot of the software is proprietary to particular board manufacturers. Draw would be more like the existing IWB multi media apps than Impress. (And you don't need the board just interactive input like a tabletPC Wacom tablet etc) For interactivity slide shows are not really that helpful. Of course Draw is closely related to Impress in OOo, and since the UK is by far the biggest consumer of IWB technology in the world why not fund a project in conjunction with the OOo community to give Draw IWB type functions - or even Inkscape given it is an editor for SVG the international vector standard. Given that we wasted best part of 500 million on COL spending a few hundred K on such a project would be good value even if it was only partly successful. Maybe I should do an EU Development of innovation grant to get it funded.
That is a really good point about the highlight pens available to annotate a running presentation. I never found a use-case for them myself delivering presentations, however I can see how they would work with an IWB. These kinds of features are the sort of thing that could be added, however from the point of view of someone who isn't a teacher an IWB is an extremely esoteric and expensive bit of hardware, you just don't come across them if you are not in the education system, or writing proprietary software to run on them. I think a lot of innovative ideas for using whiteboards could be generated by having a whiteboard jam.
This is exactly why the government should have a small grants system a bit like the EU lifelong learning program grants to fund small things that make a big difference. It would also give smaller companies scope to get involved and to innovate. Say start with 10 x £25k awards for proposals to develop FOSS applications for education. 250k and you would probably get someone bidding to produce IWB overlay software with annotation using say Python and Open Office.org Draw. (They could specify priorities). Low risk, high possible benefit and the Whiteboard companies can bid so there is no favouritism. All outputs are GPL 3 or CCSA. If its successful scale it up. The EU seems to be able to manage such projects so there is an easy model to follow.
Brilliant thread thanks guys...
Here's my 2 pence worth...
It's a classic case of software and hardware being tied together for commercial reasons
I work with a school with 21 classrooms - IWB in every one
We want to replace half of them
I think the board is irrelevant - whatever i can project onto and set up a Wii remote is my board
If you haven't seen this check out
http://johnnylee.net/projects/wii/
If I can put up a new (bigger) board with multi touch for next to nothing...
Then I need IWB software of some kind
Can anyone suggest an alternative that we can use without buying their very expensive hardware (mac anyone?) I'm sure the school would be delighted to trial it
Schools would pay for that software if it did the job. No question
Open standards and Open source yes please. Schools have been bled to death for basic necessities they need
But right now it could even be a proprietry app that supports common commercial formats and open standards for sharing IWB projects
The fact that I'm even saying that means this is an opportunity
It's all about apps. and if you've been following the hype (ipad anyone? or got an iphone or ipod touch) you'll know that the app can be built by anyone to run on any hardware or platform should the developer wish
Or should i be thinking differently about IWB software?
This school has a bunch of 13 inch wireless tablets with pens which are fantastic with KS1 kids
I've got an asus tablet and it's a very impressive peice of kit - but hooking it up to another PC wirelessly and VNC ing doesn't sound ideal. Plus wireless is already our main way of giving kids access to computers, and schools want 1 laptop per child. If you've ever worked with wireless you'll know it's not an exact science
Let me know what you think please :)
For the future...
I think ideally you need both multi touch and tablet control
You want whole class interaction? How about the surface of a standard table with multi touch using cheap IR pens
Bear in mind that apps need to support multi touch, and as they begin to... there will be another gold rush of IWB companies trying to sell you a multi touch board
We need to do a 180 degree turn here, look into the light and realise that the board is useless without the projector, that's where it all started
(Interestingly it doesn't matter which projector i buy, they all do the same job and there's no format or connectivity wars)
When board and projector eventually roll into one device (imagine a massive iphone), or projectors incorporate sensing technology (see project Natal for an idea) it will be easier to see how many more uses they have and software will really show off what you can do with them
L
Then I need IWB software of some kind
Can anyone suggest an alternative that we can use without buying their very expensive hardware (mac anyone?) I'm sure the school would be delighted to trial it
What do you mean by IWB software? Usually they have some sort of note pad - OpenOffice.org Draw can do that. Inkscape is possible for drawig too. Then they have overlay for annotation. Most tablet PCs support that but not sure if there is are any Linux based apps. Then maybe some sort of file system for organising your files. Actually most computer desktops do this quite well out of the box. If you mean voting systms and such like, I don't know and I doubt much exists open source although it migh be possible to adapt a web app to do it.
If it was me, I'd use the projector, generic tools and the internet to teach about how to search for, select, process and present information. After all, that is the heart of the statutory IT curriculum and it applies to all subjects. There is masses of free stuff on the net and in several lifetimes I couldn't exhaust it all. From Numpty Physics to optical illusions. http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/ Add stuff like the Wii and why worry about what you haven't got when what you have got for free is impossible to fully utilise? I have just been in Prague training partners in our EU project and I didn't need anything over the weekend other than the web site and the internet. While BECTA are commissioning a Whiteboard viewer, they could have just commissioned FOSS annotation and overlay software and together with generic apps it would be good enough for most people with or without the board.
Your for the future remarks remind me of the work Jeff Han is doing on ftir multi-touch displays and to some extent MS Surface. For anyone that hasn't seen the videos have a look, they're amazing.
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/65
http://www.perceptivepixel.com/index.html
As for open source development it's coming along but is still in its infancy with very few apps available as of yet.
http://lii-enac.fr/en/projects/shareit/xorg.html
FWIW: It certainly isn't cheap, but relatively recent changes in the software licensing of Promethean's ActivInspire software allow it to be used with any interactive whiteboard. (See the Technical Info section at http://www.prometheanworld.com/server.php?show=nav.16874.) The Personal Edition of the software is free, but extremely feature limited. With this change in licensing, we are considering going to it for our entire school system. It finally gives us a way to use one software on our myriad interactive whiteboards.
There are a couple of software alternatives designed for the wiimote 'whiteboard':
I've used Wiimote Whiteboard myself, open source, runs on Windows, Mac and Linux
http://www.uweschmidt.org/wiimote-whiteboard
Then there is Smoothboard, not free, but more sophisticated:
http://www.smoothboard.net/
Finally, Epson were showing their Brightlink 450Wi projector with built in IR pen ie. interactive whiteboard capabilities at BETT last month. It's available in March and comes with RM's Easiteach software:
http://www.epsonbrightlink.webengager.com/
Boxlight have also announced one as well:
http://www.boxlight.com/PRESS-RELEASES/January10-ProjectoWrite2W-Announce
Gareth