Thoughts on using TV displays in place of IWBs

[crc-ict]

We are currently working on a new build and replacement project in our school (3-form entry first and middle) and are considering replacing traditional interactive whiteboard/projector combos with large format TV displays and touch screen PCs.

 

I was wondering if there was anyone out there who has done a similar thing, who has any tales to tell or found any lessons to be learnt from doing this? Also, I'm interested in any EduGeek's thoughts about this as an idea.

 

In the way of caveats all I'm really concerned about is the life of the displays - I hope I have addressed this by speccing professional signage-type displays intended for continuous use

 

I'd be really interested to hear any tips of opinions on this plan!

 

Thanks.

[glennda]

I think @Millgate sells some sort of touchscreen solution which does this.

 

Although to be honest as long as Casio keep there 5 year warranty for Education going I can't see the point (yet) of moving away from the traditional IWB/Projector in the generic classroom IMHO and I think the screens are not cheap.

[sparkeh]

We did look into this ourselves a while ago and found the cost prohibitive. As above, we found the Casio projectors to be a better investment for the time being.

 

Aside from that I would love them.

Edited March 21, 2013 by sparkeh

[Millgate]

Hi there,

 

We supplied @RTFM with interactive displays so perhaps he can tell you about his experience with them.

 

If you need any info or quotes, feel free to get in touch

 

Luke

[maark]

We have some - they are expensive. One thing you can't do is freeze the image on screen whilst you do something else on your laptop such as take a register as you can with projectors.

Personally I would either use casio projectors or just use TV's without the interactive bit - how many staff actually use the touch facilities - most just use them to project images.

Another option is to use a wireless gyro-mouse so you can walk around classroom demonstrating stuff without having to stand in front of the screen.

[strawberry]

It's something we have done here, We found that interactive boards weren't being used for interactive features so it was easier just to limit the interactive bit to the teachers computer. We also have been using large screen TV's in rooms where installing a projector would be difficult.

 

Politically it means the devices are still interactive for the teachers but reality is most of the teachers are still not using the interactive features so we will one day swap the posh touch screen monitors for normal ones. It also means teachers can still have room for a traditional whiteboard which is important to most of our lot.

[crc-ict]

Our plan is similar to @strawberry's approach - use a large-screen display (not interactive) which is a good bit cheaper than an IWB or an interactive display, even for a professional TV, and team this with a touch-screen PC display of maybe 22". We need to buy the computers anyway, we are all Windows 8 so touch makes sense for this and we should in theory be able to save some money too!

 

Thanks people.

[RTFM]

We have around 8 of the CleverLCD's (some 1st Gen and some 2nd Gen).

 

They are ok for what they are but I think they are expensive. Having said that, the staff who use them really like them, I dont use them day to day, they do and they appreciate them so........

[dhicks]

We are currently working on a new build and replacement project in our school (3-form entry first and middle) and are considering replacing traditional interactive whiteboard/projector combos with large format TV displays and touch screen PCs.

 

Our nursery and reception classes seem to really like the wander-up-and-touch capability given by a large touch screen, but by Year 1 / Year 2 the interactive part of things seems to be less used. We're thinking of going for iPads to control PCs attached to large screens via AirPlay, although I think we'll keep our interactive boards for nursery and reception.

[Guest Guest]

We are in the same position as you with a new build coming. In the summer term we are going to trial win8 tablets with hdmi wireless transmitters plugged into the projectors. This could obviously be adapted for TVs.

 

IMO what's the point in using a touch screen desktop? There not a great deal of advantage over a mouse and keyboard.

 

With tablets the teacher can walk around the room and even stick the tablet under the nose of a student. That way shy students will be "forced" to take part in an activity they would otherwise have said "no miss I dont want to [stand in front of my peers]"

[jmak]

I'm planning a trial of tablets as the interactive interface to replace our very old Smartboards - will try iPads, but more interested in a windows 8 hybrid tablet I.e. detachable keyboard and i5 processor so it can serve as a teacher's only computer.

 

Clever touch screens look great but pricey.

[wedemire]

We are using x220 tablets from Lenovo (not detachable...but I will be looking at their detachable model when it finally comes out) with Intel wireless display boxes connected via hdmi to projectors. Teachers run the wireless display program on their laptop to connect to the projector in the room. The technology is supposed to do 1080p at 30fps but its not always perfect. We chose these to remove the ancient overhead projectors from classrooms (teachers use one note/word with the pen/digitizer) and because we figured smartboards/iwbs don't get use to their potential...this setup also is less than half the price ($2000 vs $5500). We have been buying $400 benq projectors with hdmi for this setup with the intent of replacing the projectors rather than replacing bulbs/repairing them.

[Alis_Klar]

Any anecdotal evidence of Wi-Fi networks stuggling under Airplay traffic where multiple AppleTV units are used i.e 1 per classroom?

[jallsop]

As far as the TV idea goes, I've seen it work quite well, using VGA from a computer, although it wasn't made as a touchscreen. We actually had two tvs running off of one PC, and the same image could be on both panels, one either side of the teachers area, using the connect to a projector tools in windows, and a simple VGA splitter/booster. Cost for two 46 inch panels (actually cheap TVs) and mounting was around £1200, plus a bit of cabling which we would have had to have done for the IWB and Projector anyway. Worked really well, and with a touchscreen PC, or even better, using one note or similar, would be better than IWB, IMHO.

[Marci]

Any anecdotal evidence of Wi-Fi networks stuggling under Airplay traffic where multiple AppleTV units are used i.e 1 per classroom?

Yes... lots... documented with white papers by Cisco etc. You end up subnetting off each building/area and deploying Bonjour gateways to reduce the traffic to local areas. See http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/wireless/ps4570/products_tech_note09186a0080bb1d7c.shtml

Edited May 17, 2013 by Marci

[dhicks]

Any anecdotal evidence of Wi-Fi networks stuggling under Airplay traffic where multiple AppleTV units are used i.e 1 per classroom?

 

I was actually surprised by how well AirPlay worked on our network - our current wired network (10/100 unmanged switches with 1Gb copper backbone links) is somewhat aged, although we do have a nice new Ruckus system running on top of that (we're replacing both the wiring and the switches this summer). We had 4 iPads all mirroring their screens to the one PC (via AirServer) with good performance. I think this was probably due to the iPads all connecting to a wireless access point that was plugged in to the same switch as the PC was connected to, so there was no network traffic to go bouncing around the network, it all just stayed on the one switch. How you'd organise this happening school-wide, especially for a larger school, I don't know. I did think about trying out a Raspberry Pi acting as its own wireless access point for AirPlay (plug the Raspberry Pi into the projector, connect the iPad to the Pi's own WiFi network), but again oragnising a whole school's worth of those would be tricky.

 

As far as projectors / IWBs go, we have a lot (two thirds) of our AV equipment to replace this summer, and CTouch / CleverTouch boards are nice but rather expensive. I'm thinking of maybe Mimio's interactive projector, giving us another option for interactivity. We'd probably keep most of our working Smart boards - has anyone installed both Mimio and Smart's software together before?

[Marci]

You're fine on those numbers... on the other hand we have at least 200 iPads and 50+ AppleTVs, along with all the other mobile devices across all platforms... when you get up to these kind of numbers the Bonjour traffic can be quite horrendous, resulting in devices vanishing off the network as another device has reported it can't be seen thus resulting in all devices dropping it etc.

[dhicks]

See Wireless LAN Apple Bonjour Deployment Guide - Cisco Systems

 

Thanks, very useful. I didn't think of that - the actual AirPlay / RTSP video streaming part of things is point-to-point, but AirPlay requires the Bonjour discovery protocol to allow iPads to connect to a specific device, so you wind up with broadcast traffic all over the network.