Free IWB software?

[leopardman25]

Does anyone know of any decent free IWB software that is not smart or Promethean? As someone who has moved schools a few times in the last 5 years I am getting a bit sick of the compatibility problems between Promethean and Smart as schools tend to have one and not the other. Law abiding schools (and rightly so) do not like buying licenses for two pieces of software and neither software seems to be able to open the others files perfectly. Re-making resources that you have already made is time consuming and frustrating. Powerpoint does not do all the things I want to do. If there was some free shareware that functions as a whiteboard tool with a decent write, draw and a drag and drop functions then that would solve my problems as schools would not be reluctant to install a free software. Anybody have any ideas?

[dhicks]

Powerpoint does not do all the things I want to do.

It does, however, support Flash (and other) plugins, which can generally fill in the gaps in functionality. What is it, exactly, you're trying to do that Powerpoint can't accomplish?

Anybody have any ideas?

Write an interactive whiteboard web application that supports the common whiteboard file format:

Common file format for interactive whiteboards gets European support | Open Source Schools

--
David Hicks

[leopardman25]

Well The main thing I cant do on powerpoint is get kids to come and move things(pictures words) around on the board. As far as I know you cannot do this whilst in slideshow mode.

As for your second point I would love to but would have no idea how to write a new program.

[dhicks]

Well The main thing I cant do on powerpoint is get kids to come and move things(pictures words) around on the board.

You want a Flash plugin that lets you do this - Powerpoint runs Flash very nicely.

--
David Hicks

[TRobinson]

The Personal edition of Promethean's ActivInspire is free and this will give you the functionality that you require without the need for Licence

Hope this helps

[leopardman25]

Thanks guys I will investigate the flash issue and Promethean;
I had downloaded the personal edition of Promethean which works fine as a stop gap but the licence only lasts for 60 days then you have to go back to the IT technicians and ask them to reinstall it. I also noticed that files you make on this program are completely incompatible with anything else.

[dhicks]

I will investigate the flash issue

Flash is actually really easy to use - it has an interactive editor that lets you draw stuff on the screen and attach actions to them, basic drag-things-around-the-screen projects are really easy. Lots of applications / websites will have provide you with pre-created Flash widgets or help you create them - see this site for a start:

ContentGenerator.net - create your own Educational Flash games

Or maybe here:

SWiSH - Easy Flash Animation Software Tools and Designer Templates

--
David Hicks

[Michael]

If you have resources in Promethean or Smart, both companies (when I last checked) have a free to use read-only version.

In practice this would allow you to install Smart reader and use it on a Promethean board and visa versa so everyone's happy.

[admontgomery87]

Does anyone know of any decent free IWB software that is not smart or Promethean? As someone who has moved schools a few times in the last 5 years I am getting a bit sick of the compatibility problems between Promethean and Smart as schools tend to have one and not the other. Law abiding schools (and rightly so) do not like buying licenses for two pieces of software and neither software seems to be able to open the others files perfectly. Re-making resources that you have already made is time consuming and frustrating. Powerpoint does not do all the things I want to do. If there was some free shareware that functions as a whiteboard tool with a decent write, draw and a drag and drop functions then that would solve my problems as schools would not be reluctant to install a free software. Anybody have any ideas?

- Learning Spot Lessons provides great products that can be used on both machines. You can google it.

There is also a free unit that you can download to see if this is the kind of product you are looking for. I teach 3rd grade and I used multiple math and language arts units in my classroom.

Hope this helps!

Abby

[Netman]

Open source IWB software - Open Sankoré | The Free Interactive Whiteboard Software. We got as far as trialling it here and were very impressed...