E-Beam

[Bluetooth]

Hello EduGeekers.

 

Have been asked to take a look at this ebeam thingermer, does anyone else have this installed at their schools?

 

If so with hindsight would you have gone for an IWB or are you happp ith this system?

 

I take it that it just fixes to the wall etc, the projector does its business and you use the pen or whatever like an IWB?

 

Any and all infomration about this would be superb as im having to look at this and see if it is a valid alternative to a smartboard

[wesleyw]

A few of the teachers had these and swapped later to an IWB (smartboard here) however they work ok as long as the teacher using them doesn't break them. They do need to be oriented more often than IWB though.

 

 

Wes

[ninjabeaver]

In both schools I have now worked in these E-Beams have been shelved due to the teachers not liking them at all. Its all SMART IWB now. Put the £350 towards a decent IWB Install.

[Jamman960]

We've got one that we plan to get rid of asap - probably next summer now once our new budget comes round again

[dhicks]

Have been asked to take a look at this ebeam thingermer, does anyone else have this installed at their schools?

 

I've investigated them a couple of times. They seem to work very well, with maybe a little bit of lag compared to an IWB. They might be billed as "portable", but ignore that - you'll want them in fixed position, moving them from lesson to lesson won't work. Also, I think the "wireless" version uses the same chunk of bandwidth as 802.11 connections, so best skip that and just go for the USB version. The "teachers don't like them" problem might simply be the teachers expecting "a whiteboard" and being confused when they get something different to what they expected.

 

You might also want to investigate wireless keyboards and (gyroscopic) mice. A nice top-of-the-range bluetooth-capable set costs £100 ish, way cheaper than any IWB solution, and is in many ways more flexible - you can wander around the classroom typing and using the mouse.

 

Ooh - something else I remember seeing. Mimio / E-Beam devices can be mounted in whatever orientation you like - on a wall, parallel to a table top, whatever. This means you can use them to "write" on a screen projected on to a table top. Way cool.

 

--

David Hicks

[russdev]

Yes got two and just ordered two more via CP working very well as David says don't move them. But staff really loved them and when it comes to it got two choices EBeam or no board at all.

 

Best bet get one found someone who can take it on get them using it and geth them to tell other staff about it, what they like and how they use it.

 

 

 

Russ

[Bluetooth]

Hrmm, ok hows about this:

 

If you had to choose between an IWB or an Ebeam, what would you choose?

Edited September 23, 2008 by Bluetooth
Spelling sux

[Jay_Jay]

I had a recent demo from Ebeam and was very impressed by it, had a couple of demo units for a few weeks and trialled it with teachers, they loved it, we are buying quite a few next month and only getting ceiling mounted projectors now.

Teachers did not notice any lag and found the pen much better to use then the Promethean ones.

They will be fixed on the whiteboards, and we will keep one in the office for senior/gov meetings which would only take 5 minutes if that to set it up.

[Bluetooth]

well the reason im researching this is that we're having a new temporary classroom and want to look into alternatives to smartboards.

 

We have enough cash for the SMB so my main question is, if you HAD the money for a smartboard, would you buy the smartboard or save the cash and buy an Ebeam instead?

[Jay_Jay]

For me I would save the money and buy a Ebeam instead, we have mostly Promethean boards at our school but a lot of our teachers do not use the full capabilities of active studio, they would rather show there power points and write a few notes. The Ebeam software allows you to write notes on your power point slides and save it in a ppt format.

[Bluetooth]

never used a promethean board.

 

Tbh im leaning more towards a smb, after reading reviews etc and knowing what smartboards are like i dont think the ebeam can compare.

 

ah well, thanks all