September 11th 2006 – Digital Whiteboards

Regular readers will know I’m fascinated with using Digital Whiteboards in Japanese schools. With so many teachers afraid of using computers ( or mice!), the thought of simply touching a picture on the wall and hear it talk is very appealing. The market is still wide open as, unlike Europe, a lot of schools don’t have them yet, and the ones that do never seem to use them, let alone know what they are!

So today I popped along to the Hitachi headquarters ( the biggest maker ) for a chat about how to use the ones that schools have ( very often they have thrown the cables and driver software away!) and to show them the GE software. If ever there was a piece of hardware in need of a killer app, this is it.

They also showed me all their funky new products, from a 100,000 yen system that simply clips onto an existing whiteboard, to the brand new plasma display ones, which are simply fantastic. It’s just a big plasma TV, but when you put up the GE software you can touch the screen to play the games, select the words and everything. It is so nice, the graphics look fantastic enlarged and eventhough it’s pricey ( about 2,000,000 yen for a system) it would be amazing for even the most terrified teachers, as it’s simply a TV you can touch, no fancy computer gear on view!

Have a look at the Hitachi site ( English – Japanese ) , there’s always the possibility your school has a budget set aside just for this type of thing. And even if they don’t, have a hunt around the school buildings, there might just be one locked away in some storage room because nobody knew how to use it!