Posts tagged interactive White Board

The BETT Logo

Best of the BETT – Part 2

1
2 weeks ago
by Seth in ,

BETT (The British Educational Training and Technology show) is one of Europe’s biggest EdTech shows.  It’s been going for close to 30 years, attracts almost 30,000 visitors each year with a round about 700 different companies exhibiting there. In the madness that was BETT 2012. It was very easy to feel overwhelmed. As an antidote to my mystification, I set myself a task – find the top 5 most interesting, relevant, or influential stands at the show and interview someone important there for my dear blog readers. So, over the next 5 days, I’m going to post one video interview per day with a key BETT player, starting today with Chris Klein, the Educational Consultant and Macintosh Specialist for SMART Technologies, one of the leading IWB (Interactive White Board) manufacturers.

 

The BETT LogoSMART had a huge, and I mean huge presence at BETT. At a guess I’d say they had 50-60 odd people working at their stall at any one time. You know what, they were all busy, all of the time, too! SMART were showcasing their soon to be released Notebook software version 11, which had some amazing features. My favourite feature I think was the web mash-ups, which allowed you to bring streaming video, Google maps, online flas animation and seemingly any other internet based content directly into your IWB pages. It really was very impressive and a big leap up from the Notebook 10 software. Kudos to them!

Well, Chris very kindly agreed to do a short interview on film. I thought I’d make it a bit of a level playing field and asked him and all the other stall holders the same questions:

  • Why do you / your company come to BETT?
  • What have you been talking about most  to the teachers and other people here?
  • How are you making teachers’ lives easier?

So to kick off our short series of video interviews, which took place in a very noisy conference hall, so there’s a fair bit of background noise, it’s over to you, Chris:

 

Thanks once again Chris for talking to everyone who couldn’t make it! And in tomorrow’s post we’ll have Simon Lee, from the incredible LiveScribe company, manufacturers of SmartPens (one of my favourite gadgets it has to be said!)

Update: This post has been entered as part of the “Ed Tech Carnival” being run by Danny Nicholson over on The Whiteboard Blog. The carnival should be published in early February 2012, so take a look over there for more useful Ed Tech articles.

The BETT Educational Technology Show

Best of the BETT – Part 1

0
2 weeks ago
by Seth in

The BETT 2012 Educational Technology Show just came to a close last weekend. It was four days packed full of back-to-back training opportunities, dazzling technology demonstrations, a thousand and one machine-gun sales pitches and teachers, thousands upon thousands of them. I’ve wanted to go there for years; ever since the late, great, David Eastment told me about it. Well, this year I was lucky enough to go there myself. What’s more, I brought a little bit of BETT 2012 back for you guys, too!

 

The BETT Educational Technology Show

The picture above doesn’t do the show justice at all. There are two halls this size and two levels to each hall. It’s just enormous! The Show is absolutely mind-blowing, as you might imagine with so many exhibitors there. I quite literally spent the first 6 hours I was there in a daze wandering around from one amazing stand’s software, to another incredible stand’s hardware. To be honest I should have planned my first day much better, but I now know for next time and will do a better job! As might have guessed then, I really enjoyed BETT and I’ll definitely be going back there again next year.

For all those of you who weren’t able to make it this year however, I had a brainwave on the final day. I had spoken to almost everyone I wanted to about matters for Digitalang, so to bring BETT to you, I did a series of short interviews with five of the exhibitors who I found most interesting. And I actually was very lucky to get some really interesting people to speak on camera. Over the next few days, I’ll be posting and interview per day, starting off tomorrow, with Chris Klein, the Education Consultant and Macintosh Specialist for SMART Technologies, probably the world’s largest Interactive White Board (IWB) Manufacturer.

 

Interactive White Boards – An Intro

0
2 years ago
by Seth in

This year I have organised a series of ICT and Web 2.0 training semninars for the Office of Foreign Languages and Bi-lingualism in Alto Adige (Italy.) They run 2 language libraries, the MediaTeca in Merano and the Multilanguage Centre in Bolzano.  This is a short introduction to IWBs, or Interactive White Boards that I will be presenting today.

The presentation is in 4 parts; A quick look at research intro IWB use in language teaching; some Do’s and Don’ts when using IWBs, written by myself, a great film from www.teachers.tv plus, best of all, some practical ideas from my friends and colleagues on Twitter. The presentation also looks at websites suitable for IWB use, as well as pointing out some of the types of IWB software available for language teaching.

Hope that it can be useful to you too!

What Shall We Do With An IWB?

View more presentations from Seth Dickens.

Video Comparison: €3000 IWB v €50 IWB

0
2 years ago
by Seth in

I stumbled across this handy, home-made video comparison of the €3000+ Smart Interactive White Board and the €50 or so Wiimote Whiteboard the other day. As it’s done from the perspective of teachers I think it’s findings, both positive and negative, about the Wiimote board are really interesting.

Best,

Seth

€50 Interactive White Board – Back In Action?

0
2 years ago
by Seth in , ,

Last summer I wrote a post about a n IWB that costs just €50 that the technology guru / geek Johnny Lee had invented using an infra-red pen and a Wii remote. I was really excited about it thinking that maybe this could help many more schools get IWB technology into the class.

I made myself the €50 IWB, I tried it out a few times last summer and I must admit the results were not all that encouraging. I didn’t think much more of it until recently when I “met” a guy called Chris Hill (thanks to my friend Enza via Twitter). Chris is a big evangelist of the Wii remote IWB. This started getting me interested again in the project. I’ve been looking again at my Wii console think “Should I drag you back to the classroom? The answer now, I think is, yes, I will.

My desire to try out the Wiimote IWB again is because Chris has written a handy and comprehensive FAQ on the Wii IWB drawing on his experiences and sharing solutions to the niggly little problems teachers might find when trying to set up their own Wii IWB. Here’s a quick snippet of his post:

How much does it cost? / Is it really only $50?
The controller for the Nintendo Wii is for sale throughout the United States for $40. [It costs about €50 in Europe - Seth] You can build an infrared pen for $5-6.  The software is free to download.  The cost of the computer, projector, and Bluetooth adapter (if your computer does not have built-in Bluetooth) are not included in the $50.

I can’t make my own infrared pen.  Can I buy one?
Absolutely.  Do a Google search and you will find several options starting as low as $6.

Do I have to modify the Wiimote? / Can I still use it with my Wii?
No / Yes.  The Wiimote connects to the computer via Bluetooth, the same way it connects to the Wii.  You don’t have to open the Wiimote, break it, or reprogram it.  So, if you (or your kids) have a Wii, you can use the equipment you already have for both purposes.

How do I get started?
Download the free software (Mac version or PC version), build an infrared pen (see my demo) or buy one online, connect to the Wiimote via Bluetooth (open your Bluetooth devices, push the 1 and 2 buttons on the Wiimote, add the device) , run the software, calibrate it (push the “calibrate button,” click on the targets), and you are done.

And Chris has loads of other great advice in his post as well as elsewhere in his blog. Definitely worth checking out if you’re interested in trying out the Wiimote white board!

All the best,

Seth

Wiimote Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/yerahg/551627536/

Milan IATEFL / British Council Conference ’09 (Part 1)

5
2 years ago
by Seth in , ,

This year’s British Council / IATEFL Conference in Milan was on the theme of CLIL and Learning Technologies. I was really pleased and privileged to give a workshop there, especially seeing as so many of my fellow presenters gave great presentations full of great ideas and useful hints and tips.

 

By far the biggest highlight of the conference for me was the opportunity to work with such an enthusiastic and participatory group of teachers in my workshop. It was a real privilege  to be able to help such an experienced and  knowledgeable group of teachers integrate technology into their CLIL teaching. We had great fun during the session, and there was a lot of great positive feedback about the work me and my colleagues at Martino Martini have been doing. There was some great debate too about the practical time constraints of integrating technology into CLIL. I think, all told, we agreed the results are worth the effort.

As I promised the teachers at the conference (cross my heart!) here is the PowerPoint presentation with details of all the ideas and tools we looked at during the workshop. If you are one of those great teachers who came along, I hope this helps you! If you would like try something out with your students and want to talk about it, or if you just fancy a bit of help or advice on something we looked at during the workshop, I’d love to hear from you! Leave me a comment (by clicking on that little box with a number on up there at the top left of this blog post – that will take you to the comments section.)

View more presentations from Seth Dickens.

Finally, be sure to check back again in a day or two and I’ll get the History, Science and Geography resources we looked at posted here as well as our fabulous videos!

All the best,

Seth.

UPDATE: For some crazy reason I think anyone who uses Internet Explorer will not have been able to read this post until now. :-o  If that includes you, I’m really sorry! I hope you’ll now be able to read this okay. As always, I look forward to reading any comments and would love to continue discussing the work we looked at in my IATEFL workshop with you all.

Seth.

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