mobile-learning.blog-city.com
eBeam interactive whiteboard - a success
posted Tuesday, 24 January 2006
Today myself and a colleague (Hilary Griffiths) ran a workshop that used the eBeam interactive whiteboard. I must say I really enjoyed it ;-) A lot of the session involves capturing thoughts and software walkthroughs. So it was very liberating not having to use the keyboard.
The first key observation is to remember to recalibrate the software regularly. Sometimes you simply can’t fight gravity and the unit might move.
Another observation was not to use powerpoint files, but to open your powerpoint file in the eBeam Scrapebook, and using the full screen display use that to drive the presentation. This will allow you to annotate, add pages etc., and you can still access the web by including a web link via the Tools area.
Some of the tasks that I enjoyed getting the group to undertake included, a brain storm on answering a question, then sorting their answers into themes, and adding our own titles to these themes. I think very simply but significantly more powerful than a flip chart version which makes the re-organisation very difficult.
Another task was that the class was divided into small groups to answer the same question (a role play activity). They recorded their thoughts on a discussion board within their VLE. We then accessed each course and captured their thoughts as a screen capture and added as a page within the eBeam scrapebook. This then allowed all groups to read the thoughts of one group, see where it re-enforces, or add new. This was also very powerful as it was annotated and then saved. Again a very simply and powerful learning activity but one which is difficult to undertake on paper.
The next phase is to actually get the staff in the training sessions to use it. For instance, I’ll design some activities that gets them (in groups) to answer the questions using the interactive whiteboard. I’ve a few simulations / drag and drop activities that I need to plan. I’m very interested in gauging staff thoughts on this.
I was also very pleased to find that the eBeam document could be saved as a PDF, and it could be accessed in a readable / usable format on the PDF Reader I discussed previously - http://www.mobile-learning.blog-city.com/a_palm_os_5_pdf_reader.htm
The first key observation is to remember to recalibrate the software regularly. Sometimes you simply can’t fight gravity and the unit might move.
Another observation was not to use powerpoint files, but to open your powerpoint file in the eBeam Scrapebook, and using the full screen display use that to drive the presentation. This will allow you to annotate, add pages etc., and you can still access the web by including a web link via the Tools area.
Some of the tasks that I enjoyed getting the group to undertake included, a brain storm on answering a question, then sorting their answers into themes, and adding our own titles to these themes. I think very simply but significantly more powerful than a flip chart version which makes the re-organisation very difficult.
Another task was that the class was divided into small groups to answer the same question (a role play activity). They recorded their thoughts on a discussion board within their VLE. We then accessed each course and captured their thoughts as a screen capture and added as a page within the eBeam scrapebook. This then allowed all groups to read the thoughts of one group, see where it re-enforces, or add new. This was also very powerful as it was annotated and then saved. Again a very simply and powerful learning activity but one which is difficult to undertake on paper.
The next phase is to actually get the staff in the training sessions to use it. For instance, I’ll design some activities that gets them (in groups) to answer the questions using the interactive whiteboard. I’ve a few simulations / drag and drop activities that I need to plan. I’m very interested in gauging staff thoughts on this.
I was also very pleased to find that the eBeam document could be saved as a PDF, and it could be accessed in a readable / usable format on the PDF Reader I discussed previously - http://www.mobile-learning.blog-city.com/a_palm_os_5_pdf_reader.htm
please leave comments (2)
1. andy black left...
Saturday, 28 January 2006 11:07 pm
Hi Andy
2. Jesse H. left...
Tuesday, 14 April 2009 4:42 am :: http://www.adamsbiz.com
Thanks for the information! It's always interesting to learn more about
peoples experiences with the eBeam.