Smartboard for a nursery

[sidewinder]

Our nursery would like to introduce some sort of interactive whiteboard/screen for the children to use. Now we've got boards installed in our junior school but most of the time the children can't use them (apart from in some cases where we have mounted them very low). The nursery would like the children to interact but also the display to be high enough for teachers to use.

 

This for me rules out a fixed board and projector (the ceilings are very high so ceiling mounted wouldnt be great, and wall mounted might result in some bruised heads for the adults) so I was thinking either a height adjustable board and projector, or a height adjustable LCD/Plasma with interactive overlay - the entire school is SMART so while I have nothing against Promethean, for training purposes I would much prefer a SMART solution.

 

So does anyone have any ideas for this, and does anyone know how much roughly I should be looking at for a) height adjustable board and projector (portable) or b) SMART display overlay and height adjustable stand (I realise I would have to factor in cost of the LCD in this) before I go and get quotes?

[AngryTechnician]

We fitted a SMART 6052i interactive display in our Nursery, so no projector worries, but they are not cheap. Ours is fixed at a low height for the children to use - the teachers have to crouch or sit if they want to use it. I don't know of any height-adjustable mount that will take the weight of it at 60kg.

 

Edit: http://www.wedgwood-group.com/flatscreen_trolleys.htm do some but they are serious money.

Edited February 29, 2012 by AngryTechnician

[ricki]

HI

 

When I worked in the primary school every classroom had them mounted at different heights from about 1 foot off the floor to about waste height depending on who was using them.

 

I would go for a projector and smartboard due to cost and would make sure you can remove the filter without removing the projector. Please note if the staff are to use these all the time and they are 6 inch from the floor they will have a bad back by the end of the day and if they are too heigh the kids cannot reach.

 

Lastly if you do go for a interactive tv worth thousands would you trust your kids to play with it.

 

Richard

[sidewinder]

Thanks for the advice. Yeah I looked at the display overlays and was over the price....so I think that's a no-no

Also we've possibly got a spare 640 board so it would seem silly not to use that, it's just what height to mount it at, like you say if it gives the staff a bad back its no point but then the kids are 3-4 so it cant be too high

[ToyHeartsFan]

One school I used to work at had smart boards and they had this problem as well. I work at a Promethean school now and the newer boards are adjustable but I don’t know if smart have developed anything similar.

 

It wasn’t ideal but the school I used to work at had a wide (width of the board) double step in front of them with built in storage so the kids could stand on the steps to reach and the teacher didn’t have to bend double.

 

The smart table looks nice but the price isn’t budget friendly…

 

You can also get fairly cheap touch screens £150-200 perhaps you could use one with a spare PC for the kids or replace the teachers screen with one and mount it next to the smart board. I’ve no idea how good the touch screens are or if you could connect one to a PC that is already running a smart board but it’s another option to think about.

[timp]

Lots of nurseries are installing touch screen LCDs nowadays, removes all issues of projectors at crazy angles or risk of banging heads! I know the CleverLCD includes Smart compatible software maybe look at that? They are pretty price aggressive too. There is a separate discussion about them in this forum.

[ricki]

Hi

 

It might also be worth looking at http://downloads01.smarttech.com/media/sitecore/en/support/accessory/hawm/hawm-ux/specifications/spechawm-ux-ufv25nov10.pdf with short throw projectors

[glennda]

Do smart not do the adjustable mounts? In theory you could use a Prometheus adjustable board and buy a license for the smart software. The end user wouldn't see much difference and would fitful requirements.

[JOrdan01070]

Hi we have smartboards in nursery and reception class rooms but they are mounted on height adjustable units. they work very well but they are not cheap approx £500 and the warranty on the units is terrible. The devices are approx 50KG each and it is a return to base warranty, they will send an engineer out to see if it is faulty but you have to pay £250 for this.

 

We have 5 of the units and i have had to get 2 replaced in the first 6 months. Even after all the aggro of getting replacement units i would still have them for the classrooms.

 

If you need any more info let me know.

[jcollings]

We got 2 of these for a local special school. Inclusive Tilt and Touch Plasma | Inclusive Technology

 

They are not cheap but they are brilliant and can be used in a variety of ways.

[nathan3388]

In the our nursery we have a smartboard at a low height and when the teacher writes on it they sit on a chair at the side and write on the board. with the projector and your ceiling are too high maybe look into getting extendable poles and attach the projector mount to that then that is problem solved. The projector will have even pan and tilt to be able to project from a good height does not have to be square on.

[sidewinder]

Thanks for all the ideas. I will present them all and some rough costs to SMT. It would be nice to have something adjustable ideally but I'm not sure what sort of budget they are looking at