Electronic Whiteboard

[TedN]

Thinking of getting one at work but no one has any experience with them. Want to be able to digitally save written content on the whiteboard to a laptop.

Any suggestions on good brands, or ones to stay away from?

Thanks in advance.

Ted

[nrc]

We have Mimio add-on units in our conference rooms and Smartboards in our classrooms.

The Mimio units are used for capturing drawings and diagrams from our whiteboards. We used them a lot initially and it worked better than I expected. But you still have to translate the captured drawing to some other drawing or presentation format and half the time nobody thinks to turn on or reset the unit until we're half way done with the diagram. So now we usually just take a picture with a camera phone and capture the drawing that way.

The Smarboards are used more for presentations in combination with a projector and they work very well for that. I've never seen them used to capture a diagram from the whiteboard, but I think they have that capability as well.

http://www.mimio.com/index.asp
http://smarttech.com/

[extramundane]

The Smarboards are used more for presentations in combination with a projector and they work very well for that. I've never seen them used to capture a diagram from the whiteboard, but I think they have that capability as well.

They do, assuming there's a computer connected to that's running Smart's software.

If you don't already have a decent projector in the room where it'll be located, Smart's models with the integrated short-throw projector are well worth the investment. They cost more up front, but when you add in the price of ceiling-mounting a projector, running cable, etc, it's pretty comparable, and the lack of shadowing when you're presenting is remarkable.

That said, if you're just looking for one unit from which you can save notes and such, Smart may be more expensive than you want. The Mimio "capture" add-ons work quite well for existing whiteboards, and Promethean and Polyvision make decent units without some of Smart's bells & whistles. And if you happen to work for a non-profit, you can get most of these for a substantial discount over retail.