INTERATIVE VOTING SYSTEMS.

ISE in Amsterdam saw one of the largest representations of manufacturers of the interactive technology product market, many of whom also appeared in the BECTA show in London this year. 

Traditional writing boards from the regular platforms, featuring further software and user friendly updates and the latest combinations of short throw projectors allowing virtually shadow free use.

But it was the voting systems that featured heavily, with simple button touch to multi-input keypad systems. The use of these devices is becoming ever more popular for the Education market, in application these systems are finding favour in direct class participation, multiple group feedback and also in competitions and debate.

Alphabetic and Numeric

Voting systems have long been the staple interaction tool used by corporate meetings, commissions, councils and administrative groups, more recently we have seen TV shows embrace the technology, with simplistic response systems for competitions, game shows or political opinion broadcasts.

It is now with teaching processes taking on more of participation role, that voting systems are playing an ever more important part or the curriculum. The ability to gain opinion from a basic alphanumeric count or full text respons in examination style multiple choice and being able to collaborative the information through graphic or data responses has become key to effective understanding of opinion and subject matter.

If you have considered Interactive voting systems for your organisation, give MSi a call and we can talk you through the options best suited for your application, arrange a demonstration or even hire you a system, to evaluate.  

INTERACTIVE WRITING BOARDS.

Although now considered pretty much the staple diet of classroom technology the development and application of the Interactive writing board is still being enhanced to incorporate design changes in the projection system itself. Modern touch technologies are now represented through a number of major design revisions.

From Video format to Widescreen, why boards are changing! 

Larger widescreen boards are now being installed to cater for the new breed of widescreen projector, enabling more data to be displayed on the screen and importantly to meet the growing number of Laptop based classrooms where screen resolution is now produced in widescreen format (16:9, 16:10).

Additionally,  the traditional design of the Video format (4:3) board design was based on conventional projection technology and SVGA – XGA resolution PC outputs, the fundamental problem in the classroom was that not only could pupils not reach the tops of boards, but often , nor could the teachers!

The benefit of widescreen means the top of the image is closer to the user without sacrifice of work area, in fact a widescreen board gives more work area than traditional 4:3 format boards!

Short throw projectors!

Whilst widescreen solutions deliver the content and meet modern day Laptop applications, the biggest attention to Interactive board design has come from two directions.

Short throw projectors; offer an effective solution to the problem of shadow over a board when the projected image is obscured by the user. This problem creates difficulties for the viewer to see data clearly but for the user it makes it impossible to continue without moving away format he board to allow clear site for the projector.

Short throw projectors have a variable angle of attack to the screen and in instances of models such as the Hitachi EDA series they can throw the projected image down onto the screen in front of the presenter enabling the image to be seen at all times, but for the most extreme blocking of the projectors image.

One of the major issues to come out from Interactive board use and in a litigious society that is now dominated by the health and safety culture, the traditional long throw projector set up often meant that viewers looking back from a board or standing up could potentially be staring into the projector light path with obvious potential eye damage, temporary or otherwise. Short throw projectors reduce or virtually eliminate this problem.

MSi supply and install a wide range of Short throw projectors and can advise on the best solutions available. 

The rise and fall of Interactive boards, all is not as it seems!

An issue that constantly arose through users and viewers of Interactive boards was the restriction of height in using the whole board area.

For pupils of a younger age or height limitation, reaching the upper portion of a board was almost impossible without the addition of a step, which in turn would limit the teacher’s access or slow down the class when moving out of the way, between student and teacher input.

The projector installation was often poorly compromised by installers (particularly Becta Approved!) who would not convey the fact that if a Projector was to be angled to such an extensive degree, that the use of key stoning (the trapezoid effect of an angled image corrected electronically to make flat) would reduce the computer resolution to a level that the image quality would be severely effected, including the perceived focus.

Teachers, particularly those in the Infant sector, would often have to bend or even sit to use the board in order that pupils could access the whole surface.

For this reason the rising Board system was developed and is now a key design feature with a number of Board manufacturers. The system simply allows the user to adjust the Board vertically to a comfortable working height as the projector, (short throw) and usually Audio all operates off the whole system, effective, versatile and an intelligent solution to several historic user issues.

MSi supply and install all the leading brands of Interactive board technologies and Projectors. We also offer the refit of new projection products to existing boards or indeed upgrade of boards for existing projector stock.