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Curious, what is it about SmartBoards that you don't like? I've never used one, but I work in the city where their HQ is located and know some people who work t

by dblohm7 11y ago

Curious, what is it about SmartBoards that you don't like? I've never used one, but I work in the city where their HQ is located and know some people who work there.

GeneralMayhem 11y ago
They're buggy, gimmicky, overpriced pieces of crap. Or at least the models a few years ago were, they may have gotten better in the meantime. SMART makes a ton of money in the education market, and we had about a dozen at my high school. The touch controls aren't sensitive or precise enough, the model of projecting onto a separate touchscreen means that it has to be recalibrated constantly, and the only software (SMART's drawing software) that takes advantage of the functionality has almost no features and still manages to have a horrible UI. No teacher used it for more than two or three lessons.
- bduerst 11y ago
  The only time I've ever used them was in an education setting and even then the people who owned them said the smartboards were not worth the hassle.
- qzcx 11y ago
  hmm. Back in my high school days (about 6 years ago), my physics professor had one in his classroom and he used it for every lecture. It was good for him because he could do page after page of whiteboarding and then send us to pdf to review. Of course this is pretty impressive 6 years ago. If they haven't changed at all since then, I wouldn't use them, I would just project a touchscreen computer and use a stylus.
bane 11y ago
To be honest, I think the last time I really tried to use one was so long ago I don't even remember what the trouble was. People at my org who've tried to use one more recently all say that they "work better when you're part of a very large all SmartBoard ecosystem" which I take to mean getting things like the right markers and such are easier. Funny enough, an old predecessor to all this treated the board surface kind of like a large scanner face, when you were ready to "capture" the board, you hit a button and a large arm scanned the board and printed out a black and white copy of the board contents onto a piece of thermal paper. In a few seconds you could print off a copy for everybody in the room. From the age of paper sadly, but definitely simple and useful.

by dblohm7 11y ago

Curious, what is it about SmartBoards that you don't like? I've never used one, but I work in the city where their HQ is located and know some people who work there.

GeneralMayhem 11y ago

They're buggy, gimmicky, overpriced pieces of crap. Or at least the models a few years ago were, they may have gotten better in the meantime. SMART makes a ton of money in the education market, and we had about a dozen at my high school. The touch controls aren't sensitive or precise enough, the model of projecting onto a separate touchscreen means that it has to be recalibrated constantly, and the only software (SMART's drawing software) that takes advantage of the functionality has almost no features and still manages to have a horrible UI. No teacher used it for more than two or three lessons.

bduerst 11y ago
The only time I've ever used them was in an education setting and even then the people who owned them said the smartboards were not worth the hassle.
qzcx 11y ago
hmm. Back in my high school days (about 6 years ago), my physics professor had one in his classroom and he used it for every lecture. It was good for him because he could do page after page of whiteboarding and then send us to pdf to review. Of course this is pretty impressive 6 years ago. If they haven't changed at all since then, I wouldn't use them, I would just project a touchscreen computer and use a stylus.

bane 11y ago

To be honest, I think the last time I really tried to use one was so long ago I don't even remember what the trouble was. People at my org who've tried to use one more recently all say that they "work better when you're part of a very large all SmartBoard ecosystem" which I take to mean getting things like the right markers and such are easier. Funny enough, an old predecessor to all this treated the board surface kind of like a large scanner face, when you were ready to "capture" the board, you hit a button and a large arm scanned the board and printed out a black and white copy of the board contents onto a piece of thermal paper. In a few seconds you could print off a copy for everybody in the room. From the age of paper sadly, but definitely simple and useful.