Tablet - SmartBoard Interaction.
With tablets becoming common place in schools a common question I am asked is can they be used to communicate with the Interactive Whiteboard that is already in place at school? The simple answer is yes! There are many companies selling solutions but all have slightly different uses and features. My biggest problem in school is money, our budget is almost non-existent and I am passionate about exploring free alternatives and solutions. When I spoke to our technician he quoted a screen sharing service but with a cost implication of almost £300! In essence these programs are just remote desktop access for tablets. With a little research I was able to implement my own service for free! I hope to explain below how!
NetTop. NetTop Classroom Management is a tool a discovered at last years BETT show. They had a fantastic live presentation which engaged all people watching. It allows the teacher in the classroom to share their screen with the students Ipads and smartphones.
The software also allows for the students to annotate over the screen and adds a useful toolbar to link into classroom management.
The only downfall to this system is the cheapest package, for 1x Teacher and 15x Students is $499! I huge chunk in any schools budget.
The software also allows for the students to annotate over the screen and adds a useful toolbar to link into classroom management.
The only downfall to this system is the cheapest package, for 1x Teacher and 15x Students is $499! I huge chunk in any schools budget.
Splashtop Splashtop Streamer is a service that has been with us for a few years now and offers free remote desktop access for Android and IOs devices. It requires you to install the server software on your target PC and then download a small APP. Once signed up and registered connection between devices is simple, just enter your email and away you go! I used this APP in class when I first got my tablets but the limitation was that only one device could connect to my computer at once, which made class collaboration impossible. I needed a solution that would allow all of my tablets to interact with my main PC at the same time.
Real VNC After a lot of researching I discovered a great piece of software for my class PC called "Real VNC" it comes as a two part package, the server and the client. The server is the part that we are interested in. This server is a small application that runs in the background when you first turn your PC on, it then allows any device (Tablet or PC) to then connect directly using any free VNC viewer software or APP. Real VNC allows infinite amount of connections so now all of my tablets can interact with my PC at the same time.
When my students connect to my computer my PC's display is then mirrored onto their display, creating a handheld version of my smart board. Now the children can do anything that I can do on my PC; Typing, Annotating, Dragging and Dropping, online games etc... but from their own device. I love doing shared writing like this as the children can actually add their ideas themselves!
As always, if you would like any advice or practical help with setting up a system please feel free to contact me!
@JholmesICT
Jholmes@somerset.gov.uk
When my students connect to my computer my PC's display is then mirrored onto their display, creating a handheld version of my smart board. Now the children can do anything that I can do on my PC; Typing, Annotating, Dragging and Dropping, online games etc... but from their own device. I love doing shared writing like this as the children can actually add their ideas themselves!
As always, if you would like any advice or practical help with setting up a system please feel free to contact me!
@JholmesICT
Jholmes@somerset.gov.uk
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