Contrary to salespeople’s beliefs, it’s totally fine to have a mixture of Interactive Whiteboards in a school. In reality, they all more or less do the same thing. However, more importantly, some IWBs are not suitable for particular children. Examples include children who cannot grip a pen or children in wheelchairs so certain rooms may … Read more
Somebody asked for advice on the Irish Principals’ Forum about getting a visualiser for their classrooms when they already had IWBs. They were wondering was there any point in investing in the visualiser at all. I thought it might be helpful to point out the differences between the two. A Visualiser does a different job … Read more
In January this year, I headed over to London to BETT for my first time to see what the world of educational technology offered. Little did I know that the world of educational technology is vast. Very vast. In fact, it’s so vast that there was no way to visit even a tenth of all … Read more
So your principal has bought everyone in the school interactive whiteboards. After wondering where the money came from – how many cakes were sold at the last cake sale? – you’re standing in front of something not too dissimilar to your previous whiteboard, except this one has wires coming out of it. After the school wizz kid turns it … Read more
For the last few years I have given courses on using Interactive Whiteboards in the classroom. This year I was in Kilkenny city. Normally on a course like this, very few of the participants would have had interactive whiteboards in their school. This meant that we usually spent most of the week learning about the … Read more
I’m not sure why it’s taken me so long to review this interactive whiteboard as Mimio has been around for years. In my reviews, I often mention eBeam and Mimio in the same sentence due to their very similar technology. This is much to the annoyance of Mimio as they believe they have a different … Read more
One might ask why it’s taken me until 2010 to review the eBeam. The eBeam is probably the third best known interactive solution in the education market. Back in the days when there were really only two companies fighting for the right to sell Interactive Whiteboards in Ireland, (Smart and Promethean), the eBeam came along … Read more
Portable Interactive Whiteboards like the eBeam and Mimio really captured teachers a few years ago when permanent IWBs cost around €6,000. Costing about €2,500 back then, these boards were reasonably affordable solutions. We learned that it was probably better not to move the boards from room to room and we were better off leaving them … Read more
Another month, another Interactive Whiteboard on the market and the good news is that this is another good one. The Intech Easy Board (IR) is being sold by a newish company called Neux, led by Denis Dolan, a man with several years experience selling audio-visual equipment. Denis has many contacts in China and he has … Read more
OK, I’ll come clean. I probably should have written this article months ago. I get an average of 5-10 calls every week looking for advice on buying an Interactive Whiteboard. While I don’t mind chatting to people about IWBs, I’d much rather save people the bother of having to ring me and I’m hoping this … Read more