Can Your iPad Replace Your SmartBoard?

[Sam Gliksman]

Whatever your philosophy regarding frontal teaching methods and the uses of Smartboards, there’s no denying two facts:

1. Smartboards have become extremely popular tools in educational institutions
2. Smartboards are relatively expensive and eat major portions out of our shrinking school budgets

What if you could create a parallel experience using nothing more than an iPad and a $50 piece of software? One software product with a matching iPad app claims that it can.

 

Doceri is an iPad app that provides an alternative to interactive whiteboards at a fraction of the cost.  Doceri lets an educator control and annotate on a computer connected to a projector from anywhere in the room. 

Installation

Step 1: Install the Doceri software on your laptop or desktop computer. The software is available from the Doceri website and there are versions for both Mac and Windows computers. Install it on whichever computer you want to use for your presentations.

 

Step 2: Get your iPad and download the Doceri iPad app.

 

Step 3: Connect the two. When you set up the app it looks for the software on your desktop or laptop and connects to it. Now I have to admit that I had problems with the connection. If your iPad and laptop are on the same wireless network then you can allow the app to “discover” the laptop. This tends to work fairly efficiently. If however they are not on the same network – say, for example the computer is using a wired connection and not on wireless – then you’ll need to know and enter an IP address for the app to find your computer. For novices this can become a little tricky.

Features

One connected, your iPad can now display and control your computer directly. You can open documents, browse the web, play video and more. If that was all you could do then there would be numerous other inexpensive apps you could use. Doceri does much more.

 

Highlight and Annotate: Similar to the ways in which you can interact with your computer using Smartboard or Promethean software, Doceri allows you to write or draw on the screen using your iPad. Open a blank page and write on it. Open a document or web page and highlight sections or add annotations. You can change backgrounds, pen types, colors and more.

 

Untethered Teaching: Doceri frees the teacher from being anchored to the whiteboard. Input occurs on the iPad instead. Doceri gives teachers the freedom to move around the classroom and interact with students as part of the presentation process.

 

Use Any Content: Since Doceri works in conjunction with a PC or MAC, the educator can use any existing content - whether Flash, Powerpoint, Java, a website, or a standalone application. Users aren’t restricted to using content that is available on the iPad.  

 

Record Lessons for Playback: Doceri has a built-in record function that gives you the option of recording your annotations and playing them back at any time. This enables educators to prepare handwritten lesson snippets in advance, create them in real time, or both. Recordings also allow you to set anchor points that make it simple to jump to any part of the lesson recording quickly.

 

Just to be absolutely clear, I’m not an advocate of frontal teaching methods. Having said that, there will always be times teachers need to present and demonstrate. As with any other new technology, it takes a little time to get used to Doceri’s iPad-based writing interface. Doceri is however a sensible and cost effective alternative to Smartboards and it's certainly worth your time to download their trial version and see if it meets your needs. 

[Estela Landeros-Dugourd]

Interactive boards are expensive, yes. But their applications in the classroom are completely different that what an Ipad can do.

There are several excellent products to remotely access your PC or MAC. Some of them are even free. Besides, one of the beauties of interactive boards is that enhances students' participation by allowing them to touch the board and take ownership of what they are doing. The teacher should not be "anchored" to the whiteboard, she/he should encourage students participate in the learning process.

As per the features mentioned for Doceri, there are several apps that do the same. @ Screens allow highlight and annotations and is only $4.99 http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/2screens-presentation-expert/id37091....

Untethered Teaching. If this is only to let the teacher move around that classroom, after all, with or without an iPad, this is what teachers should do. Letting students participate and construct their own learning does not have to do with the tools used in the classroom.

Use Any Content. Controlling your PC or Mac using remote control software lets teachers do this. 

Record Lessons for Playback. Any software for interactive boards do this. Again, why adding the cost of an iPad to something you already do with the tools you have?

Excellent teaching is not about having, or pushing the latest gadgets do the work for you, is about adequate instructional strategies, knowing your students, learning about their needs and most of all, allowing them to fully participate in their learning process but facilitating a universally designed classroom environment where they are all involved, not just by watching the teacher manipulate an interactive board from another area of the room instead of from the front of the class.

[Sam Gliksman]

John, Using Doceri with an iPad isn't at all like using a "blind" wireless slate. I find those very difficult to use due to the lack of any visual feedback on the slate. With an iPad you have a visually enabled input device that allows you to control and annotate your computer and content. It removes the need for an IWB. Whether you find an iPad as easy an iput device to use as an IWB is a valid question but considering the enormous saving, it's probably worth a try.

As for whether it can connect 30 iPads, that would be a great addition we'd all like to see...

[nathan stevens]

I think this article should be title "Can your iPAD replace your Interactive Whiteboard or Bluetooth slate device?"  The only delima is that a SMART Airliner is less than an iPAD. 

[John J Caprice]

Dear Sam,

I have quickly reviewed the SP Control's website on the Doceri program. The software converts an iPad into an interactive input device, similar to most wireless tablets/slates.

Wireless slates are "blind", they have no viewable screen, merely a solid pen surface.

I have posed a question to Doceri. "Can more than one iPad connect in a classroom?"  More specifically, can we hook up 30 iPads with Doceri in a single class?

If that function was fesable, we would then have a truly interactive enviroment.

John J Caprice / Visualedtech

[Gregory Odell]

This makes so much sense!  Thank you for sharing.  Untethered teaching would be huge for teachers in our district.

[Sam Gliksman]

AirDisplay is a great app that's primarily designed to be a second, extended monitor. Try the free Doceri trial and I think you'll see that they are quite different in nature.

[John Scates]

Sam,
I have been using AirDisplay in my classroom for several months and find that it works quite well. The app is $9.99, so I would be hesitant to spend five times the amount for Doceri. AirDisplay does not have all of the features you mention, but all of those features, and more, are available on the eInstruction workspace, which is available for download.

John