[ubuntu-us-ma] Interactive Whiteboard

[Linane, Jack]

 I have been following the thread for the whiteboard vs Wii and have to
say I feel the whiteboard( Smartboard or Mimio) is the way to go. We use
them in our district with no problems at all. Smartboard software allows
you to push out to all through Group policy and the mimio makes any
surface an interactive area. Within our district the students also use
the boards to do demenstrations, surf the web, and whatever they need to
do.

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Today's Topics:

   1. Re:  Interactive Whiteboard (Danny Piccirillo)


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Message: 1
Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:29:51 -0500
From: Danny Piccirillo <danny.piccirillo at ubuntu.com>
Subject: Re: [ubuntu-us-ma] Interactive Whiteboard
To: Ubuntu Massachusetts Local Community Team
	<ubuntu-us-ma at lists.ubuntu.com>
Message-ID:
	<cc3196b0902251029v2a66f425tcefbc36a98fb4e27 at mail.gmail.com>
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The wiimote does seem like it might be a good option so i'll look more
into that. If we wanted to use tablets without any additional hardware,
what is available to get the same features interactive whiteboards have?
Drawing on the screen, recording what's been done, etc. Something more
advanced than screenshots would be a plus..

On Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 12:04 PM, Brian DeLacey <bdelacey at gmail.com>
wrote:

> One of Johnny Lee's Wii projects <http://johnnylee.net/projects/wii/> 
> used a laptop screen in a way that might be similar to your tablet 
> idea. He shows it about three minutes into this 
> video<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s5EvhHy7eQ>
>  .
> Another project leveraging those Wii ideas is here:
> http://www.smoothboard.net/  The number of options is increasing as 
> the hardware gets more powerful and less expensive.
>
> I've experimented with Wii remote accelerometer and button readings 
> with Ubuntu. I'll demo this and mesh networking using Jaunty in a 
> quick "Open Floor" lightning talk at this Thursday's 
> meeting<https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MassachusettsTeam/Meetings/Minutes/200
> 9-02-26>
>  .
>
> Brian
>
>
>
> On Mon, Feb 23, 2009 at 10:29 PM, Danny Piccirillo < 
> danny.piccirillo at ubuntu.com> wrote:
>
>> That did cross my mind but i figured it wasn't worth the extra 
>> hardware and it seemed to be a lot of work to set up (although i 
>> admit i didn't really look that much into it). That's why i thought 
>> just using tablets would be a much better idea.
>>
>> On Mon, Feb 23, 2009 at 10:26 PM, Brian DeLacey
<bdelacey at gmail.com>wrote:
>>
>>> Here's a low-cost way to do that sort of thing using a Wii remote:  
>>> <http://www.cs.cmu.edu/%7Ejohnny/projects/wii/>
>>> http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/projects/wii/<http://www.cs.cmu.edu/%7
>>> Ejohnny/projects/wii/>
>>> There's a related video here:
>>> http://www.alltogetherwecan.com/2009/01/31/wiimote-whiteboard-in-edu
>>> cation-a-tutorial/
>>>
>>> There's a lot of potential with the Wii remote ...
>>>
>>> Brian
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mon, Feb 23, 2009 at 10:01 PM, Danny Piccirillo < 
>>> danny.piccirillo at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> What a nightmare...
>>>>
>>>> My school keeps investing money into testing out these things. They

>>>> want to make a decision on which to buy a big order of. Basically, 
>>>> interactive whiteboards let teachers draw on the screen from the 
>>>> front of the room and save their lessons, etc. My school is faced 
>>>> with sales pitch after sales pitch and all the teachers are excited

>>>> so it seems. We'd need to buy their proprietary hardware and 
>>>> software, train teachers, etc. I'm trying really hard to make the 
>>>> case that this is a really really bad idea. The technology is 
>>>> pretty new (well, maybe it's been around, but these solutions are
not mature), so it will all be outdated soon.
>>>>
>>>> Teachers get excited about every new piece of technology with any 
>>>> new and uselesss features. They want to use it for the sake of 
>>>> using it, regardless of whether they can use it effectively. 
>>>> Students are not any more engaged, if not less, when the only new 
>>>> aspect of their lesson is being able to click on a train and 
>>>> hearing it go CHOOCHOO (powerpoint-- i mean, openoffice.org can 
>>>> already do that...). Whether or not teachers use interactive 
>>>> whiteboards, tablets, or *the tools already available*, they need 
>>>> to be able to do so effectively. Throwing money into a new piece of
technology won't fix that at all...
>>>>
>>>> I'm trying to propose a better long term solution and find free 
>>>> software alternatives to this. My suggestion was using a tablet PC 
>>>> and software that allows you to draw on the screen. Simple 
>>>> screenshots (or screencasts) can be used to save lessons, if 
>>>> nothing more advanced is already available. This is also a great 
>>>> place to fit Ubuntu in the classroom since they'll be investing in
new computers for this anyways.
>>>>
>>>> SO, i need help coming up with the best alternative to this 
>>>> interactive whiteboard crap. Please let me know if you have any
ideas!
>>>>
>>>> P.S. Handwriting recognition seems to be something that is included

>>>> in some applications for tablets...shouldn't there be some sort of 
>>>> framework or something for this so that any application can use it?

>>>> Does this already exist or is there a good place to suggest this?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks so much!
>>>> .danny
>>>>
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