Visualisers. Try before you buy?

[TomHD]

Hello all,

 

Does anyone know of any suppliers that will let our school trial a range of visualisers? The teaching staff are interested in them but don't know how interested! so before we go spending any money...

 

Many thanks, TomHD.

[Duranis]

Can't help with people offering trials but I have just ordered a bunch of these:

IPEVO VZ-1 HD VGA / USB Dual-Mode Document Camera 5-861-2-08-00 - DSTele.com

 

1/4 of the price of most of the other visualisers I have looked at and better spec than most. All the reviews I could find on them were very positive as well. I have paired them up with a cheapish KVM so it is easy to switch between the laptop and visualiser outputs to the projector. However these also have a USB mode so you can access directly via the laptop (my teachers here don't like doing it that way which is why I got the KVM's).

[smithson83]

@Duranis You'll have to report back on how they do when you get them. I'm budgeting for replacing our visualisers next FY.

[jmak]

I bought some previous generation Avervision visualisers from eBay for 25 quid. They're better than the cheapies and not much of an investment if it ends up with no one using them. From our experience, the best thing is to get one or two and give them to interested teachers. If they like them, the message will soon get to other teachers. We had one on loan for a month at one point, but because no one had ownership or time to plan its use into lessons, it just sat on the side for a month.

[smithson83]

@Duranis How did you get on with the IPEVO VZ-1's, I'm facing having to cut huge amount out of my budget, and £120ea on these would be a great help over £500-1000ea on replacing like for like on our current flatbed GeenieVisions

[TechMonkey]

A teacher just bought one of these. Plugs in and we are showing him how to open it in VLC. About £40. No setup. There is some software that came with it but I've not touched it. May be necessary if he wants anything extra but for now he just wanted to show documents.

[nicholab]

Visualisers are old hat i first saw one 16 years ago it made sense as away to get stuff on to a screen from ohp. Don't see the need except for certain subject but the teaches could just use ipsds.

[dry]

the teaches could just use ipsds.

Our teachers use them extensively to show things like students work, notices received in registers etc. In assemblies visualisers are used to show awards that people have achieved outside of school- judo certificates etc. The kids really value and enjoy this. Not sure how an iPad would fit in there?

 

In fairness some teachers use them more than others, but I feel they're still a valuable piece of kit in any classroom.

[TechMonkey]

Not sure how an iPad would fit in there?

There are stands you can buy to convert an iPad or other tablet into a docuement reader. Then you just have to get the camera view on to a screen, which most people have sorted to be able to demo what they are showing on the iPad anyway.

 

It's nice to hear of a school that actually uses them! Most places I have seen they are left in a corner until they finally get transferred to a cupboard.

[Duranis]

@smithson83

 

They have been working great. Have half a dozen here now and will replace the rest of the old ones with these as they break. The picture quality is a lot better than the expensive Lumens ones we previous had and they work fairly well to capture moving objects as well (the lumens ones ghosted badly if anything moved). Not sure when they would ever want to use it to show a moving object but its nice that they now have that option