The SmartBoard is preferred by teachers who like to use a whiteboard. It offers more space on which to write than a tablet. If you want student participation you can call students to come up to the front of the room.
Tablets are good for teachers who used to like using an overhead and prefer to face the class. If you want student participation you can ask students to use the teacher's tablet.
If you have a classroom set of laptops or tablets for students to use, or if the teacher is a "wanderer", then consider a tablet with a wireless projector. (Actually the projector is hard-wired into the network, but teacher and students connect to it
wirelessly.) No strings attached! You can involve students by displaying their computer desktops through the projector.
All teachers are different so it would be tough to say what everyone needs daily. Some of our teachers use their projectors daily - others less.
Our students do use laptops and tablets. We started with a SmartBoard, laptop, and standard lcd projector for a small group of teachers - many teachers still prefer this. When we moved to tablets and wireless projectors, many of those teachers gave up
their SmartBoards to others without and have not missed them. They like the freedom to roam untethered and to call upon students to share what is on their computers.
I would recommend trying out a few of each - then teachers can decide which they would prefer. Our teachers are about half and half right now but my guess is that a number of them (but not all!) would have been happy with the less expensive alternative.
I hope this helps. Karen
Karen Douse
Director of Library and Information Services
Ann Scott Carell Library
Harpeth Hall School
615-346-0116
douse@harpethhall.org
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