In a predicament...

[canewman]

I should have asked my question in a private message.

[rgrondin]

I was one of the committee that chose our IWBs a couple of years ago. We had Smart and Promethean equip my high school and one elementary school with the best they could offer. At the time of the trial, I seriously injured my right hand, to the point where I could not write on the board without touching it with my other hand. (See where this is going?)

When I coached my teachers and student evaluators. I asked them not to look at the software, since that would change over the course of the trial. The High School girls, especially, were very distracted by the 'lag' of the Smart Board. They became very self-conscious, and did not like going to the board. Teachers had a gut feeling that the Promethean Board was more durable, and did not worry about being careful. Knowing that they would not break the Smart Board, they still felt more confident on the Promethean Board.

I guess what I am saying is that sales people can spin either board, or one of the other 'non-board' solutions, but my evaluators, student and teacher, in a real-life shoot-out, had a better emotional feeling about the Promethean. And, emotion trumps logic every time.

[srchlc]

In regards to elementary age students, I personally believe that the Promethean board's pen is very important. Elementary students are learning how to write and form letters and numbers correctly, including older elementary who are learning cursive handwriting. The way you grip a pen is a LEARNED SKILL! :D You do not practice writing skills with your finger and practice them the same way you will with a pen. Also, children do lean on the board, they do touch it to point, the do support themselves on their other arm. They need a durable surface to work on.

The Promethan software, resources in the library, and Planet are icing on the cake! :)

When you go into the meeting, as the person with the Promethean board, I would think you being a bit biased would be expected. I think you have to be honest about how you feel about your board. Maybe your passion will win over some?

Holli

[saha]

Hi Carrie,
Although I am a teacher now, I worked in sales in my previous careers. A healthy competition is a good thing and if done right, you should have no worries about justifying your reason for choosing Promethean over its competitors

I have done this before for Promethean in a competitive shootout presentation versus other vendors.

Here is what I would suggest.
-Get in touch with your TLC, area sales manager for Promethean and arrange for a top TLC to do the demo for your school administration.
-Consult with your teachers and your tech director and draw up a list of requirements and author a requirement matrix form.
-With collaborative help from your teachers identify some specific curriculum areas that you would like the competitors to show their presentation. ( be specific..like state standards....verbs, triangles, etc etc)
-Educate your administration on the fact that they should be looking for a solution/vendor that builds its technology based on solid teaching pedagogy and curriculum and not trying to fit the curriculum after building the technology.
-If possible schedule the demos for all vendors on the same day..back to back...

[Nigel Pearce]

Here is a (hopefully not too technical) summary of the advantages of Activboard over resistive whiteboards (such as SMARTboard).

Part 1

1) Activboard is much more accurate than a resistive board.
Activboard can detect more points per inch on the board surface than current resistive boards. In practise this means that you are far more likely to be able to select small objects first time on an Activboard. Touching objects on a resistive board can be a very ‘hit and miss’ affair.

2) The Activboard surface is much more durable than a resistive board surface.
Resistive boards comprise two layers of material separated by a very small air gap. The top layer is normally very thin and flexible such that when you touch it, the material is distorted in order to make contact with the bottom layer. As the top layer is quite delicate stuff, it can be easily cut or dented, which can render the whole IWB inoperative. With Activboard the sensing technology is buried inside the board and the surface is very tough, hardwearing and rigid. It can withstand knocks, scrapes and cuts without affecting the performance.

3) Activboard can be more responsive to your movement than a resistive board.
Activboard uses electromagnetic technology which offers an extremely dynamic response rate. This leads to the coordinate rate being very fast. The coordinate rate is the number of mouse movements per second being sent to the computer. What this means in practise is that if you draw quickly on an Activboard, you will get a very precise tracking of your movements. Fast drawn circles will look like circles, whereas on board with a slower data rate, fast drawn circles are more likely to look like a series of straight lines.

4) Activboard provides a natural ‘mouse move’ capability.
This is very important to understand, so I’m going to take some time in explaining this as best I can. Let us start by considering how you use your mouse.

When you move your mouse, the cursor moves on your computer screen. As the cursor moves you will see tooltips, menu highlights and images that change in size, colour and intensity. A great example of this is the Dock on the Apple MAC. Also, when you want to click on something you simply move the mouse until the cursor is over the object, then you press the left button. But remember, you don’t need to press any buttons on the mouse in order to simply move the cursor around.

Now this behaviour is exactly the same on an Activboard. On an Activboard, moving the pen over the surface causes the mouse cursor to follow the pen around. As you move the pen you get all the great feedback (eg tooltips, etc) that you have come to expect with the mouse and when you want to click on something you simply click the pen nib on the object. So on the Activboard the pen is behaving just like your mouse.

Now you may find this incredible to believe but a resistive board does not let you move the mouse around. On a resistive board you have to touch the surface in order to make something happen. So if you simply move your finger over the surface without touching it, nothing happens. ‘But when I touch the board and move my finger, the mouse cursor moves on the screen’. Ah yes, but (and this is the key point), as soon as you touch the surface you are effectively holding the left mouse button down. Then as you move your finger you are effectively ‘left click dragging’ and not simply ‘mouse moving’.

So on a resistive board you are very rarely going to see tooltips, rollover effects or highlights. In other words, the simple act of ‘mouse move’ is absent on a resistive board and this is a well kept secret of our resistive competitors.

Now, having said all this, you will find (in the resistive board software) a setting that will allow you to reconfigure the touch to mean ‘mouse move’, but… you will then lose the left click capability. In other words, the touch can either signify a ‘click’ or a ‘move’, but not both. It sounds confusing and it is, caused entirely by the limitation of the resistive board technology.

Part 2 follows...

[Nigel Pearce]

Advantages of Activboard over resistive whiteboards (such as SMARTboard).

Part 2 (Part 1 above)


5) Activboard provides a natural ‘right click’ capability
The pen that is provided with an Activboard has a second button on it which when pressed will cause a right click to occur. Simple and intuitive.
With resistive boards there is no easy way to generate a right click. The way that this tends to be implemented is that you have to touch the board and keep your finger motionless for a couple of seconds in order to trigger a right click. Now this implementation can cause you problems because there will be times when you actually want to hold your finger on the surface and not have a right click occur.

6) Activboard keeps you in control
With Activboard the only input that it responds to is the pen. So whoever is using the pen is using the board and therefore no one else can interrupt. So with the Activboard if you invite students up and they touch the surface they will not interfere with your pen input. You are in control.
On a resistive board, inviting students up to the surface is a recipe for disaster, especially with a younger audience.

7) Activboard does not suffer from inadvertent touches
Most people when writing or drawing tend to naturally rest their writing hand and arm on the surface. It is also normal to see people (especially children) using their other hand to steady themselves especially when writing on a vertical surface. Well guess what, this is all possible on an Activboard, again courtesy of the pen, the pen is the only input the board recognises.
On a resistive board, you have to learn to be careful not to touch the board unintentionally otherwise it disrupts your intentional touches. This ‘touch but don’t touch’ phenomenon is a counter intuitive and unnatural way of working.

8) Activboard allows for Templates and Tracing
With an Activboard I can place objects on the surface in order to draw around or through them. I can use a real plastic ruler to draw virtual straight lines. I can place the Activpen in a real compass and draw virtual circles. I can Blutack a real map of the world to the board and trace out the countries. I can place my hand on the surface and draw its outline.
Much of this is not possible on a resistive board.

9) Activboard can Detect Pen Height Above Surface
Activboard can detect how far away a pen is from the surface. With this information it is possible to detect when the pen is moving toward the surface and when it is moving away from the surface. Now so far, we (Promethean) have not yet made use of this feature, but when we do you will all benefit from it.
This is not possible on a purely resistive board.

10) Activboard can Detect Pressure
At some point in the future we may choose to provide pressure support. Activboard will then be able to detect how much pen pressure you are placing on the surface. Amongst many other things, this will allow you to alter the thickness of lines simply by pressing harder with the pen. There are also many applications that make use of pressure and these will all perform as designed on Activboard.

11) Activboard is Pen Input Compatible
Microsoft and others provide great pen input capabilities in operating systems such as Xp, Vista and the forthcoming Windows 7. But these features only work fully if you have a pen input device attached, such as a graphics tablet. Well guess what, Activboard is a very large graphics tablet. For this reason, when you use Activboard on these operating systems you gain access to the full range of pen input features of the operating system, something not normally available to you when using the mouse.
Resistive boards do not provide you with this full experience due to many of the limitations I have outlined above.

I could go on and talk about our dual input technology and explain how Activboard can track contribution from users, but this is best left for another discussion.
From what I can tell, the only thing that you can do on a resistive board that is impossible on an Activboard…

You can write on a resistive board using your finger.

[Cindy H]

Carrie, you're in a tough spot so GOOD LUCK!!!!

Nigel, thanks so much for sharing with us. I've been asked before what the differences are but since I've never seen a SMART board in action I didn't know the answer. The district that I teach in only uses Activboards[clap] but I'm on the technology committee for my son's school district and they are just getting started with IWBs. This information will be valuable to me if some of the committee members want to go with SMART.

I LOVE the Planet, there's something new to learn daily!

Cindy

[canewman]

Nigel,

Thank you so much for taking the time to so fully inform me of the benefits of the Activboard. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your posts and feel more equipped to attend the proposed demo. I also look forward to the new features you wrote about. The planet is a great resource for me, and I agree with Cindy...I do learn something everytime I visit!

[Nigel Pearce]

Carrie,

Glad to be of help. We really need to start showing the world just how good an Activboard actually is.

In my opinion Activboard is, without question the best interactive whiteboard you can buy.

However, if you still find yourself struggling to persuade the ‘powers that be’ and you find yourself in a heads-up situation between our technology and a resistive board product I urge you to ask the resistive board demonstrator to try and reproduce the behaviour in the attached Quicktime videos.

Activboard Mouse Move.mov – This movie shows the Microsoft Word application running on an Activboard. I’m simply moving the pen over the surface. Notice how the cursor follows me. Notice how the cursor changes as I move over certain objects. Notice the tooltips occurring as I move the pen over the toolbar buttons. This feedback is essential. Ask the ‘resistive demonstrator’ to show the same feedback on their board.

Activboard Accuracy.mov - This movie shows the Microsoft Paint application running on an Activboard. I'm using the small sizing handles to resize the Painting canvas. Notice how easy it is. Notice how as I move the pen close to the small sizing handles I am getting good feedback from the mouse cursor. This is helping me to know when I can press the pen on the surface to start the sizing operation. Ask the ‘resistive demonstrator’ to perform this on their board. I guarantee they won’t be able to size the canvas every time.

Activboard Ruler.mov – This movie shows the Microsoft Powerpoint application running on an Activboard. I’m using a plastic ruler on the surface of the board to draw straight lines between other objects. You will have fun and games trying to persuade the ‘resistive demonstrator’ to perform the same on their board.

Activboard Writing.mov – This movie shows me writing the word ‘Hello’ three times on the Activboard. The first ‘Hello’ is written with only the pen nib touching the surface. The second ‘Hello’, I’m resting my writing hand on the surface. The third ‘Hello’, I’m resting my other hand on the surface. Watch the ‘resistive demonstrator’ tremble with fear when asked to perform the same task on their board.


Good luck and ‘Resist the Resistive’. ;)

[rexboggs5]

Great posts, Nigel! I have never seen the differences between an Activboard and a SmartBoard spelt out so clearly. [clap]

In Australia, we have a wide range of interactive whiteboards to choose from, including some "hard boards" made in China. Would the benefits of the ActivBoard be largely true for other brands of "hard boards"?

We also have Mimeos on offer, which are devices that can be attached to any normal whiteboard, and turn it into an interactive whiteboard. They use a rather clunky pen. I am not sure what technology is used to communicate between the pen and the Mimeo, and I don't know if Mimeos have "mouse-over" facilities. The main advantage of a Mimeo is cost - they are much cheaper than a proper interactive whiteboard. What are the advantages of an ActivBoard over Mimeos?

I ask because I am on a number of educational email discussion lists, and questions about which IWB technology to buy come up frequently. I will use your comments to reply to anyone considering a SmartBoard (or any other resistive board), but it would be handy to have an equally compelling reply available that outlines the benefits of an ActivBoard over other "hard boards", and over devices such as the Mimeo.

Note that the take-up of IWBs in Australia is at least 3 years behind the UK, so there are a lot of boards still to be sold here. It would benefit everyone if most of those were ActivBoards.

Cheers

Rex

[LisaD]

Here are my thoughts on using a normal whiteboard as an interactive whiteboard. A normal whiteboard being one that is normally used as a dry erase board.

1) Best practice- While I can see an advantage of having a board that can also double as a dry erase board in case the projector isn't working or there is a substitute teacher in the room, I would fear that this "capability" would encourage those who are fearful or hesitant of using the technology would just to continue to use it as a dry erase board. Then teaching wouldn't change and that would be a lot of money to spend just to continue just to do the same thing. In fact, even if the Activboard could be used as a dry erase board, I wouldn't let on to this but to say that you SHOULDN'T write on it with anything other than the Activpenbut just in case someone ACCIDENTALLY does it, here's how to clean it.

2)Shiny surface- As a parent, I would not want my child to be in a classroom where a projector was shining on a high gloss whiteboard. My opinion is that the reflection of the projector on the board could be damaging to the students' eyes and that there is normally a HOT SPOT of white where the students would not be able to see what was in that area.

Would love to hear what others think about these points.

(Not to mention typically these boards have poorer quality software and lack of teaching resources (like Planet.)

Lisa

[srchlc]

I love the videos you've attached, Nigel! I can't control the giggle escaping me at the thought of the reseller trying to mimic those on a touch-sensitive board. :p I actually feel a bit sorry for he/she at the absurdity of the situation!

Holli

[mrsb]

Nigel,

Thanks so much for so concisely informing us of the great feature differences between the Activboard and the Smartboard. I even learned some new information that I can use when discussing the wonders of Promethean technology with those who have yet to understand what all "the hype" is about. The Planet is such a great resource/asset for teachers with Activboards.

Holli........I can't wait to hear all about what happens at your meeting. I believe it's impossible for the Smartboard presenter to effectively give feature benefits and demonstrations that will help him/her to "sell" Smartboards. Let us know how it turns out. +wave+I'm glad Nigel came through for you and provided you with lots of ammunition. :D

[Nigel Pearce]

Hi Rex,
Sorry about the delay in replying. A few days break was the order of the day. Walking with friends and family over sunny fields to local pubs, then drinking Timothy Taylors. I highly recommend it.
Mimio
The Mimio pen requires a battery which they say lasts 3 months on average. Activboard pens are battery free, so they will never ‘run out’.
Mimio works using a combination of ultrasound and infra red signals. For this reason, some lighting conditions may be problematic for Mimio (eg direct sunlight and some fluorescent lighting). Activboard is not affected by lighting conditions.
Mimio requires that the ‘line of sight’ between their pen and the receiver is maintained at all times. The receiver is either in the Mimio Xi Bar or is embedded in one side of their IWB offering. In either case, if this line of sight is blocked (eg with your hand or arm) your writing/interaction will be disrupted.
Activboard does not require line of sight for the pens. The pens will always work as long as they are near the surface of the Activboard.
Activboard pens are slim, lightweight and pen like. The mimioMouse pen is (as you say) a bulky, complex beast (due to the ultrasound transducer and IR components in the pen). They are comparatively quite expensive items to replace.
Mimio does not offer ‘mouse hover’ by default. Their hover function has to be triggered by pressing a button on the pen. In my opinion this is not very intuitive. It has had to be designed this way in order to overcome the problem of draining the pen battery too quickly. Hardly a satisfactory solution.
Activboard can resolve more points per inch than Mimio.
The coordinate rate from the Activboard is faster than Mimio, so Activboard offers better dynamics and tracking.

When it comes to the far eastern IWB manufacturers, there are quite a few appearing and they use a variety of technology types. I think it would be fair to say that they are all in the early stages of their hardware/software developments and they certainly cannot compete with the total Promethean solution.

[dkootman]

I work for Promethean and I even learned a thing or two! Thanks NIgel!

There is one other point that I am very biased to: Support and Professional development!
Before I worked for Promethean, I had a SMARTboard in my classroom and no one even showed me how to calibrate it or where to find resources. I believe that this is a huge area where Promethean stands out. Even though we have such great advantages with the hardware and software, they would be mute if we didn't give teachers and administrators continued support on how to use them. As a Promethean TLC, it is my job to ensure that our products are being used to the highest ability by teachers, students and adminstrators. As a former teacher for many years, I love working with other teachers, whether they are hesitant or advanced.[clap] Otherwise even the best IWB may simply become lonley and gather dust :confused:

So ask your salesman who will be working with the teachers and in what context. Is it the salesman himself? If so, what is his background with education?

[canewman]

I have another question--concerning the TLC. If a TLC comes to your school to help, is there a fee involved, or does this service come with the purchase of the board?

[rgrondin]

It is an incredible, free, service. And, from my experience, they absolutely love being used and abused. Correct, Kathryn, LuAnne and Joe, Penny and Lori?

[canewman]

That is very good news! I'll do my best to use and abuse [clap]