Somone did it for Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream speech’.

Philip Flynn, of the Digital Hub Development Agency, interviewed in the Irish Independent called for more IT in schools, both for the delivery of the curriculum and for assessment.  He also said how

the lives of young people outside the classroom, where use of computers was commonplace, was not sufficiently reflected in the classroom.

The absence of technology in the classroom is not just effecting the students capacity to learn and develop, and depriving them of the skill and competencies needed for society and in their future careers, it is also an example of the widening disconnect between the adult world, reflected in schools, and the world in which students inhabit.  This schism is having a major effect on the growth of Irish youth.

With the government looking as though they are about to renege on their commitment of 252 million euro for ICT in schools, it looks as though preparing these young people for the future is not a priority.

While most students don’t have marked difficulties with writing, it may be that they too would benefit from using a laptop.  One of the prerequisites for being creative is that you are proficient in the medium you are looking to express yourself in.  Pen an paper is alien to students outside the classroom; most written expression take the form of text messaging or typed communications in social networking sites.  There seems little point in forcing students to struggle on with a pen and paper.  Although they may get the chance to use computers in school, I wonder how often they are encouraged to really express themselves while using them.

There is also the consideration of changing literacy.  In these times, literary expression covers a much broader range of activities.  Often work does not contain words, but also pictures, or video, or combinations of above.  Written work is now invariable written for public viewing and appraisal.  It is never finished; it will be continually revised and amended in light of the feedback received.  Students will also need to develop the capacity to be able to, not only write alone, but collaboratively.  Computers allow the teacher to create the environment for the learner in which they can develop these competencies.

I had the experience of returning to a university course after years away from assessment.  I had not used a pen to write a foolscape page in almost a decade.  My writing then was poor, but after such a break it was appalling.  Having to actually write the exams with a pen was torture.  The physical process of writing exams with a pen was much more draining than typing the same amount of words or for the same length of time. 

I feel for the students as they finish their exams, after their 20 hours of writing.  They can relax now and put their pens away and take their computers out; that is until school starts up again.

I feel I owe 800,000,000 people an apology.

It is due in Ireland in July and is available, among other places, at www.expansys.ie

Unquestionably the best thing about the Eee is it’s portablilty.  It is actually tiny, it is smaller than any text book, and is so easy to carry around.  Because it is a solid state drive it loads up very quickly, so I can carry it to class, it boots in seconds and I can plug in a data projector and I’m off.  Lugging a larger laptop around and the hassle of waiting for it to boot was putting me off using IT in class (I have to move rooms a lot).  The other great thing about the Eee PC, and this may sound silly, is the length of the power cord.  It’s huge, but it means that if the battery is going, I can always reach a socket.  I can absolutely envisage a time when every kid will have their Ultra-PC in school.  Effectively they are not much bigger than a calculator.

There has been some advances since the version I had came out.  Asus now sell the 4G version, with Linux or with WinXP.  You can also get a 4GB SD card included in the Windows version.

Asus last month also released their 900 series Eee in the UK, other releases around Europe are at the end of this month.  The Windows version, EeePC 900 Win, has 12GB SSD, 1GB of RAM and comes with Microsoft Works installed.  The Linux version, EeePC 900, has 20GB SSD.  The dimensions of this release are only slightly larger than previously (5mm).  The screen is now larger 8.9″, it was 7″ previously.  Other upgrades include the camera, now 1.3M.  The processor also now clocks faster, and there is a multitouch touchpad.  There has been concern about the battery shipping with the 900 series; in the UK they shipped with smaller batteries than in the US.  Asus are now upgrading the batteries for £10.

The EeePC 901 was also unveiled this month – it has the same dimensions as the 900 series, but will have a superior processor and bluetooth.  There may be a drop in price for the 700 and the 900 series when this is released.  The 1000 series will feature a larger screen, larger hard drive and a larger keyboard for more comfortable typing.

I think I’ll hold tough for a while and see how much the 901 retails at, there seem little point in forking out for the 900, with the 901 so close.  It will be interesting to see what happens the price of the 700 series when the 901 is released - some are predicting a price as low as €120.  If it is, buy it.

Places to buy Asus EeePCs in Ireland – there are more, but these popped into my search engine:

www.komplett.ie

www.expansys.ie

www.dabs.ie

The Eee 900 is currently retailing at about 450 euro, although I saw one for 400 euro.  www.ebay.ie may offer cheaper.

The device is actually made from a hard clear plastic, and it actually consists of two parts: the microscope body can be separated from the stand and stage.  This means that the microscope can be used a hand-held device.  The device comes with some speciman jars and small petri dishes, the samples can be held in place on the stage using a clip.  Focusing on the sample is achieved by moving the stage, which is raised and lowered using a large blue knob on the side of the stand.  The sample can be illuminated from above or below using two ’supebrite’ LEDs; there is one in the microscope body and one under the stage.  The LEDs are controlled from the PC and the light level may be varied.  When the device is used in hand-held mode, the LED in the microscope body atomatically turns on.

The device has 3 levels of magnification x10, x60 and x200.  This provides more than the required magnification for many scientific investigations that may be undertaken in the lab.  Onion cells will be clearly visible at x60.  When using the device in hand-held mode, you be able to use the x10 mode to examine more closely lots of things, particularly on the body - hair folics, finger prints, scars etc.  and display them using an overhead projector.  I’m never sure that when students use conventional microscopes if they see anything, half of them close the wrong eye and the other half never quite know when the device is focused or not.  I could see this device as being useful in getting students to apprecicate what exactly they should actualy be expecting to see.

A nice long USB lead connects the device to the PC.  The software – windows only - is easily installed from a CD.  The interface allows you to view the sample, control the lighting, take a snapshot, or take a video.  There is also a ruler to measure the sample size.  There is also a simple gallery that saves the pictures and video made.  From this the pictures can be exported as jpg or bmp and the video can be saved as an avi file.  The software (perhaps the whole package) is very much aimed at younger kids – for which it is perfect.  It might take a bit of selling to older kids, who might be fooled by the software into thinking that this is simply a toy and not a useful piece of scientific apparatus. 

This product is not perfect, the image is noisy at full magnification and the ultimate resolution of the final picture could be improved.  That said this is the best option I’ve seen in its price range and despite these difficulties, it image is more than sufficent for use in the secondary lab (I have actually seen these used for experiments at third level).  The weakest point of this device, I think, is the stage.  It is quite flimsy and prone to moving or tilting making focusing difficult at times.  The focusing mechanism could be improved, there is lots of play in the knob making it akward to focus at x200.

The illumination capabilites are excellent.   No external power supply is required as the LEDs take their power from the USB.  This would make it easy to combine it with a laptop enabling you to take it outside and to record magnified pictures of the bugs you find, for example.  The ability to light the sample from above or below – or both – is great, and the light level is easily controlled from the PC.  This allows great images of lots of types of samples to be obtained.  The capacity to use the device hand held is great.  Particularly to zoom in on areas that conventional microscope can’t e.g. parts of the body.  The basic functionality of being able to take a picture or video adds enormously to usual microscope work.  Now recorded images can be compared, or closer examination and group discussion on an image can occur.  It’s also great to be able to magnified sample to teach without having to get every student to look into a microscope, a device that challenges many students.

It’s easy to be fooled into thinking this is a toy.  It’s not, it can very much be used as a piece of scientific equipment.  It can generate images and videos that can be used in projects or as teaching tools.  This is a great little device and even with its flaws is a must for every science classroom.

In Ireland it is available from a number of outlets including:

www.diskovery.ie

www.dabs.ie

A great review by David Walker can be found here.

These devices are attached to the side of a conventional whiteboards and may be connected to a computer either wirelessly or via a USB cable.  Due to their size they are often called portable interactive whiteboards.  They generally cost about a third of the cost of a traditional ‘fixed’ interactive whiteboards; however with these devices it is not a case of ’you get what you pay for’.  My experience is that you get hardware that performs to comparable standard to the more expensive boards in every regard.  I have already posted previously on how good these types of devices are.

The studio software is used both to record whiteboard markers detected with the Mimio device and when a pen is used as a mouse on a projected computer screen.  I was disapproving of Mimio’s current studio software, and have been given a preview of the latest beta version of studio, due for release in July 08, and it is a significant advancement from the last release.

Mimio was acquired by Newell-Rubbermaid group 2 years ago, and it has been working to develop its range of integrated educational solutions, both hardware and associated software, such as the studio suite.  The sudio software suite actually contains 3 programs:  Notebook, Recorder and Tools. 

Notebook is the multipage workspace that teachers would use when they are using the Mimio system to capture whiteboard markings, or when used with a projector as an interactive whiteboard.  The fact you can use the same software for both applications is a nice feature.  Tools contains a range of functions that may be used with Notebook  or to annoate over other applications.

I was not fond of the tools palette on the last version of studio.  The primary tools were listed as small icons around the edge of a box, the inside area is reserved for options related to each tool.  I found the buttons difficult to differentiate and the central area was latent, wasted space for much of the time.  The tools palette on the new version is excellent.  Much more visually appealing, discrete and it’s easier to select quickly the function you are looking for.  It also retains the windows feel that teachers can feel comfortable with.

Over the last few iterations of the software, mimio has been looking to produce software with which teachers can easily generate interactive lessons.  Essential is the ability to easily and smoothly integrate media – pictures, flash files, audio etc.  This version of the software allows teachers to do this.  Pictures can be extracted from any application using the clipping tool and dragged into your notebook workspace.  Also picture files can simply be dragged and dropped onto your workspace where they are instantly available to be manipulated, resized etc.  Similarly flash files or audio can be simply dragged and dropped into the work area.  Flash files can be moved or rotated as required.  The imported audio takes the form of a switch that can be turned on or off.  Such is the ease that media files can be used in this software that many files may be used at the same time on a notebook page.  As you’d expect these objects can be annotated, typed on etc.

Mimio’s focus on objects in the notebook file can also be seen in the smooth dragging of objects around the screen.   As they are moved they are clearly visible at all times during the transition.  Another nice feature introduced in this version of the software is the ability to lock objects in position.  Objects can be fixed in position; this will allow teachers to create a template for pages in a lesson.

Also impressive is the new gallery feature.  It has a familiar windows feel to it.  The bundled range and quality of clipart/flash files is quite impressive, however I’ve never been too impressed with packaged media.  What is more important is can the software easily be used to collate, and store, pictures and other new media.  It this regard it is very good;  pictures can be cut from a webpage and dropped into notebook, and then to save it, you just have to drop it into the gallery, where it is automatically saved.  This capacity to simply drop items from your hard disk, clipped pictures or any objects from the workspace to the gallery is the ideal way to start building up content.

In seems also that Mimio are really looking to make headway against the promethean etc. range of products.  These are often chosen due to the range of pre-made resources for those boards.  Included with studio is an amount of pre-made lessons.  I have a bit of a mental block with pre-made content, I have never been happy with it, perhaps it is often more applicable to primary level, I don’t know.  I am evaluating this from a secondary viewpoint.  That said there seemed to be much content that some teachers may find useful, and the lessons do give a good indication of the potential of the software.

Another aspect of the studio that I discovered (although I think this functionality was there previously) was that the integrated text recognition software can be used both with the interactive projection use and when capturing from the whiteboard.  So the system can convert from the captured whiteboard markers to text afterwards.  This could be a useful feature for some second level teachers.

In order to extend their classroom hardware solutions, Mimio also plan to release a writing tablet to compliment and extend the capabilities of their whiteboard.  The tablet they propose to release will be specifically designed to integrate into studio.  It isn’t clear when this will be released on the market, or how much it will cost.  It does give an indication of where Mimio are heading.

It would appear that this new version of studio will be released (free to Mimio board owners) in July 08.  It is a welcome upgrade to the Mimio system.  I felt that the old version was the weakest part of their ‘package’.  This new software looks and feels better and adds functionality to where it is needed, in content creation and integration of media.  There are areas that I am still not sure about; I didn’t find out about the capacity to broadcast lessons, or if with the improvement in the handling of media would extend to embedding the flash files when exporting notebook files as a web page, rather than just a picture as it is at present. 

Overall, this is a really positive release and will be welcomed by Mimio users.  It also indicates the direction Mimio are going, concentrating on the educational market (as opposed to the corporate) are looking at the needs of teachers as they develop their products. 

The ebeam and Mimio interactive whiteboard systems may be suitable products.  These are different to the typical IWB consist of a detector – linked to a PC – that is stuck onto a conventional whiteboard and an electronic pen.  The pen can be used with a projected image of the computer screen as a mouse.  An electronic sleeve that can be detected may also be used with a normal whiteboard marker to locate and record writing on the whiteboard.

These systems are typically less than half the cost of IWB and offer some other advantages over them: the board can still function in its original capacity as a whiteboard, they are easy to install and are extremely portable – so can be setup anywhere quickly. 

We are evaluating them to see if they function to a high enough standard compared to an IWB to allow them to be used in a classroom and whether one of the two systems mentioned above offers an advantage for us.

We have no special training in the evaluation of hardware; we are simply teachers with an interest in ICT, and apologise, and look forward to being corrected, if the summary below is inaccurate or incomplete.

Description of the system

The ebeam system detector is a right-angled device that attaches with suction cups to a corner of the whiteboard.  The software was ebeam interact 2.0 build 1.3.  Some may be familiar with these devices as they are contained in 3M boards.

The ebeam comes in 3 ‘varieties’:

ebeam projector: hardware and software to use with a projected computer screen.  The detector picks up the projected pen used as a mouse. 

ebeam whiteboard: hardware and software for use with conventional whiteboard markers; there is no projected image.  The detector picks up an electronic sleeve around normal whiteboard markers, recording everything written on the board.  These markings are saved on the computer.

ebeam complete: this is simply projector and whiteboard in one box.

The detector can be linked to the computer using USB or Bluetooth.  Your preference must be stated when the device is purchased.  The Bluetooth option was not available to us.

The mimio detector is longer, linear design.  It again attaches with suction cups to the side of the board.  The software used during evaluation is mimio studio containing mimio Tools, mimio Notebook and mimio Recorder. 

Mimio can alsobe purchased in different forms:

Mimio interactive: is the equivalent of ebeam projection.

Mimio capture: is the equivalent of ebeam whiteboard – note this bundle is sold as an add-on to the interactive hardware and so does not include a detector.  A difference with the ebeam system is that the recorded markings can be stored on a flash memory, so it does not need to be connected to a computer when writing on the board.  The flash drive can be downloaded to the computer later.  Unfortunately we did not have Mimio capture for evaluation.

Mimio interactive + capture: I’ll let you guess what this is!

It is also possible to link the detector using wired USB or wireless – a dongle is inserted into the computer – both were available to us.  Note that if the wired mimio system is purchased, it can be upgraded to wireless with the purchase of an additional module.

Installation

The installation of both devices is easy – both contain ‘suckers’ that allow the detector to be stuck to the whiteboard, they also come with fixing brackets to screw in if needed.  Both stayed in position well.  The Mimio has 5 buttons that can are generally used when the system is being used for recording whiteboard markers and is not attached to a PC.  If this is the case it must be placed within reach; otherwise it may be stuck anywhere around the edge of the board.  The ebeam system is placed in a corner of the whiteboard.

The 5 buttons on the Mimio allow access to New Page, Copy Page or Restore menu, Print, Max/Min/Restore screen and calibrate functions.  These are user configurable.

The wireless mimio system could be run on batteries so no cables were required.

The software for both came on CDs and installed easily on the laptop running under Vista.  For the ebeam system, different software is used for projection and whiteboard capture.  Therefore it can be difficult to determine exactly the function of each piece of software, and what hardware it activates.  For the Mimio device, the same piece of software is used for both applications.  It actually may be used with any pointing device including ebeam.

There was a small difficulty using the Mimio software when the Mimio detector was connected using USB.  A conflict continually crashed the software after calibration, this occured on two different machines.  Changing to wireless rectified the problem.

The electronic pens for each are very similar.  They are battery operated, and activate when pressed off the whiteboard.  The pens are chunkier than those you would associate with usual IWBs.  The ebeam pen was slightly lighter and neater in the hand than the Mimio, however neither would present a problem to use daily in the classroom.  The ebeam pens also came with 2 replacement tips.  There were none with the Mimio.  The Mimio pen has 3 buttons: right-click, double-click and hover-mode.  These are user configurable.  The ebeam has 2: right click and a button to activate the tools menu.  It does not have a hover button; this is a draw back as moving a mouse to an area can also context help to be seen or activate other tools.  Both pens are extremely robust and should stand up well to classroom use.

The sensitivity, tracking speed and resolution of these systems are important considerations.  The sensitivity and the tracking speed of both systems were very impressive.  The teacher who uses our IWB felt they were comparable to the more expensive system.  The ebeam was slightly more responsive than the Mimio system – it allowed you to write more freely and quickly.  The resolution on both systems was comparable to the more expensive system; again the ebeam offers slightly sharper markings.  The specifications state that Mimio has a much better resolution.  However the resolution of the image on the board is primarily determined by the projector.  Resolution is only of importance if zooming in is required – perhaps for visually impaired learners.  Both had sufficient resolution to enable it to be used with any software package tried.  The teacher experienced in using IWB commented that the robust nature of the pen and the whiteboard made the system easier and more enjoyable to work with.  Particularly with timed games etc where you’d prefer not to be as fussy as the more expensive hardware necessitates.  She could see no negative comparison between the performance of the hardware tested and the Hitachi system.  One point made was that the more expensive system had more than one pen and they were rechargeable (both tested pens need AA batteries).  Often 2 students used the board and each had one pen.  However it is possible to purchase additional or replacement pens for both systems.  It is possible to use more than one Mimio device from the same computer, allowing the PC to capture the input from a number of students of the whiteboard.

We only had available the electronic sleeves for whiteboard markers for the ebeam whiteboard system.  These were capable of holding generic whiteboard markers (both systems ship with the same brand of markers) – 4 were provided, corresponding to different colours.  The Mimio system ships with 18 markers.  The sleeves are battery operated and activated when the marker is pressed off the whiteboard.  They are larger than the electronic pen and although contoured may be difficult to use in the classroom all day.  Again they are robustly designed and would survive the classroom environment.  The lids are specific to the pens and are liable to wander; I’m still looking for one!  The 4 sleeves correspond to different colours, which are user configurable.  There is also an electronic eraser; when this is used to wipe the board, the electronic recording wipes as well.  This was used to clear small mistakes.  To clear the entire board, a new page is selected by pressing a predefined area of the board and the board is cleaned in the conventional manner.

Calibration

Before use the systems have to be calibrated – both for projector and whiteboard use.  The procedure is similar for both systems: for the projector 9 points on the screen are illuminated and touched with the electronic pen, for whiteboard use the extremities of the whiteboard are indicated.  The ebeam system can be used on whiteboards up to 2.4m x 1.2m.  The Mimio device can cover a larger region.  The calibration procedure takes about a minute.  Over the course of our evaluations, with the projector mounted on the ceiling, the systems did not lose calibration.

Software

Often it may be the system with the most suitable software that will be most appealing.  It is often cited as a reason to go for an expensive IWB is the quality of the software and the amount of pre-made resources available for it.

With projector use both systems had software that allowed you to record writing and annotate over other software.

For ebeam, the tools were contained in a wheel activated by launching ‘ebeam interactive’.  This wheel changed according to the other software running.  It could be turned on and off using a button on the pen.

ebeam scrapbook is the software that allows you to store your work.  It provides a blank canvas on which you can draw, type, import pictures or what ever is necessary.  New pages can be added, and at the end of a lesson you can save the pages and export them to pdf, as a web page, bmp, jpg, tif, emf, ppt or pps formats.  It can then be emailed, placed on the web or simply filed for next time.  The tools used to annotate over other titles may also be saved as above.

There are also tools specifically for use with PowerPoint files.  Other tools allow a snapshot of the screen or the active window.  You can also record you use of the system.  This may be handy for showing the steps to a particular answer.  This recording can be exported as an avi.

The equivalent Mimio software is mimio Studio’s mimio Notebook.  It allows all the functions discussed above, it outputs in various image formats as above including wmf.  It can also export the file as a webpage.  The current software is certainly visually less appealing than the ebeam system.  Some teachers may appreciate the windows feel of the software.   One nice feature is the screen clipping feature – a portion of the screen can be selected and dragged into your Notebook file for use.  There is also a higher quality clipart collection bundled with the Studio software.  New software – available free to all Mimio users, or to buy – is due out soon.

The software for use with the ebeam whiteboard marker system, ebeam Software, is easy to use.  It has a different interface than the flashier software for projection use.  Care must be taken that both pieces of ebeam software are not used at once, or the device will not work.  The mimio system uses the same software, Notebook, for both applications – this could be an important consideration if it is likely both the pen and the whiteboard marker sleeves are to be used on the same system.

Other software bundled was for handwriting recognition and to enable broadcast of the whiteboard to other users.  The ebeam system came with EverNote for handwriting recognition.  This worked adequately.  The Mimio system comes with Recognise Ink handwriting recognition software, this is integrated into Notebook.

ebeam contains software that allows 10 students in your class to view the white board on their screen across the local network.  This could be a very useful feature in class.  There are also other options to share your whiteboard across the internet with up to 25 others.  This is not possible without upgrading the Mimio software. 

Summary

Both of the systems tested offer a genuine alternative to the expensive IWB.  They are cheaper, more portable, easier to install, allow the retention of a conventional whiteboard and more robust than IWBs.  There is little loss in resolution, tracking speed and sensitivity.  There is a slight ergonomic loss, but not significant.  The software is perhaps not as powerful or established as IWBs, but it is more than sufficient.  Mimio is planning on upgrading its software in the next few weeks.

The ebeam is a little neater and responsive.  The Mimio can be used wirelessly on batteries, making it very tidy.  It also has a flash memory for capturing whiteboard markers.  The current ebeam software is visually appealing and offers significant advantages when it comes to broadcasting the work; the Mimio has screenclip and allows smoother integration of media into your presentation.  A signifigant factor is also that Mimio’s notebook software is used to run both the projection and capture capabilities of the device, helping a teacher looking to use both.

edit:

Simon Lewis over at anseo.net has also looked at these products as well as some other options.

The removeable splashproof keyboard looks interesting. 

The screen is the same size as the ASUS Eee PC, it has one less USB slot, but can come with bluetooth.  The storage format is not SD, but wirstVAULT.  I find the SD slot on the Eee invaluable as it allows me to synchronise with other computers easily.