Interactive+whiteboards+the+facts

__**How are whiteboards different?**__ There are basically two types of whiteboard - 'hard' (electromagnetic technology) which require a special electronic pen, and 'soft' (resistive technology) whereby the finger (or sometimes a pen) is used. __**How are whiteboards the same? **__  Interactive whiteboards are part of today's presentation technologies. The computer image is projected on to a large white board and the computer can be controlled from the board. The finger or pen take over from the mouse and control the pointer. Whatever is on the screen can be selected, highlighted, dragged, dropped, clicked and so on. __**Who makes interactive whiteboards? **__  Lots of different companies. Two companies, however, have cornered the education market somewhat - SMART and Promethean. The former supply soft boards and the latter hard boards. Both provide products of exceptional quality and their hardware, and associated software, have won many awards. __**What software do you need? **__   Actually ANY software will work with interactive whiteboards. If it works on your computer, it can be controlled from the whiteboard. MS Office software works very well, particularly PowerPoint for presentations. Teachers are waking up to the usefulness of PowerPoint at last and many 'ready-made' presentations are freely available on the Web. The software that comes with the whiteboard is tailor made for the device and is very good. The ACTIVstudio package that comes with Promethean ACTIVboards, for example, is excellent, and the [|ACTIVprimary] package is eminently suitable for primary classrooms with its engaging interface. For those who don't have this software there is a free [|ACTIVflipchart Viewer]so that you can view and share flipchart presentations created with ACTIVprimary and ACTIVstudio software (there is even a Mac version). The [|Notebook] software (Version 10) for SMART boards is equally impressive. Get the free [|Notebook Interactive Viewer] to see files if you do not have the Notebook software. __**Are there other software packages available? **__  There are indeed! Too many to mention really but one package of note is [|Easiteach] (produced by RM). Easiteach is a marvellous package for use in literacy, maths and science. More subjects are to come. The latest development is [|Easiteach Studio] which is described as "a powerful and flexible whole-class-teaching software product" where teachers can develop their own content for use across the curriculum. __**Are there resources on the internet? **__   <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Yes - thousands of them! Most are freely available too. These will be covered in more depth in the Resources section but quality interactive activities especially made for the whiteboard can be used online or downloaded and installed. There are articles, training materials and 'helpsheets' to assist you as you get to grips with the technology. You will also find the Web a useful source of information, advice and research findings. Some schools are opting for online content services such as [|Espresso]<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">, [|The Big Bus]<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">, [|EducationCity]<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">, [|eChalk]<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">, [|i-Board] , [|Heinemann Explore] , [|Knowledge Box] and now [|Sherston Channels]. These offer exceptional interactive content linked to the National Curriculum but they are **subscription services** and schools will have to decide if they want to pay an annual fee running into hundreds of pounds