Moving at the Speed of Creativity - InterWrite SchoolPad

InterWrite SchoolPad

Published by Wesley Fryer in edtech on October 20th, 2005

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InterWrite SchoolPad is a wireless (Bluetooth) device that lets a teacher have smartboard-type technology, but use existing projector / screen room infrastructure. And it costs less than a Smartboard. The video on their website provides a nice overview.

Unfortunately, the 3 1/2 minute introducatory video uses a version of the Sonic Foundry MediasiteLive web presention that is not cross-platform friendly. It plays great in IE for Windows, but not in either Safari or Firefox for Macintosh. The movie plays outside the browser in Safari using Windows Media Player, but without the screenshots showing the annotations the speaker is making, the demonstration is much less effective.

The SchoolPad product is both Macintosh and Windows compatible, however. Looks like they just need to make their website more standards compliant. (And so does Sonic Foundry, who makes the quite expensive product Mediasite Live!)

On this day..

2 Comments »

http://www.speakingofhistory.blogspot.com Eric Langhorst

Wesley

I have used an InterWrite pad in my classroom for two years and I can tell you it is a very impressive tool. I cannot speak to the compatibility issues – I use it with a Windows based machine and have only viewed the site using a Windows machine – but the project itself is great. Our district built a new middle school three years ago and placed Smart Boards throughout the building. The following year the district built a new junior high – the one I currently teach in – and placed Inter Write pads in the rooms instead of the Smart Boards. Now that teachers have seen the abiltiy of the Inter Write pads they want to replace the Smart Boards with Inter Write pads. Lower cost, more portable, more mobility. This past April at a technology conference in Nebraska the Smart Board people were pushing a new product that was almost exactly the same as the Inter Write pad. Check it out. I know many districts that have been very happy with the Inter Write pads they use. None of our math teachers have used a traditional overhead projector in the last two years – and their hands are no longer stained with marker ink!! Just my two cents worth.

Eric Langhorst
Class site: http://www.liberty.k12.mo.us/~elanghorst
http://www.wesfryer.com Wesley Fryer

Hey Eric, I appreciate your 2 cents worth! One of our local school districts is investing substantially in InterWrite pads and a faculty member here at the university brought them to my attention. We are definitely going to give them a try! Thanks for letting me know about your positive experiences with them.