Which is the best Interactive Whiteboard?

[iainjd]

Hi Guys,

 

We are currently looking at replacing our 10 interactive whiteboards. But I wanted to know - what is the best solution out there? What are people's thoughts? Promethean or Smart? Interactive Projectors? Apple TV and iPad? LCD interactive TVs?

 

At the moment we are looking to purchase 10 x Promethean ActiveBoard 587, height adjustable and wall mounted.

 

My thoughts are that the way things are going with technology LCD touch screens and interactive projectors will overtake the more traditional whiteboards (one day) - but in terms of price and cost effectiveness this does not look like it will be today.

 

So, what are people out there using and what is your preferred solution?

 

:-)

[Oaktech]

personally, i'm a firm believer in Smart, the boards seem robust, the drivers and software are more industry standard and have always proved reliable and easy to distribute.

 

I'll add a caveat to that however, my recomendation only extends to the boards themselves, I have had nothing but grief from the integrated projectors and speaker systems.

 

I recomend hitachi ed-a221nm UST projectors and either NuVo or Edis speaker systems to accompany them.

[andyturpie]

Hitachi Starboards and Hitachi short throw projectors we are slowly replacing our aged prometheans with them.

[Danp]

This reminds me, one company told us you have to be an approved Smart installer to be allowed to install their products and they claimed they were the only ones in the country who had this accreditation, am I the only one who thinks that is BS?

[Oaktech]

This reminds me, one company told us you have to be an approved Smart installer to be allowed to install their products and they claimed they were the only ones in the country who had this accreditation, am I the only one who thinks that is BS?

 

Complete bovine excrement.

[Pete10141748]

We have all Smart Boards here (32 at last count) and I rarely have any problems with them. Robust, pretty accurate for touch, easy to keep clean, 4 coloured pens + eraser plus buttons for on-screen keyboard and right-click so you can do pretty much everything from the board itself, no need to use the laptop/PC directly for anything.

 

I share @Oaktech sentiment about the projectors & speakers though; don't get the all-in-one solutions from Smart, get your own seperate projector that you can easily replace/service as the built-in ones are rubbish (had to replace 2 both in under a year of them being put in as they overheat something terrible!).

 

This reminds me, one company told us you have to be an approved Smart installer to be allowed to install their products and they claimed they were the only ones in the country who had this accreditation, am I the only one who thinks that is BS?

 

Sounds like BS to me, in my 5 years here I've had at least 4 different companies install Smart Boards; lately I've done a few myself, they're not that hard to hang really, just a wall bracket and 2 screws at the bottom! Simples

Edited June 18, 2012 by Pete10141748

[Danp]

Thanks guys, exactly what I thought, apparently is a 'new' thing!

[Oaktech]

Thanks guys, exactly what I thought, apparently is a 'new' thing!

 

I'm installing one tomorrow... I have had training from the UK importer with my previous company, but i personally hold no certification and no-one asks for any when you buy one.

[Sylv3r]

Hate the lot of them if im honest. We've gone full circle and now have a policy of not buying them and just using a fixed ceiling mounted projector onto the white wall - much bigger projected image.

[plexer]

This reminds me, one company told us you have to be an approved Smart installer to be allowed to install their products and they claimed they were the only ones in the country who had this accreditation, am I the only one who thinks that is BS?

 

With the motorised height adjustable ones I know that you can't just order one and fit it they do have to be fitted by an accredited installer.

 

Ben

[witch]

From a reliability angle I would go with Smartboards every time. I have them in one school and I am very rarely called out to deal with non-connectivity issues. The Prometheans are better than they used to be but still seem to find it more difficult to maintain a connection.

We have projectors that we bought ourselves, ranging from NEC DLPs to Casios and they are all fairly trouble-free

[plexer]

We are mainly Promethean with a few Hitachi in one block and I have to say I've never had a major issue with connecting a board used to occasionally get the issue where you had to tell it to install the right driver but not had that for a while.

 

Ben

[Michael]

If you're talking about the quality of the boards/projectors physically, I'd recommend you visit some other schools in your area.

 

As for the software, Smart Notebook 10.8 is full of resources and very user friendly. I find children do interact better with coloured pens and being able to use their fingers to control the board.

 

Promethean have got better with ActivInspire 1.6. It's considerably better than the 1990's look/feel ActivPrimary V3, but I still think Smart Notebook has the edge.

 

I'm yet to experiment with Smart Notebook 11. I've downloaded it, just not installed or played as yet.

[synaesthesia]

I've had experience of a few, promethean, smart. RM and hitachi of varying ages and had issues and pleasantries with them all - projectors themselves often provided with all of them are usually diabolical but for the boards themselves Promethean boards are nice and reliable but the pens aren't exactly sturdy with student use (or some staff!) and the software and support leaves a little to be desired. Smart Notebook without doubt is the best software with a lot of available resources although can be a bit of a PITA to install. Problems in the past have usually been interference related but haven't heard of similar stories on modern boards. Hitachi starboards always used to be cack but have heard nothing but positive stuff about more recent efforts. Never used the supplied software though. RM classboards seem a reasonable compromise, pens are expensive and software isn't fantastic but there's a suprising amount of perfectly functional *ancient* classboards around, showing something about reliability/longevity.

If I had to make a choice (for my primaries, we don't see much point in our secondary) then it'd be the Smart on the strength of the software, resources and the fact that fingers don't break as easily as many of the pens

[john]

I favour the SmartBoards simple as they just work and are less hassle than Promethean and much better software and deploy nicely and play well.

 

Never get the integrated systems they are just asking for trouble I always spec the projector, amp, speakers etc... so I know what it is, where its from and thus much easier part swapping should an item fail. We now have about 40 SmartBoards and they are great Infact did some training for our Science dept. tonight on basic Smart stuff they were impressed how they could be useful to them

[rich_tech]

Promethean here on site, some boards are just passing 8 years and still going strong here

[Danp]

With the motorised height adjustable ones I know that you can't just order one and fit it they do have to be fitted by an accredited installer.

 

Ben

 

That's makes sense

[iainjd]

We have had our current promethean boards for over 7 years now - never had a problem with them.

 

One thing that I am thinking of is just changing the projectors to ultra short throw projectors so that the images are clearer however it does me that we are still stuck with just a pen.

 

Has anyone heard of Genee boards? We are starting a week trial tomorrow and am interested to see how they compare - especially as they come in a LOT cheaper than their promethean or Smart alternatives...

[stevenlong1985]

I'm in the process of getting new Smartboards 880i series, just been thrown a spanner in the works with CleverLCD, anyone know if there are any good?

[CadlaM]

Only a slight diversion from thread.....

We need to put a "Smart" type board on wheels for portability. We have Smart 500/600/800 boards on walls, but I cannot see that type of projector based solution being on a stand. I looked at Clever-Touch last year.

 

Anyone have any experience with other LCD based touch solutions?

Any experience with Smart software on non Smart bds?

 

On another note... the 800 dual touch seems to suffer from loose sleeves breaking light beam before finger. Kids' blasers and teachers wide sleeve cardigans! Any comments?

[twin--turbo]

The best whiteboards?

 

The ones that get used effectivly by their users rather than just as a replacement for the whiteboard. We bought into them big style adn they hardly get used for anything exciting.

 

TRAINING and materials is the key.

 

Rob

[Norphy]

A couple of years ago now we moved into a new building and we originally planned to put in Hitachi Starboards, primarily I think because of the fact they could be used with both dry wipe marker pens and as interactive whiteboards. However, when it came to training a few key members of staff on them the software was found to be somewhat lacking. The hardware was great but the software was missing a lot of key features that the staff were expecting. I couldn't tell you what exactly, I'm not a teacher and this was two years ago now!

 

Anyway, we eventually ended up with Promethean boards, I think they're ActivBoard 780s with built in speakers. They've been reliable from a hardware point of view and the teachers here seem to get on well with the software so I can't complain too much. In my last job almost five years ago now, they had SmartBoards and I think the Prometheans have the edge over SmartBoards in terms of robustness but it's possible that the Smartboard software is better. The SmartBoards do have the advantage of not needing special pens as well.

[SchTechGuy]

We had loads of probels with Prometheans due to connection problem so we went with Genee Powerboard. We are now very happy with our 10 Genee Powerboards which we had installed with the last 6 Months. The price was reasonable compared to that of Smart and Promethean, The support is great. We received training from an ex teacher who couldn’t have help us out any more and even gave us a load of curriculum whiteboard content to get us started.

[K.C.Leblanc]

We've got 50 smartboards, most are over 5 years old. Incredibly reliable.

[MrElson2]

We were mainly Promethean then we change to the Genee Powerboard, much better software, reliable and the coating on the board allows out year 1 and 2 students to write over the board using a dry marker pen without the worry of permanently marking the board