White-Board Paint

The University of Canberra covered the walls of its Teaching and Learning Commons with White-Board Paint so that they can be written and projected onto (using a short throw projector). There are now do-it-yourself kits, such as the "Rust-Oleum Dry Erase Brush-On Kit" for home use or a small office and the larger "Professional Dry Erase Kits".

The paint is made up of two parts which have to be mixed just before applying. The material is reported to be hard to apply, not having the consistency of normal paint. So this is something you might want to leave to specialist painters.

Interactive Whiteboard As A Large Tablet Computer

Last week I attended a workshop on using Using interactive whiteboards, iPads of University Teaching. To an IT professional, the Interactive Whiteboard and iPad need little explanation. An interactive whiteboard is a computer with a large touch screen and applications adapted for touch, rather than keyboard/mouse input. An iPad is a hand held tablet computer from Apple, with a touch screen and applications for gesture input.

The interactive whiteboard and iPad have much in common, as they both have a touch sensitive screen. The interactive whiteboard could be thought of as a very large iPad. Given that iPads are becoming familiar to the general population, which includes educators, it may be useful to explain interactive whiteboards to them in this way.

It may be feasible to go further and build an interactive whiteboard which uses the hardware and software of a tablet computer. This would allow the growing range of applications for tablet computers to be used on the interactive whiteboard. It would also allow the same educational applications to be used by students and staff individually on their tablet computer and as a group on the i-board. The same applications could use both the tablet computers and large scared board simultaneously. Using the same software for both types of units would also make maintenance of the equipment and the training of staff and students in its use easier.

It would be difficult to modify an Apple iPad to drive an i-board, as the Apple software and hardware is closely controlled by the Apple company. However, the rival Google Android operating system is more open to change and is used on a range of hardware from different manufacturers. There are small, low cost computers available running Google Android. These have the same interface ports as used to drive third party i-board hardware. An example of such a device is the $200 Agora Internet TV Portal. It should therefore be feasible to program one of these to work with existing i-board hardware and build an interactive whiteboard which is essentially an Android tablet computer with a very large screen.

The Android i-Board would have limitations, in that it could not run Microsoft Windows applications, in particular Microsoft Office, Word and PowerPoint (at least not easily, some Windows applications run in emulation under Linux). However, there are applications available which can read and write the file formats of MS-Windows which can run on Android. There are also third party Android "Apps", similar to those for the Apple iPad (but not as extensive in number).

More important than emulating Windows applications might be the ability to work with web based applications. This would allow many web based educational applications and resources to be used with the i-broad.

Using the Android hardware and software would have advantages for an i-board. These devices are expensive, large, unreliable and cumbersome to use. Interactive Whiteboards consist of a desktop personal computer running Microsoft Windows or the Apple Mac operating system, interfaced to the touch surface of the screen. To accommodate the PC requires a large device. As a large and complex operating system and application software is being used, the unit takes considerable time to boot, is at risk of viruses and needs frequent software upgrades.

A Google Android computer can be about the size of a matchbox. This need have no hard disk, relying on flash memory and a network connection. Such a unit can be booted quickly as it has a relatively small and simple suite of software. As most of the applications will be running remotely over the network, a powerful process is not needed, nor are frequent software upgrades.

It should be noted that there are other Linux based operating systems available which could be used in place of Google Android, for driving an interactive whiteboard. Android is suggested as it is the most widely known and widely deployed, with more Android devices in use than Apple iPad/iPhones.

Interactive Whiteboards for Universities

Greetings from the Australian National University in Canberra, where Taylor Hayes from Electroboard is demonstrating the use of an Interactive Whiteboard. While these units are common in primary, secondary schools and TAFEs, they are less common at universities.

The first feature demonstrated was having the interactive whiteboard emulate an overhead projector. This does not use all the capabilities of the unit but is a good for beginners. A document or image from any application can be displayed on screen (the unit has a computer built it, in this case an Apple Mac) and then a stylus used to write over the document (there are styluses which write in different colors, emulating white-board markers). The image created, combining the background image and the digital scribble over it can be saved as an image file.

There are also "Ink Aware" applications, such as Microsoft Office, which allow the digital ink to be saved in the document as an annotation. However, it appears that the annotation is an image over a page in an application like Microsoft Word, it is not linked to words, sentences or paragraphs in the document. As a result a computer program, or a blind student, will not know what is being annotated on the page. It would be useful if the annotation could be tagged to a particular object in the document.

There is text recognition for the ink aware applications, allowing limited amounts of text to be input. But this would interrupt the free flowing intention of the interactive board.

The major limitation is that there appears to be no "ink aware" support in web browsers. As a result none of the applications I use for education, which are web based, could be used. In place of Microsoft Word, Powerpoint and PDF documents, I now use HTML web pages.

In particular it would be useful if the Learning Management System Moodle could be interfaced to the interactive whiteboard. Many educators think Moodle is just for online remote education, but it is also a powerful tool for use live in the classroom. Moodle works with smart phones and iPads, and there is no reason it would not work well with an interactive whiteboard.

Also it would be interesting to use the interactive whiteboard with a video conference system, such as "Wimba Classroom" or DimDim. Previously at the Defence Department I used a touch screen video conference system.

The particular board being demonstrated is a Smart Technologies, wide screen unit, with a resistive surface. The board has a soft plastic sheet which when pressed detected the location of a finger or stylus. The unit appears to be "single touch" and not particularly sensitive and some touches were not reliably registered. However, Taylor pointed out that this is an old unit which ANU purchased some time ago. There are newer units with more sensitive multi-touch surfaces.

It was disappointing to find that interactive whiteboards, and their use, do not appear to have progressed significantly since I used one for a conference in 1995. The whiteboard worked very well on that occasion and I suspect it resulted in my fellow the Defence Department staff ordering them in bulk.

However, it was disappointing to find the boards can't interactive effectively with web based applications. Also it is not clear if the modes of education at university will suit the boards. It may be that university tutors and lecturers will need instruction in a new style of teaching to be able to use the equipment effectively. It will be interesting to see if tertiary level educators, who see themselves as superior, are prepared to learn how to teach from those at schools and TAFEs with experience and expertise in this.

The interactive whiteboard demonstration was followed by a short introduction to using iPads for university students. This included interfacing them to the interactive whiteboard. This is an area under very active trial at universities and in many educational institutions around the world. What is yet to be established is what is the role for such tablet computers, in the classroom, for students at home. My view is that educations should not fixate on any one platform, such as iPads, and instead look at the educational techniques which can be applied with a range of devices. As an example, Moodle and simpler software can easily be adapted to tablet computers and smart phones, as well as i-boards. These can all also be integrated into traditional university teaching techniques.

Multi-touch Monitors For Presentations

Interactive whiteboards have become popular for use in classrooms. However, these are expensive, limited to use by a small number of people. They have proved less popular in university teaching spaces. An interesting alternative is a touch sensitive LCD monitor, such as the HP 2310t, 23 Inch Monitor. This looks like an ordinary wide screen monitor, but has a multi-touch interface surface, like a large tablet computer. At about $550 this is less than an interactive whiteboard. It could be placed out the front of a tutorial room or lecture theatre, in place of a conventional monitor and used with a mouse and keyboard. When the touch interface was needed the screen could be tilted almost horizontal and used by one or two people, with the display relayed to a large projection screen for the class to see.

Using interactive whiteboards, iPads and other technologies for teaching

A demonstration of "Using interactive whiteboards, iPads and other technologies for teaching" will be held at the Australian National University in Canberra, 27 May 2011.

Using interactive whiteboards, iPads and other technologies for teaching

12.30 - 1.30 pm ...

Coffee, tea and juice will be provided. Please feel free to BYO lunch.

Harnessing new (and old) communication technologies for the benefit of teaching and learning requires many of us old dogs to learn new tricks. This seminar will provide an opportunity to hear about a few of the innovative educational uses of technology happening at ANU. We will also be showcasing some new technologies being used ... and giving people some hands-on 'play' time.

» Register now

Pocket Interactive Whiteboard

Pioneer Computers Australia, who sell an unusual range of computing devices are offering a "Pocket Interactive Whiteboard", the DreamVision iPen. This is not really a whiteboard, but a wireless pointing device to use with a computer screen. It has a hand held unit and a sensor connected by USB to the computer. The product description is not detailed, but the device seems to work by the pointing device projecting a laser beam on the display screen which is located by a camera in the detector.

If it works, the iPen device would have advantages over systems which use ultrasonic detection, as it would require only one sensor, which can be located remotely from the display screen (near the projector) and the presenter would be able to stand back from the screen. The device could then be used in a large lecture theatre with a large projection screen and with the lecturer mingling with the class. However, there are gyroscopic mice which claim similar features and have not proved popular.

Interactive whiteboard is emerging as an important tool in the education and business presentation market. iPen is based on new technology, one step ahead of the interactive whiteboard. Imagine, as the tool is in the pen, how easy it is to carry around, move from classroom to classroom, without having to stick to one board. With the iPen, an interactive platform is created. You can alter the content of the file, write on screen, sketch on screen, position the cursor, select icon, adding flair to your presentation / teaching. All the required functions are managed by the iPen. There won’t be any need to use the keyboard. The iPen is easy to install and user friendly. Presenter can start using with minimal training. ...

From: "Pocket Interactive Whiteboard", DreamVision iPen, Pioneer Computers Australia, 2010