[Yr7-10it] Re: [Oz-teachers] Notebooks and Projectors

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Hi all,

Dispatches from the front regarding the use of on-line Interactive White 
Boards in Australian classrooms certainly seem positive and many or most 
schools have at least one. Word is when they are used both as a teaching 
tool and as learning tools they enrich and empower the learning outcomes.

In a small-medium group, in a student led learning environment, some say
they are almost motivation magic, especially at the primary school level.

Whatever, we've got to get this right. The digital education revolution 
has to be rock-steady and work nicely with everything. Native resolution
has issues, and I think schools deserve better. OzEd standards would help.

A much better IWB-company software driver is not demanding rocket science.


--
Chris writes,

Yes that's true.  I was keen to try native mode, thinking it would be the 
ideal solution for our teachers... they could have the IWB up on the 
secondary screen, and their own work on the local screen.

We tested it and found it didn't really work as expected.  ActivStudio did 
not play nicely in this mode and was constantly moving the toolstore back 
to the main screen for no apparent reason.  Floating palettes would not do 
what you expected them to do, and there were other niggly issues that I 
can't recall in detail right now.

Basicaly though, it was a solution that sounded like it should have solved 
the problem but we found in practice it didn't.

Let me know how you go though, as I'd really like to find an answer to 
this one...

Chris

On 21/03/2008, Cameron Bell <bell.cameron.p at edumail.vic.gov.au> wrote:

Most newer laptops should have a dual screen mode where the LCD is at
native res while the VGA output can be an independent resolution to
match the output device. The Lenovo R61 does and my Macbook does.

We have just got in some widescreen R61's (yesterday) and I look forward
to trying this feature on the IWB's. Just make sure you have dual
independent display in the specs.

Cheers
Cameron


Chris Betcher wrote:
>
> Hi Berkeley
>
> Great question.  I don't agree that any modern laptop will do, in fact
> I think most modern laptops are a pain in the neck if your primary use
> for them is to drive an IWB... here's why...
>
> Early PCs ran a screen resolution of 640x480 (VGA), and then we moved
> to 800x600 (SVGA), and then to 1024x768 (UVGA), then 1200x1024 (XGA),
> and so on as the specs on computer rose...  Many modern, late model
> laptops run much higher than that.  This is a problem, because many
> projectors will not run much higher than UVGA, so the higher
> resolution laptops have to downsample their output to run on the older
> (or cheaper) projectors.  You can buy high res projectors but they are
> typically quite expensive.  What you'll notice about all these screen
> resolutions though is that their size is 4 units wide by 3 units high,
> often referred to as a 4:3 format.  This works well because IWB screen
> are also 4:3 fomat.  So if you get a 4:3 format computer, and a 4:3
> format board, and a projector that matches the screen res of your
> computer's output, it all looks fantastic.
>
> But here's the other big problem you'll face...  Most current laptops
> run a widecreen WS-XGA screen...  meaning they are not only a very
> high resolution, but they are also not a 4:3 format... they are a
> widescreen format that does not match the 4:3 format of the IWB.
> Problem here, because either the projector will have to project a wide
> image (and many won't) and you'll lose a strip at the top and bottom
> of the board, or your screen will resize itself to a lower, more
> stretched mode and while the IWB image will look great, the computer
> screen looks crappy.  If you are like my school, where teachers are
> connected to the IWB all day, this makes working on the computer (for
> checking mail, typing documents, etc) a real pain.  The computer
> screen looks awful.
>
> We just upgraded some laptops from ones that had a 1024x768, 4:3 ratio
> screen, to new tablet PCs with a widescreen, high res display, and
> most teachers will tell you that while it's nice to have a new
> computer, the new machines are not as good for using the IWBs as the
> old ones.
>
> Also, developing teaching resources using ActivStudio on the
> widescreen models often means that it looks quite different when
> projected on the IWB.
>
> Not sure what the answer is...  the newer computers are nice to work
> on when not connected to an IWB, but are not as good when you do.
>
> just something to think about.
>
> Chris
>
>
>
> On 19/03/2008, *Berkeley Fitzhardinge* <edgecb at gmail.com

> <mailto:edgecb at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     Hi everyone,
>     I have been asked to buy 6 notebooks for use with IWBs in a
>     Kimberley Aboriginal school.
>
>     I remember a few years ago hearing that a school was having
>     trouble getting a notebook to display via their Projector.  At
>     that time I was buying a couple of notebooks for use with IWBs.
>     At the time advice was I should purchase a notebook with say an
>     Invidia or AYI graphics adapter rather than say the Intel one.
>     This meant purchasing a more expensive notebook - but there were
>     no problems.
>
>     The school's budget is around $1400 per notebook for the 6 new
>     ones.  The requested operating system is Windows XP.
>
>     What's your experience and advice?
>
>     Berkeley
>
>     --
>     http://www.westcourt.wa.edu.au/home/berkeley
>
>
>     _______________________________________________
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>
>     oz-teachers at rite.ed.qut.edu.au
>     http://lists.rite.ed.qut.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/oz-teachers
>
> --
> Chris Betcher

> www.betchablog.com <http://www.betchablog.com>
> Sydney Australia
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cheers people
Stephen Loosley
Victoria, Australia