We've chosen to standardize on Eno boards after looking at both Eno and
ActivBoards during the past year and using SMART Boards for many years.
We've been using Eno for a little more than a year.
I'll explain our decision in a moment, but I want to start with the usual
caution: your mileage may vary :-) We had some specific reasons for
selecting Eno that may or may not apply to you.
Here are a few things that are pertinent before you read about our
decision:
- We are a PreK-9 school using Macintosh computers throughout. Our
teachers each have Macintosh laptops.
- Most of our classrooms already had projectors, so we purchased
stand-alone Eno boards (without projectors).
- Our campus is WIFI throughout.
We chose Eno because:
* Eno comes with built-in buttons that do most everything teachers need
WITHOUT additional software; you just install the Eno driver onece, and it
runs behind-the-scenes to provide the basic services. For example, the Eno
board prints the current page and sets pen colors/sizes via its buttons --
without opening a toolbar or another window or another piece of software.
For our teachers, this simplicity just about sold the board. And that was
interesting! For other schools I know that it was actually the additional
software -- like ActivInspire -- that was very compelling. But for us the
"start the board and go" idea won the day.
* Eno boards can be used as regular white boards when the projector is off
with absolutely no thought or care. Some other interactive whiteboards
also promise this, but with Eno it's been really great. We simply mount
the Eno board in place of a whiteboard.
* When kids lean on the board as they use it, the annotations do NOT
disappear as they do on SMART Boards. So kids can use real, physical
devices like meter sticks and protractors with the boards successfully. (I
know that both Eno and other boards come with digital versions of these
tools, but for our kids the physical versions are sometimes more
successful.)
* There are no wires between the board and the presentation computer.
Communication is done wirelessly between a special pen that you use for
the board and the presentation computer using Bluetooth (which is built
into our Macintoshes), and that's worked fine here.
A drawback for Eno:
* That special pen which you use to operate the board "mates" with one
computer only. If you have a lab situation, you can "mate" the pen to a
presentation station in the lab. BUT ... if teachers are _bring their own
laptops into the lab_ then each teacher will be most productive if s/he
has an individual pen (about $150).
* In some ways, we miss the "touch the board" feeling we got from SMART.
Polyvision, ActivBoards, and SMART all have touch-sensitive models, so if
you have really little kids and want that characteristic there are plenty
of choices.
That's it! Good luck! Happy to answer questions -
Terry Dash
Director of Technology
Pike School
978.409.6623
A forum for independent school educators <ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU> writes:
>Just a quick shout out for users of eno boards. Some of the elementary
>teachers are asking for them. Could I get some quick opinions?
>Thanks!
>Deb
>
>Debra Cusack
>Director of Instructional Technology
>The Gordon School
>dcusack@gordonschool.org
>401.434.3833
>
>
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>]
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