Busybub Posted June 4, 2007 Posted June 4, 2007 Just been asked by one of our teachers about getting a wireless pad for the Smartboard in her room. I have no doubt that once she gets one, everybody else will start to ask! Just wondering if anybody has experienced any interference problems with using multiple Airliners in neighbouring rooms? Cheers!
crc-ict Posted June 4, 2007 Posted June 4, 2007 Just wondering if anybody has experienced any interference problems with using multiple Airliners in neighbouring rooms? 8O Wow - your classrooms are big enough to fit Airliners into!? I would think that using them in classrooms is likely to lead to widespread disruption across the school. :wav: Sorry, couldn't resist
Ric_ Posted June 4, 2007 Posted June 4, 2007 I have a number f the GTCO Calcomp SchoolPads - we tend to favour these over IWBs because they are cheaper and can be shared amongst rooms. If the AirLiners are anything like the SchoolPad, they will work via bluetooth, pairing with a PC. Multiple pads can be used together for collaboration with a master pad for the teacher. Please add your location to your sig... someone may be able to give you a demo of a similar product
enjay Posted June 5, 2007 Posted June 5, 2007 We're looking at Airliners at the moment too, and have one on loan for a bit - our salesman told us that you can have more than one on a single PC, so I very much doubt that ones on different PCs in different classrooms would be any problem at all. There's some pairing done between the Airliner and the PC (although unlike with Bluetooth keyboards, no "passkey" to enter) so I doubt the other PCs would even know they're there unless you happened to search for all B/T devices in range, then you would need to make sure you selected the correct one. I'd be interested to know what you think of them, actually...
chrisa Posted June 5, 2007 Posted June 5, 2007 You will be fine. The Smart airliner works over class 2 bluetooth so the range is around 10 meters I personally love the Airliner, and they are only £240 Bargain! Chris A Network Manager Primary ICT Solutions
enjay Posted June 5, 2007 Posted June 5, 2007 I personally love the Airliner, and they are only £240 Bargain! But "normal" Wacom tablets are only about £150 - are the re-badged SMART ones worth the extra money?
chrisa Posted June 5, 2007 Posted June 5, 2007 But "normal" Wacom tablets are only about £150 - are the re-badged SMART ones worth the extra money? Yes, The smart tablets have quick links to all the pens and tools built on the tablet. If you use the Wacom tablet you have to navigate the tool bar in the notebook software.
enjay Posted June 5, 2007 Posted June 5, 2007 Yes, The smart tablets have quick links to all the pens and tools built on the tablet. If you use the Wacom tablet you have to navigate the tool bar in the notebook software. And that's worth nearly £100 to you/your teachers? I'm not meaning to dispute this, I just want to be sure that if/when we buy some of these, we spend effectively, i.e. 2x Airliner or 3x Wacom.
chrisa Posted June 5, 2007 Posted June 5, 2007 If the teachers use the Smartboard software correctly then i would say they are definatly worth the extra money. I have tried other wireless tablets to try and save schools some money but the Smart Airliner wins hands down everytime. If you would like to loan one for a week to have a play with I can send you one.
enjay Posted June 5, 2007 Posted June 5, 2007 Thanks, but we've got one on loan from our supplier already. When I was using it, I didn't find much benefit from the SMART-specific buttons, but one of our English teachers loves them, as she can quickly swap colours when annotating text. It's that "classroom view" of them which I'm trying to get. On similar lines, how do you find the students get on with them?
chrisa Posted June 5, 2007 Posted June 5, 2007 We find that it engages the kids who don't like standing in front of the class to work on the board. It takes the kids no time to get the hang of using them, its the teachers that need showing what to do. The only thing I would say is that the mouse that comes with the package is rubbish, But we don't really use it anyway
enjay Posted June 5, 2007 Posted June 5, 2007 No, I couldn't see a single reason to use the mouse with it, especially since our IWBs have B/T keyboards and mice on them anyway, so I didn't even give it to the teachers who are trialling them! If the teacher were competent enough, do you think that these tablets could negate the need for an interactive board, i.e. just get a projector and a tablet?
chrisa Posted June 5, 2007 Posted June 5, 2007 If the teacher were competent enough, do you think that these tablets could negate the need for an interactive board, i.e. just get a projector and a tablet? We support a big secondary school and all they have is a projector and a Smart Airliner in every classroom which seems to work well
MkII Posted June 5, 2007 Posted June 5, 2007 I have a number f the GTCO Calcomp SchoolPads - we tend to favour these over IWBs because they are cheaper and can be shared amongst rooms. Those GTCO Calcomp SchoolPads sound interesting Ric. How much and where from??
Ric_ Posted June 5, 2007 Posted June 5, 2007 The SchoolPads can be purchased from Mandy Brereton at Oliis Solutions and they are under £300 (although I cannot remember how much under). This includes a bluetooth adapter (re-badged TDK dongle) and a license for their Interwrite software - which I happen to quite like. Check out http://www.gtcocalcomp.net/interwriteschoolsuite.htm for more details.
outeast Posted June 5, 2007 Posted June 5, 2007 The Airliner is great is a classroom that also utilizes the SMART Board... We have some classrooms that have chosen just an Airliner and a projector, and it is ok - but not as effective as you still end up with a 'personal device' being used as opposed to a collaborative device.... The combination of the SMART Board & Airliner(s) in a classroom really gives a teacher and students the most flexibility and modes of interactivity... The schoolpad (interwrite) is ok - all of them are basically the same - they are just bluetooth mice (with a stylus for navigation). It is really about the software - and out of all of them, I still think SMART Notebook is the best. The others are comng along, but aren't up to par yet... by the time they get up to par, SMART will be on v10 of their software - and it should be just like the impact that Mac OSX had in way of change from the older MAC OS versions... I cant wait to see it!
Busybub Posted June 6, 2007 Author Posted June 6, 2007 Thanks chaps, Sounds like it should be OK, though the mechanism for pairing up the devices seems somewhat vague to somebody who has never used one! Good idea about using an Airliner with projector, never considered that before. Could be a means to justify sneaking in a few projectors with a view to full Smartboards next year *droooool*
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