--- Forwarded Message from Lauren Rosen <[log in to unmask]> --- I know a number of places that are adopting the Promethian interactive whiteboard these days. I believe it runs all things digitally whereas Smart has some analog features still but don't quote me on that. Lauren Rosen Collaborative Language Program University of Wisconsin 618 Van Hise Hall 1220 Linden Drive Madison, WI 53706 [log in to unmask] 608-262-4066 (voice) 608-265-3892 (fax) http://www.uwosh.edu/programs/clp/ (2) from [log in to unmask] Dear Chris, I teach French in a high school in CT. After being inspired by a NERALLT workshop a number of years ago on "smartboards," I pressured my school into getting me the first one in the school... (we now have lots more.) Although at the time I preferred SMART Tech (a real company) for their version of the "smartboard" (has become a generic word like "kleenex"...), our school board of ed. went with the Polyvision company. Well, I got quickly used to this company's version and I have never looked back. At the very least I use it every day even just as my digital surface (writing with the "light" from the computer), rather than the chalk&black board or marker&whiteboard of old and MUCH prefer it to those very old techs. But I invariably incorporate documents, powerpoints, websites (interactive or not) into my presentations or classwork, or even bring up student docs on the screen. There are countless tricks to learn and software to use with different companies' boards so that you can have graphs and science doodads and much more at your finger tips. But to me it is really a window on your world and worth having. Besides, you also thus have a big screen that illuminates films wonderfully and also useful for video conferencing. I have learned lots of tech tricks to use with it, but as I said, at its very basic, it is soooo handy and is an extension of my hand in the classroom. I feel quite bereft when on a rare occasion there is some power glitch that prevents me from using it. I'd be interested in what others say. Oh- and our board is a large one, but you can get a desk-top size glass screen that you write on from your podium so you can annotate a lecture, but I prefere the big screen in front of the class so students can come up and touch it, draw, and work on it. There are flat table top versions so you can gather a group around a table and look down upon it, and of course there are things to consider like the back-lit versions so you do not need an LCD projector, but all in all, it's still my number one technology along with my computer and my hand in the class. I could not live without it. Hope this helps. Sincerely, Emily Wentworth Trumbull High School & Yale University (3) from "Sarah Withee" <[log in to unmask] You might want to take a look at the Mimio. It allows you to convert an existing whiteboard into a smart board. It comes with software that is almost identical to the smart notebook software, and it's a lot less expensive than a smartboard. We do not have one, but I saw it demonstrated at the Colorado Congress of Foreign Language Teachers conference and shortly thereafter got a phone call from the vendor to set up a demonstration on campus. We are currently not in the market for a new smart board, but if we do get any requests for one, we'll definitely be looking at the Mimio. Sarah Sarah Withee Instructional Technologist Colorado College [log in to unmask] (719) 389-6381 (4) from "Lee Howell" <[log in to unmask]> We use SMARTboards extensively on our campus in Pre-K-MS. Slowly our Upper School teachers are beginning to use them with their PowerPoint presentations using the ink aware software to annotate their slides. I highly recommend visiting a classroom that has a SMARTboard for some hands-on experience. Lee Howell Technology Integration A-21 Ext. 2195 *********************************************** LLTI is a service of IALLT, the International Association for Language Learning (http://iallt.org/), and The Consortium for Language Teaching and Learning (http://www.languageconsortium.org/). Join IALLT at http://iallt.org. Subscribe, unsubscribe, search the archives at http://listserv.dartmouth.edu/scripts/wa.exe?A0=LLTI Otmar Foelsche, LLTI-Editor ([log in to unmask]) ***********************************************