Beyond the boardroom: once the province of corporate America, electronic whiteboards are popping up on campuses nationwide--to the delight of faculty and vendors alike. (Presentation Systems).Picture this: a chemistry class where the professor fills an entire blackboard (1) See Blackboard Learning System. (2) The traditional classroom presentation board that is written on with chalk and erased with a felt pad. Although originally black, "white" boards and colored chalks are also used. with a complex equation while students frantically scribble scribble - To modify a data structure in a random and unintentionally destructive way. "Bletch! Somebody's disk-compactor program went berserk and scribbled on the i-node table." "It was working fine until one of the allocation routines scribbled on low core. in their notebooks before the instructor must erase the calculation. Now think about an equation that lives forever--in a digital file--thanks to the "save" application built into an electronic whiteboard The electronic equivalent of chalk and blackboard, but between remote users. Whiteboard systems allow network participants to simultaneously view one or more users drawing on an on-screen blackboard or running an application. . Visualize a professor printing out the written work or saving it to a server, and Later posting the equation on a class Web site. Such scenarios are now cropping up at colleges and universities nationwide. And while the whiteboards--once thought of as a tool for only corporate America--are not as prevalent on campus as projection technology (every college and university has at Least a few projectors, say consultants), they are finding their place in higher education higher education Study beyond the level of secondary education. Institutions of higher education include not only colleges and universities but also professional schools in such fields as law, theology, medicine, business, music, and art. . The question right now is: to what degree? The use of the technology is so new to higher education that no definitive statistics are currently available. What observers do note, however, is that the electronic boards are being used on campuses in a variety of ways. WHO'S DOING WHAT Emory College Emory College may refer to:
pl.n. The subjects, including reading, spelling, and composition, aimed at developing reading and writing skills, usually taught in elementary and secondary school. department. Eventually, says Director of Academic Computing computing - computer Carole Meyers, about half of the college's classrooms will be outfitted with advanced presentation and whiteboard technology. It's the versatility that is driving instructor driving instructor n → instructor(a) m/f de autoescuela driving instructor driving n → moniteur m d'auto-école interest, she says. In addition to saving work in digital files and distributing it Later, instructors are hooking up laptops to electronic whiteboards and connecting to the Internet--turning the electronic whiteboard into a giant computer screen. Thanks to embedded Inserted into. See embedded system. interactive technologies, professors can project images and text pages, make notes and annotations, and save the revised work as separate files to be reviewed later. In the Engineering department at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, instructors started the year using four electronic whiteboards (vendor: Smart Technologies, www.smarttech.com), but the school has quickly bumped up that number to 18. It's the ease of use that appeals to the instructors in this department, explains Wes Hines, associate professor of Nuclear Engineering and the extended education coordinator for the College of Engineering. "I no longer have to carry a laptop Same as laptop computer. laptop - portable computer and a portable projector into the room with me," he explains. But Hines also uses electronic whiteboards for distance education applications, as some of his classes are broadcast simultaneously to students in other locations, he points out. Through the use of Centra (www.centra.com), a special distance education software, the distance ed students can view on a desktop the presentations and images projected onto an electronic whiteboard in the main lecture hall lecture hall n → sala de conferencias; (UNIV) → aula lecture hall lecture n → amphithéâtre m , and can also follow the instructors' notations. For distance ed classes that are taught in an asynchronous Refers to events that are not synchronized, or coordinated, in time. The following are considered asynchronous operations. The interval between transmitting A and B is not the same as between B and C. The ability to initiate a transmission at either end. fashion, the written work on the whiteboard is saved along with the professors' comments; the information then becomes part of a retrievable digital file. At Clayton College and State University (GA), faculty have discovered another use altogether for the boards. Electronic whiteboard technology provided by Virtual Ink's Mimio (www.mimio.com) is the centerpiece in peer tutoring A peer tutor is anyone who is of a similar status as the person being tutored. In an undergraduate institution this would usually be other undergraduates, as distinct from the graduate students who may be teaching the writing classes. . Technology that can record work and allow students to play it back later via online connection is ideal for such tutoring, notes Leslie Meadows, a coordinator in the school's Center for Academic Assistance. Because of diverse schedules, the students who need instruction often can't make it to the same tutoring sessions. So, math and other academic work that is captured with electronic whiteboard technology is saved in digital format and accessed Later, In Clayton's case, all work is stored on the school's Web site and accessed through Real Player, a free online player available for download to PC and Mac users. WHAT'S SAUCE FOR THE GOOSE ... Until several years ago, electronic whiteboards were a rare tool for higher ed instructors, but the tough economy has changed that. The malaise malaise /mal·aise/ (mal-az´) a vague feeling of discomfort. mal·aise n. A vague feeling of bodily discomfort, as at the beginning of an illness. in corporate America has forced electronic whiteboard companies to seek sales in markets they hadn't focused on before. "Companies are turning to education and government," explains Bill Cogshell, president of Pacific Media Associates, a multimedia consulting organization. "They are competing more heavily there." And as competition in the education market has heated up during the past 18 months, prices have come down. List prices are often quite a bit higher than the prices offered to education clients, say industry observers. Although electronic whiteboards marketed to the education sector can hit $8,000 or more apiece a·piece adv. To or for each one; each: There is enough bread for everyone to have two slices apiece. [Middle English a pece : a, a; see a , the boards can also be had for as Little as $1,000 per. Price, obviously, has much La do with the size of the boards and the number of technologies embedded in them. (Some can print work on demand; others can also save work to PC-and Mac-based operating systems Operating systems can be categorized by technology, ownership, licensing, working state, usage, and by many other characteristics. In practice, many of these groupings may overlap. .) At one time, Smart Technologies was the only vendor viewed as marketing to the higher education space, but that company is now seeing increased competition from PoLyvision (www.polyvision.com), Promethean (WWW, activboard.com), and others. Then too, vendors are hawking products related to conventional electronic whiteboard technology. Companies such as Virtual Ink (which offers Mimio) and Tegrity (www.tegrity.com) offer products that project presentations onto dry-erase whiteboards, turning them into interactive whiteboards An interactive whiteboard is a large interactive display that connects to a computer and projector. A projector projects the computer’s desktop onto the board’s surface, where users control the computer using a pen, finger or other device. . BEST PRACTICES IN ELECTRONIC WHITEBOARD USE As in all operations decisions, people and process are equally as important as technology, so take a few tips from the pros: Be ready to forge new "ownership" relationships. Electronic whiteboards (as well as related projection technology) may fall under new jurisdiction on your campus. For some schools, these technologies are the purview The part of a statute or a law that delineates its purpose and scope. Purview refers to the enacting part of a statute. It generally begins with the words be it enacted and continues as far as the repealing clause. of the IT department. For others, they are part of an audio-visual area, which is usually housed in the facilities department. Make sure your college or university has a clear plan for dealing with these technologies. "I partner with the IT division," explains Emory's Meyers, who heads academic computing there. Theirs is a collaborative relationship. "Together, we decided on the best locations for electronic whiteboards." Build in time to teach the teachers. Almost all vendors offer training La use their boards or related products. Make sure several key instructors and IT people take advantage of this and that they keep their skills fresh. In turn, build in time for them to teach the technology to their colleagues. "We're struggling with faculty incentives and rewards for this training," observes Hines, and certainly, schools cannot expect instructors to take on additional work for no tangible reward. Training pros advise that you either release the more technologically minded instructors in the department from some day-to-day teaching duties to let them teach others about using technology, or offer incentive pay. Build in time to create digital teaching materials. The same time-or-money approach applies La instructors who are converting conventional materials to digital format. Electronic whiteboards are hailed for their ability to run PowerPoint presentations, which instructors can then mark and annotate annotate - annotation . Still, it takes time to build that convenience into the teaching schedule, notes Hines. Turning old handouts into PowerPoint presentations can take countless hours. Remember: Teachers need time to complete these tasks. Your job is to see that they get it. RELATED ARTICLE: Who offers electronic whiteboards? Below, a sampling of vendors; new ones come on 'board" daily, it seems. Brother International www.brother.com Califone www.califone.com Egan Teamboard www.teamboard.com Hitachi www.hitachi-soft.com Numonics www.numonics.com Panasonic www.panasonic.com Polyvision www.polyvision.com Promethean www.activboard.com Smart Technologies www.smarttech.com 3M www.3m.com/meetings Related electronic whiteboard technologies eBeam www.e-beam.com/products Epilight Technology www.nxtsound.com Tegrity www.tegrity.com Virtual Ink www.mimio.com |
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