What is an Interactive Whiteboard?

To use an interactive whiteboard, you will need a multimedia projector and a computer. The multimedia projector connects to the monitor socket from either a desktop or notebook computer and projects the computers image onto the interactive whiteboard, which then acts like a projector screen.

There are two types of interactive whiteboards: pen (works on electromagnetic technology), and finger (resistive technology).

A computer is normally controlled by a mouse but you can touch the interactive whiteboard to control the mouse cursor instead.  As you move your finger or special pen across the whiteboard, which has the computers image on it, the mouse cursor follows, as shown in the picture below.  You simply tap the screen twice with your finger or special pen to perform the normal double-click you would do with the mouse.  This is excellent, as it allows you to do all this from the front of the classroom or meeting room.  The interactive whiteboard just connects via a cable into the mouse socket on the computer.   

The finger touch (resistive) whiteboards are ideal for primary schools where young children can move their finger across the whiteboard for full interactivity.  Secondary schools, where pupils are used to using pens, may choose an electromagnetic whiteboard which uses special pens.   Some manufacturers produce both pen and finger touch boards which means if a school campus has both types of whiteboards on-site, pupils and teachers only have to learn one set of software.    Corporate and training organizations can choose the best type of digital whiteboard to suit their own needs.  For instance, in medical environments, touch screen may be favoured for dragging across photos, medical diagrams and slide images, all with the touch a finger. In the business environment, as staff naturally use pens, an interactive whiteboard may be preferred. 

All interactive whiteboards come with software, to enable you to use it as a copyboard.   You can write or draw on the whiteboard with your finger or the pens provided and save the image to the computer.  These images, which are your notes from the meeting or training session, can then be printed or emailed.  The software that comes with some interactive whiteboards may have built in OCR which is Optical Character Recognition, which means can write on screen and the computer will recognize your handwriting and turn it into computer text.

Interactive whiteboards can be used to:

• Write over the top of programs to highlight and annotate points (see picture above).

• View and navigate the Internet from the whiteboard.  Surf and display websites which the entire room will be able to see.

• Students/audience members can approach the whiteboard and add their contribution to the discussion by writing directly on the whiteboard.

• Present ideas to large audiences.

• Display movie files or DVD's from the PC

• Work on word processing documents, spreadsheets, design projectors with your colleagues. Can be connected to video conferencing systems.

The interactive whiteboards needs to know where you are touching on screen and therefore use one of two technologies for this, which are:

• Resistive technology (finger touch) - Two pieces of resistive material with a small gap between them are used to detect where a person touches the screen. The co-ordinates correspond to the area on the computer monitor. The advantage of whiteboards based on resistive technology is that you do not require a special stylus to write on the board, a finger can be used just as well. SMART Boards, CleverTouch and PolyVision interactive whiteboards use this technology.

• Electromagnetic scanning technology (pen) - This uses special pens and the frame of the whiteboard detects where the pen is on screen. Because of this, if the whiteboard screen is damaged you can just replace the screen. The electromagnetic interactive whiteboards normally come with several pens. Hitachi Starboards, Promethean ACTIVboard and GTCO InterWrite interactive whiteboards use this technology.

• Front projection whiteboards range in size from around 47" to 104" in diagonal size; with 60-inch and 77-inch being popular sizes.  60" doesn't sound huge, but it fits into school environments well as otherwise pupils cannot reach the middle of boards to contribute. They come either with a wall mount bracket, desktop stand or floor stand on wheels.  

  Portable versions are also available for presentations on the move.  These tend to be around 47" screens to keep the weight down.  You still need to take a computer with you, usually a notebook, and also a projector which can weigh as little as 0.9kg.

  Setting up an interactive whiteboard is very straight forward and all come with full instructions:

  • Plug in and switch-on the whiteboard, computer and projector.

  • Connect the computer to the projector with a single cable (provided).
    This projects the computer image onto the whiteboard.  You will just have to adjust the focus and zoom to get the projectors image to fit of the whiteboard nicely.

  • Connect the USB cable provided from the whiteboard to a USB port on the computer.
    Easy to follow diagrams come with the whiteboard.

  • Load the software CD that is included with the whiteboard, onto the computer.
    This software talks you through the registration of the whiteboard, which just involves touching the whiteboard on a series of crosses.  Registration lets the whiteboard know were the cursor is on screen.

  The computer software only needs loading once on either a desktop or notebook computer. The software will work with both PC's and Apple Macintosh computers.

  Rear projection interactive whiteboards work the same as front projection whiteboards. The difference is that special screen material is used because the projector is mounted behind the whiteboard. Rear projection cabinets, like in the picture above, have the projector mounted in the cabinet under the screen and use a series of mirrors to project the image onto the screen.

  The advantages of rear projection systems is that a shadow is not cast on the whiteboard, as in front projection, and also the user cannot accidentally damage their eyes my accidentally looking into the projector beam.

  There is also room in the cabinets for a computer base-unit, video recorder/DVD player and many have cable management systems for connecting to visiting laptop computers. (Visiting laptop computers will need to load the software from the whiteboard CD).

  In-wall systems are also available where the rear-projection whiteboard is built-into a wall that has an area behind it to house the projector.  Partition walling, i.e. a false wall, is usually used to do this.  This gives a wonderful effect of a huge computer monitor on the wall. 
  
  Whiteboard software
  
  Software which comes with your interactive whiteboard varies, depending on the market that the board manufacturer is aiming for.  Promethean offer three types of software for the primary, secondary and corporate markets, the latter being a "generic" type of software which encourages you to add your own images from your local network server or from the Internet, with a limited number of templates.  In contrast educational software may have templates for music grids, mathematics, a football pitch graph for sports teachers, etc.   Hitachi, for example, uses Cambridge software which was formulated in conjunction with Cambridge University Press and is aimed at secondary, FE and HE markets.   InterWrite offers two types of software for its SchoolBoards and MeetingBoards.