Smartboard Supplier

[john]

I think I have about 3 left, with a couple in rather poor state, no button in them any more but still click which is good. The two that wihtout Right Click on them have my name on them, and when I leave I will be taking them with me so I have them for if I have to deal with them in the future.

[drjturner]

Apparently the new pens are better and have a soft-touch nib that doesn't click.

Yup they do, and staff are not keen on them as they feel very different to use, I hate them, fine I am not a big promethean fan (anybody in NY want a Smart techie ) but the old pens, pre teletubby pens IE the black ones with a white end were the best pen ever, they have gone stupid with the fat pens, they just are pointless in Sec Ed as a lot of staff find them to fat and have less control, a lot of staff are getting the thin normal whiteboard pens by berol, the hand writing type over the chunky style as they far prefer them over the other types, but if I had to have chunky IWB pens, the old gen ones were better with the click helped you know if you had clicked or not, this one just is useless to know if you have or not.

 

Can I ask you why you think the Promethean pens are too fat when you favour smartboards and the pens are even fatter.

 

Can I just say another thing. When we had the black pen and only the black pen in production, teachers would complain about the quality grey right click buttons falling off, pen nibs falling out. etc etc. And teachers asked for fatter pens for students to use.

I think it is just getting used to the new mk3 pens that is obviously going to take some time, just like using a different mouse really.

I think the mk3 pen feels more natural and like the smartboard you don't have a click. Newer users should not have a problem.

 

Pens Cracking. This was fixed in the mk3 pens only under very high stress the pen will break.

 

If you have any faulty pens or psu's send them back if within the 1 year warranty and we will replace them.

 

Another thing to try if a pen is not working is to reset the activboard this always helps as after all they are left on for the majority of the year without being reset.

[russdev]

Personally I prefer smart... though I found out 25% of the company is now owned by Microsoft. That's why they are tightening up on there software licence which makes it illigal to use it unless your school owns a smart board and you are using it to create resources for that board see

http://www.smarttech.com/support/software/takeHome.asp.

which stop you usinging on a different IWB.

The new version of the software is a lot better (eg Gallery search) you can get that at

http://www.smarttech.com/support/software/index.asp

 

 

I thought you where allowed to install smartboard software on any machine as long as didnt have an interactive board of some kind connected to it unless it was a smartboard...

 

russ

[webman]

@Dan Turner: Would it not be possible to provide people with a choice of which pens to purchase rather than having one model as the "current"?

 

Re: the black pens: Yes, 2 of ours have had the grey right-click button tops come off, but they were a good pen and a lot of people did like them and get used to them.

[john]

Can I ask you why you think the Promethean pens are too fat when you favour smartboards and the pens are even fatter.

 

The smart pens feel nothing like the promethean pens to use, they feel different, they are no longer just a round barrel with the new boards and pens, they are more comfortable to use and in general just feel a more quality product. The promethean pens are just the wrong size, as you said the Smart ones are larger, but yours are smaller, so its a size thing, I personally prefer a small pen like the V1 black pens you did or a very chunky pen that is not shaped like yours are, the proportions feel wrong on it to me, its all bottom heavy where as a normal pen is evenly distributed in terms of weight. When I am teaching on a Smart (note teaching means training staff) I use either my finger on the Smart boards or the Smart Pen. In my role as a consultant, young primary children find the Promethean pens the wrong shape and too small to use, so they need to be bigger, fatter and chunkyer, basically a Smart Clone will be fine for them, as they get older in Primary, the Smarts are still fine, but they start to manage with a MK2 type pen, but when you hit Secondary, MK1s were the better product, but they can manage with a thicker pen, and the new MK3 pens are not fun to use, Any subject where accuracy is critical (geography, maths, design, graphics etc) seem to have great dificulties with the MK3s as you cannot definatly tell when its clicked or not, so it makes drawing more difficult, and double clicks are not easy any more, and when you adjust the mouse options on the system so it works, then its hopeless with a standard mouse for when you are using your Laptop or PC without the board. So my view is MK3 was not a good move, and I would rather have MK2 pens as you don't have MK1s.

 

Can I just say another thing. When we had the black pen and only the black pen in production, teachers would complain about the quality grey right click buttons falling off, pen nibs falling out. etc etc. And teachers asked for fatter pens for students to use.

I can agree with the click button, but that was only on one type, I had two version of the black pen, one lot with rubber buttons and one lot with plastic, one lot the buttons never went missing, but the others did. I think the rubber ones went missing easier and got easily damaged, but plastic, as in a current pen, was fine. I never had missing nibs, infact they seemed indestructable back then, where as now they are so soft, in some areas I am going through 1 nib a week!

 

As for the size, Berol and other standard pen makers are doing, why not do a thick and a thin pen then you will keep us all happy, those who want a slimline pen can have them and those who like a fat chunky pen can have them as well?

 

I think it is just getting used to the new mk3 pens that is obviously going to take some time, just like using a different mouse really.

I agree, its going to take time, but its time that we have not got, I get staff wanting older pens again as they clicked and they could feel what was going on, its like giving us mice that don't click or feel like they click when you press them, Its annoying, I know I have a mouse that hardly feels like its clicked down!

Recently, I have been swapping pens to try and help Staff out as they just don't seem to be able to get used to them, and they have not got an hour or two spare to play with them.

 

I think the mk3 pen feels more natural and like the smartboard you don't have a click. Newer users shoul not have a problem.

Seems that way, my new users are finding it easier with them, but then when they get an old one, they start complaining its not "clicking" as there own does because they are not pressing it till it clicks, so we need to standardise click or no click, thats the question! I say give me my click back, its like my old friend gone missing