tosca925 Posted October 11, 2007 Posted October 11, 2007 Has anyone got thi system in place? or used it. I have been asked to look into this has a cheap alternative to turn some normal Whiteboarsds into interactive boards? http://www.e-beam.com/products/projection_box.html Your thoughts and responses on this?
steveg Posted October 11, 2007 Posted October 11, 2007 They do just about work, but they aren't brilliant. We used to have 2, but now have interactive whiteboards throughout, and they are broken and at the back of a cupboard somewhere.
russdev Posted October 12, 2007 Posted October 12, 2007 I don't know we had one on loan here and we now have got two on order they work great cheaper than full install. Key here is we won't move them much as they take bit a aligning on board but once done that. All you then have to is teach staff member how to calibrate the board as you often need to do that. For us just work no messing really. Russell
tosca925 Posted October 12, 2007 Author Posted October 12, 2007 Key here is we won't move them much as they take bit a aligning on board but once done that. All you then have to is teach staff member how to calibrate the board as you often need to do that. This is a concern raised by staff, but it is a cheap option for getting a cheap interactive board i suppose.
DSapseid Posted October 12, 2007 Posted October 12, 2007 Ive got the MIMIO kits here and they are a pile of cr@p i am slowly getting rid of them. The teachers have taken half of them down themselves and just give it back to me!
russdev Posted October 12, 2007 Posted October 12, 2007 Strange you see we didn't want to buy something that wasn't going to be any use so we asked supplier to get us on on loan for half term. The teacher and rets of maths department used it and really liked them. As said only issue I had was getting it aligned once worked that out worked with no problems at all. As said only thing you have to do with them is calibrate them more often that you do normal boards. Russell
enjay Posted October 12, 2007 Posted October 12, 2007 Russ - I think you mean "wasN'T going to be any use" :-) We have a couple of people with projectors and wireless keyboards/mice/tablets which also serve as lower-cost IWB solutions, not suitable for every situation but worth considering perhaps.
Espada Posted October 12, 2007 Posted October 12, 2007 I have seen these in the past and they didn't really work very well. Much better to get a normal IWB. The only advantage is that you can still write on the board with normal pens.
russdev Posted October 12, 2007 Posted October 12, 2007 Yes but when choice of no ie board or Ibeam then ibeam is way to go. Russell
dhicks Posted October 12, 2007 Posted October 12, 2007 [DSapseid wrote, about MIMIO kits:] > I am slowly getting rid of them. The teachers have taken half of them > down themselves and just give it back to me! I saw both the Mimio and eBeam devices demonstrated at Bett the other year. They looked quite okay, although they had a slower reaction time than a fixed board (they use ultrasound for positioning, I belive). I guess how much of a problem this is depends on user preference (like preferring to use a pen or you finger to draw e.g. Promethian vs. Smart - personally I prefer having a pen because then I can lean my hand against the board as I write). The sales people did make much of the fact that their technology had improved over previous versions, so previous impressions (and experiences of) eBeam / Mimio might not be current. I'm not sure how practically "portable" they would be - not portable enough to move and set up in between lessons, I'm guessing. I've tried out a wireless gyroscopic mouse, which was excellent but took a little bit of practice to get used to. It needs small, controlled movements to use - takes a few minutes for a teacher to get used to, and maybe not the easiest thing for children to pick up and use (although, hey, children might leanr quicker than adults!). DSapseid: how, exactly, are you getting rid of your devices? Any going spare / for sale cheap? -- David Hicks
russdev Posted October 12, 2007 Posted October 12, 2007 My advice is this and we do this with most new technologies get one on loan and try it out with staff who you are thinking would use it. Russell
DSapseid Posted October 12, 2007 Posted October 12, 2007 DSapseid: how, exactly, are you getting rid of your devices? Any going spare / for sale cheap? They are going in a big metal thing called a bin!
enjay Posted October 12, 2007 Posted October 12, 2007 @DHicks - I didn't actually mean a gyro mouse - we use Bluetooth mice which we pass round the room and the students use them on their desks, although am toying the idea of a gyro mouse for some locations. I don't think that the fact that gyros are fiddly to use at first should put you off getting them, though; people will soon enough learn, just like when the first teacher got the first IWB, that probably felt weird initially, but with time comes confidence. If the teachers are passing gyros or tablets around the room enough, then sooner or later the kids will get over the initial barriers and really start benefiting from them.
enjay Posted October 12, 2007 Posted October 12, 2007 DSapseid: how, exactly, are you getting rid of your devices? Any going spare / for sale cheap? They are going in a big metal thing called a bin! Well, if you're genuinely binning them, chuck one my way instead - it would be interesting to see one getting some real use, rather than carefully staged demos at BETT, and be able to talk to users not sales people about the pros and cons of them.
dhicks Posted October 12, 2007 Posted October 12, 2007 [NickJones wrote:] > @DHicks - I didn't actually mean a gyro mouse - we use Bluetooth mice > which we pass round the room and the students use them on their > desks, although am toying the idea of a gyro mouse for some locations. All the (cheap) wireless mice I've seen / used have had rather limited range, so I assumed I'd have to get more pricy ones with a bit more oomf. You sound as though yours work well, though - which ones do you use? >> They are going in a big metal thing called a bin! Smile > Well, if you're genuinely binning them, chuck one my way instead Me too! Me too! Like NickJones said, I'd like to have at least one to set up just to see how well it worked without pesky sales types all over the place. -- David Hicks
john Posted October 12, 2007 Posted October 12, 2007 Same here if your binning them, I will take one from you as well, and you can't just bin them, you need to WEEE them.
russdev Posted October 12, 2007 Posted October 12, 2007 Yep again will have on here it will be interesting to compare our ebeam with yours. Russell
enjay Posted October 15, 2007 Posted October 15, 2007 @DHicks - I agree about the limited range on wireless mice, which is why we use Bluetooth ones :-) http://www.ebuyer.com/product/94460 So what do you say, dsapsied? Are you actually willing to give these things away?
richwhite Posted November 20, 2007 Posted November 20, 2007 We love our ebeam ... very nice alternative to the Smart/Activ Boards Setup was amazingly fast ... here is a demo on sticking one on a regular wall and getting to work with it: =====
contink Posted November 20, 2007 Posted November 20, 2007 Ive got the MIMIO kits here and they are a pile of cr@p i am slowly getting rid of them. The teachers have taken half of them down themselves and just give it back to me! You know... looking back through the thread I haven't actually seen DSapseid even say he was using eBeam... it looks like he was talking about the predecessors (Mimio) which I agree are just awful!. Looks like you lot might have assumed
Pumaedition Posted November 20, 2007 Posted November 20, 2007 we have 2 ebeams sitting in their boxes atill waiting to be unpacked and tested! We got them through Tesco Computers for Schools, as it was the most worthwhile thing going on there for the amount of vouchers we had!! I will get round to installing them at some point!!
Anti Posted November 20, 2007 Posted November 20, 2007 Three ibeam sets just arrived the other day at our school - still in the boxes, untried and untested. Thanks for that video; I wonder why it doesn't return in the results when searching for 'ebeam' or 'e-beam'? There aren't many videos of ebeam in use, are there? That doesn't bode well! What is the software like? I've never seen an interactive white board or any similar system in action for real, only in youtube videos. It seems to me that their usefulness depends entirely on the software which is available (and affordable)? For instance, I once saw a video where the children were writing a 'mind map' on the board using vocab connected to a story they were going to write. Then the teacher then wrote up: 'nouns' 'verbs' 'adjective' columns, and the children dragged the words from the mind map into the correct columns. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if you haven't bought that particular software, then you wouldn't be able to do that, right? So what can these e-beam things do out-of-the-box, without any extra software? Is there really much advantage over a laptop, projector and whiteboard combo?
enjay Posted November 21, 2007 Posted November 21, 2007 For instance, I once saw a video where the children were writing a 'mind map' on the board using vocab connected to a story they were going to write. Then the teacher then wrote up: 'nouns' 'verbs' 'adjective' columns, and the children dragged the words from the mind map into the correct columns. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if you haven't bought that particular software, then you wouldn't be able to do that, right? So what can these e-beam things do out-of-the-box, without any extra software? Is there really much advantage over a laptop, projector and whiteboard combo? The freebie software which comes with Smartboards can do that too, so there would be no additional expense.
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now