The interactive white board

[pageclot[$]]

A few months ago, someone I work with started raving to me about this whiteboard demo he'd been to. It was not just an ordinary whiteboard, he said. It interacts with your PC, and you can control your PC by writing on the board, and it saves your notes, and...and...and...

Figuring it was a fad, I gently poo-poohed the idea.

Well, the white board people have returned, and I'm invited to the next demo. Maybe writing out what this thing does will help me figure out why I just don't like the idea of it.

Concept

You have a meeting, and want to write notes on a whiteboard. You also want to show presentations at this meeting. You are also meeting with people in another location (although attached to the same network), and want to make the presentation relevant for them.

Now you can, with the interactive white board!

Here's how it works.

You have a laptop hooked up to a presentation projector, beaming light onto the whiteboard. The whiteboard is hooked up to your laptop too, and can not only record what you write on the whiteboard (like circles around significant numbers, or arrows to people's names), but can record it in the context of your presentation. So a graphic image appears on your powerpoint file.

You can also record notes written on the whiteboard as graphic images, to transcribe later (there's the usual indication that you might be able to have the software automatically recognize your handwriting and convert it to text).

Plus, you can use the whiteboard as a large touchscreen, to open up files, etc all with your whiteboard marker.

Plus, if your laptop is hooked up to a network, and you have a co-worker in a remote location hooked up to the same network, and they have a presentation projector, you can control what they see, and make your presentation in more than one location. Notes you make on your screen can be seen by them.

My knee-jerk reaction

I can't see myself using it. Most of the meetings I attend do not have a "let's-write-this-on-the-white-board" component to them, although I do see the value in doing that. For brainstorming, or trying to set priorities or goals, or any sort of group work, I can see the potential for this to speed up the work of taking notes.

But....isn't this just old technology (writing stuff on a board) trying to update itself and make itself more relevant? I've had experience with this before, when I bought an electronic notebook (you write notes on a sheet of paper, and they are electronically recorded, so they can be downloaded to your PC and either recognized or saved as graphic files), and the novelty wore off pretty quickly.

The demo is on the 10th. I'm sure I'll find out more then.

In the meantime, has anyone had experience with these things? Any important questions I should be asking?

[lynnzop[$]]

Ooh, I think I want one. I love white boards, flip charts, walls you can write on. The problem is sometimes converting what I've drawn back to my PC. I usually have to use Powerpoint or Visio or something and it would be much simpler to just use what I've already drawn.

I like the shareware concept - we have a new training program that allows interaction on the PC between remote locations - sounds quite similar to what you are describing minus the white board part.

It doesn't sound like you can edit the file after it's been created (unless you could do so in some graphic editing application?).

What's the cost, just out of curiousity?

Lynn

[quasar]

I've played around with about five different models of these controlled by either a laptop or a standalone controller as well as one controlled by a Palm. None of them particularly impressed me. It's an interesting idea but I don't think the technology is quite to the point of being very useful yet (although it's getting there). Maybe in six months.

Janice

[thinkerlady[$]]

We have 3 of them at the school where I teach. We can hook them into our classroom computers, and use them. They can be very useful teaching aides. The nice part is the software program that allow you to save what has been drawn on the board, and print it out if so desired. You do need an LCD projector hooked up to both the computer and whiteboard.

Schools around here are really getting into motion with them. They are called "Smart Boards", and seem to be really great. We have had only 1 inservice, and I am not 100% comfortable with them yet, but some teachers are and are doing some pretty amazing lessons with their students.

At my children's high school they are used too. Their goal is to put one in every classroom. I think they run around 4K or 5K so they are kinda steep in the pocketbook. The ones we have are portable, so we can share on our floor.

[pageclot[$]]

lynnzop, the cost of these is apparently only $1500 Cdn. When I find out who makes them, I'll put up the manufacturer (maybe a website too). I think these whiteboards are not portable, however.