5. New Possibilities with Digital Whiteboards
A digital, interactive whiteboard is an essential tool in videoconferencing lectures. This lesson
highlights some of the pedagogical possibilities and benefits offered by digital whiteboards.
Types of interactive whiteboards
There are mainly two types of interactive whiteboards:
- Normal whiteboards equipped with infrared or ultrasonic sensors that detect signals from a
micro-transmitter attached to the whiteboard pen
- Digital, pressure-sensitive whiteboards
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TYPE OF WHITEBOARD |
DESCRIPTION |
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A normal whiteboard equipped with an ultrasonic sensor. Inside the pen is a micro-transmitter, and whenever the pen is pushed against the whiteboards, the sensor picks up the signal and draws an image on the computer. |
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A digital, pressure-sensitive whiteboard. This particular digital whiteboard uses so called back projection to project the computer image onto the surface. |
A comparison of the two types of interactive whiteboards is given in the lesson "Design and
infrastructure - Interactive whiteboards".
The following two video clips demonstrate how the two types of interactive whiteboards are used.
The video should open in Windows Media Player when you click on the picture below.
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VIDEO CLIP |
DESCRIPTION |
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Demonstrates the use of normal whiteboards equipped with ultrasonic or infrared sensors to transfer whiteboard notes to a computer
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Gives an introduction to pressure-sensitive digital whiteboards
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Using digital whiteboards
We now look at the various tools offered by interactive whiteboards, and how these can be used to
enhance teaching.
To see how the features above are used in practise; please have a look at the following video clips.
The video should open in Windows Media Player when you click on the picture below.
Writing text on interactive whiteboards
An interactive whiteboard can be used like a normal, non-digital whiteboard to write text and freehand
drawings on. Most digital whiteboards give a choice of pen colour and line thickness.
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VIDEO CLIP |
DESCRIPTION |
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Writing text on digital whiteboards
Demonstrates various tools for writing text on a
pressure-sensitive whiteboard
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Basic geometric shapes
It's sometimes useful to draw perfect squares, circles or other geometric shapes, and most interactive
whiteboards have tools allowing you to draw simple geometric shapes, as illustrated in the figure below.
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VIDEO CLIP |
DESCRIPTION |
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Drawing geometric shapes: This video demonstrates how the digital whiteboard's built-in functions can be used to draw geometric shapes
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Importing graphics
Images and diagrams can be imported directly into the interactive whiteboard software, to be used in
presentations, lecture notes etc.
Some software packages also come with a screen capture utility, enabling you to capture any graphic
on your desktop into the software
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VIDEO CLIP |
DESCRIPTION |
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Importing graphics: Shows how to import images and internet
pages into a digital whiteboard document. |
Exporting documents
Interactive whiteboard documents are stored in a proprietary format, but can be exported into a number
of different formats. Most interactive whiteboard software enables you to export the document to PDF,
HTML and a handful of image formats such as GIF and JPEG.
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VIDEO CLIP |
DESCRIPTION |
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Exporting graphics: Demonstrates
how to export documents from a digital
whiteboard into a format suitable for publishing on the web
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Gallery
The software that accompanies digital whiteboards often comes with a collection of clipart, images, backgrounds etc. to enhance presentations. This collection is often referred to as a gallery.
When teaching scientific subjects such as physics, mathematics, chemistry etc, the gallery can offer useful diagrams (e.g. an electronic circuit diagram), coordinate systems (useful when graphing functions and drawing vectors) and so on.
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VIDEO CLIP |
DESCRIPTION |
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The gallery: Most digital whiteboards come with a collection of images and clipart called a gallery. This video suggest some ways to use the gallery in a teaching environment. |
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copyright
2005-2007 MECCA Consortium