An Expat Educator in Asia

I responded to a post in the OZ-Teachers email list today on rolling out EWBs in a school in Australia.

Have just taken delivery of our first wireless (wacom) tablet & data projector (with more on the way) as we explore less expensive alternatives to putting interactivity into our classrooms. I am very excited about the opportunities it presents us to explore the future of education.

At present we are using what is available without going out and buying any IWB software – so I am happy to take all suggestions for shareware/freeware or creative uses for what we already have – am also happy to post a hit of suggestions or talk to anyone about what we are trying to do.

I seem to remember discovering an online website that you could draw/write on and save your work quite some time ago – I’m sure there are plenty out there – but can’t find it again.

If anyone knows of a program etc that converts handwriting to text (I know this option is in Vista but we don’t have Vista) I would love to hear about it.

I replied with

I do a lot of IWB training in Hong Kong and the region and so try to keep up with what is going on in this fast changing world. I am surprised that you mention less expensive alternatives as an IWB here is almost cheaper than a laptop. All IWB companies have dropped their prices in an extremely competitive market. Be careful of just using Wacoms as the real benefit and ease of use comes with touching the objects you see on the screen. Your teachers and kids will not get such an effective experience using a tablet but having to look at the screen some distance away to see what effect their hand is having.

Subscribe to my bookmarks on Delicious http://del.icio.us/boomer11 I have 37 sites tagged under IWB.

I also try to update my blog regularly with ideas for IWBs. Check out http://xpatasia.edublogs.org/ and choose Appropriate Hardware for Education from the categories on the Left Hand Side.

I hope this helps.

The reply was:

Thanks Paul – will check out the links you suggested.

Your points are all very valid ones and issues that we considered very carefully – especially the touch/interactivity. Our ultimate is to get IWB’s BUT at this point in time IWB’s installed and set up ready to use in a classroom cost quite a bit more here than the price of a laptop. We can get projectors and tablets into three classrooms for what it would cost us to put an IWB in one room. So for an underfunded relatively small Victorian government primary school it becomes a very viable alternative until prices over here do come down to an affordable level.
Seems far better to me that we are spreading the word across a number of rooms and working together as a staff supporting each other as we trial & develop effective uses of interactivity in our classrooms.

I loved the way that this teacher is taking the time to think through the use of interactive technology in the classroom and support teachers on this journey. I wish every teacher and school did the same thing. YCIS Primary Section decided to do a staged rollout like this and it is the Hong Kong school that does more to promote EWB use with staff than any other I know of.

My reply again:

I couldn’t agree with you more Margot!

I worked with one school where we put in EWBs in a couple of rooms and in others we put projectors and wireless mice and keyboards. We worked with SMART to allow for the software to be put on all computers and then we asked teachers after 6 months to tell us what the board was going to do for them that the mouse and keyboard could not. It was far more effective than at a lot of schools I visit where they put a board in every room and keep complaining that teachers use them as expensive projection screens.

Another great alternative for cost effectiveness is the Onfinity CM2 Max. This is under AU$900 for something that you don’t have to install and still allows you to interact with visible objects up at the screen or any surface you project on. The unit can also be moved from room to room so it also allows you to “spread the word”. It breaks my heart to see some of the international schools here who have invested in an EWB in every room and most have retained a board surface. On my calculations I would say the average is board used 80% of time, EWB use 15% of time.

BTW, I try to use the Electronic Whiteboard (EWB) label for them and suggest that it is up to the teacher to decide if it is interactive J

Good luck with your pilot. Sounds to me like the school has a good leader to encourage some great classroom practice!

Filed under: Appropriate Hardware for Education, Electronic Whiteboards | Tagged: EWB, IWB, Rollout, Teacher readiness