Technology

"Real" SMART Boards cost thousands of dollars. However, my cooperating teacher showed me how their school made an interactive whiteboard for as low as $60 per room. The link leads to a brief instructional video by the guy at MIT who came up with this system, and you could pursue the idea from there.

Basically, if you already have a projector that can do output from a computer, then all you need is the infrared remote from a Nintendo Wii, some cheap infrared pointers/clickers that are available, and that the computer be capable of receiving the Wiimote's bluetooth signals either built-in or with a bluetooth card for it. The video shows how to make your own infrared pens, but there are also pre-made wireless ones available that my school uses and which seem easier.

In my classroom, the Wiimote was installed attached to a dowel hanging from the ceiling next to the overhead projector. It could, as usual for the Wiimote, be powered by batteries, but my school has soldered in an actual power cord instead, running up to the same power-source as the projector so that they don't need to change batteries all the time. The only apparently tricky part is making sure that the Wiimote is positioned far back enough and angled correctly to cover the field you want it to cover.

Then, with the software produced by the guy at MIT, you can calibrate the projected image from your computer to the Wiimote's infrared for the use of the infrared pen/clicker. Additional software is available to allow for "SMART Board" type functions like drawing directly on the screen, etc.

It didn't necessarily run quite as smooth as a commercial product, and you had to make sure your own shadow wasn't blocking where you wanted to click, etc. The makeshift version is certainly not as seamless as the "real thing." But this jerry-rigged system does enable SMART Board type functionality for all intents and purposes, just orders of magnitude cheaper.

Given that I'm also learning how many teachers, taking the path of least resistance, don't very often use the technology their districts have invested thousands of dollars in...I'd think this might be more efficient for many districts (or just for your individual classroom! The great thing is, an individual teacher could do this on his or her own!) than investing in the "real thing." The marginal return of actually buying a commercial product compared to setting up your own improvised interactive whiteboard does not seem worth it to me anymore after having been impressed with the resourcefulness of this.

I'll also point out that it's these sorts of little tips and tricks of the trade you come across that can only be learned from actual experience in the classroom and interacting with actual teachers, and which get passed around mainly by sharing with colleagues like this, which is very exciting.

-SXXR