low-cost interactive whiteboard - interactive whiteboard lessons

Walking into any primary or secondary school today, at least one teacher may use an interactive whiteboard in their course.
In fact, the number of interactive whiteboards used in an educational environment seems to be increasing, and there is a good reason that these whiteboards provide greater opportunities for cooperation, both teachers and students have more participation and a better experience.
However, these interactive whiteboards are not perfect.
First of all, if these whiteboards are so beneficial, then what prevents some teachers from adopting them?
I left Middle School more than a year ago and while the school I attended did have some interactive whiteboards installed in several classrooms, there were very few. But why?
As a student, these whiteboards add a new dimension by allowing annotations and collaboration as regular courses, making the courses more appealing as a whole.
One of the main reasons it looks like is the cost.
Typically, the price of a brand new interactive whiteboard ranges from £ 400 to £ 3000, so it's a huge financial investment for schools or educational institutions.
Typically, these interactive whiteboards also require a single provider to provide specific hardware and software, which means that it may take some time to replace or repair parts if needed.
However, joining Kainos (
A software company based in Belfast)
I learned that a project created by one of my colleagues can help overcome these problems.
This project called "whiteboard" can provide an alternative solution by providing the same service at a fraction of the cost.
The whiteboard was originally created by Michael Kemp as part of his last year's university program, which provides interactive, collaborative services at affordable costs, so it is very useful for many departments and use cases, especially for education.
Michael worked with the company's "Application Innovation" team to develop a service that allows people to collaborate on projects through whiteboard functionality and using real-time communication.
So I have the opportunity to test and strengthen the operational implementation of this project, which means I can try some DIY (
Although this is not mandatory)
And use some great features.
By using this item, I found that you can use off-the-
Shelf equipment for a minimum of 7.
74, if you already have a computer and an old Nintendo Wii remote, even these costs can be reduced further.
Even if you don't have these ready-made components, the Ninentdo Wii Remote can be purchased for £ 10, and the Raspberry Pi can be used as a cost-effective computer.
I recommend Raspberry Pi 3 Model B that can be purchased for £ 30.
If you plan to use the project in front of an audience or classroom, then you may also want to use the projector.
So the project is wide and cheap.
So I hope that the whiteboard project will work for teachers, educators or any real need with low
Cost-effective solutions.
If you feel the project is of some use to you, it would be great if you could try it and provide some feedback on your project experience.
So since the sales pitch is out of date, check out the whiteboard project on Github here: and use the project as an interactive whiteboard as per the instructions below!
Devices that require whiteboards can run on a variety of devices, including Raspberry Pi 3.
The starter kit for this model can be purchased from Amazon for £ 42.
You can buy £ 35 here, or you can buy basic Raspberry Pi 3 for just £ 30.
Therefore, Pi 3 can provide a cost-effective platform to run whiteboard projects and facilitate the functions of interactive whiteboards.
In addition to the collaborative whiteboard feature, the project also allows the transmission of audio and video via a web browser (
Using the so-called web real-
Time communication or "webRTC ").
I found that the best browser to support this on Raspberry pie is Google's "Chrome ".
"I outlined below the steps to install this browser: From here you can navigate to the" menu-> Internet -
> Chrome Web browser "to test whether the Chrome configuration is successful and whether the whiteboard can be run. Please open a new Chrome browser window and navigate here and you can play around using the initial whiteboard configuration.
However, if you want to set up your own version of the whiteboard, you can find instructions on how to install and run the whiteboard project locally on the supporting website of the project, when loading the project on the Raspberry Pi, several steps need to be changed.
I outlined these below: NodeJSTo install NodeJS on Raspberry Pi, open the terminal window and run the following command: install wget NodeJS and copy it to the local folder by running the following command: sudo cp-
When installing NodeJS, just run the following command to download and install npm: sudo apt-
Get install nodejs npm (
Note: You may need to run "cd" after this step. .
"In order to exit the installed NodeJS folder, in the open Terminal window)
From here you will need to clone the project and install any dependencies.
For this process and the steps required to run the project locally, follow the same instructions as shown below: install the project locally and you make sure that only you (
Anyone you provide the IP address of your computer)
You can connect to a meeting room session.
It also allows you to configure whiteboard items to meet your needs.
You can then host your own configuration online through Heroku for easier access.
All of these details can be found on the companion website.
To further reduce the cost, you can even make a red pen yourself.
There are a lot of instructions and tutorials online showing how to do this.
Fortunately, these instructions are direct.
Even if I can do one without too much tears and hurt.
I created my masterpiece with an old highlighter and some cheap parts from a local hardware store.
I find that the best instructions are provided on your own IR pen, which also helps to reduce costs.
The cost of my IR pen is: £ 7 in total.
74 alternative products available for purchase sif, however DIY is not one of your strengths and you want to avoid the hassle of some alternative products that can be purchased: In the end, you will be happy to know, the last thing you need to install is a python called-whiteboard”.
This can be easily installed with the following instructions: then navigate to the newly created python-
Whiteboard folder (
Via file browser)
And run/double
Click "python-whiteboard”.
This is ground work. you should be ready now.
Finding the right location for Wiimote also takes some time (
Very patient).
The best instructions I found are as follows: "For desktop screens, laptop screens, or small projected surfaces, place Wiimote at the same height as in the middle of the screen.
Next, Wiimote should be in 8 "-
16 "left or right.
I recommendations xiang zuo xiang you.
For a 20-inch screen, Wiimote should be about 3 feet away from the screen.
It should be farther for a larger screen, and it should be closer for a smaller screen.
Also, the IR camera end of Wiimote should point to the center of the screen.
The next step is to calibrate Wiimote's ability to track the IR pen.
To do this, just click the calibration button and follow the instructions-screen.
When you press the button on the IR pen, your computer will now recognize the mouse click.
This means that you can use the IR pen to copy the real interactive whiteboard next to the whiteboard project.