I N T E R A C T I V E W H I T E B O A R D S Panasonic IWB
Continued from page 30
Generation, the latest whiteboard software from RMEducation.With Easiteach software, the UB-T880 takes advantage of a vast database of over 4,700 images and other resources which teachers will be able pick from when creating their own lessons. “Our partnership with Easiteach
has been a crucial part of delivering a successful and exciting product. With core tools for text, drawing, video and animation combined with a growing range of curriculum- focused activity builders, Easiteach really helps teachers using the Panaboard to bring lessons to life,” continued Peyton. In order to offer a unique
one-stop solution for teachers, Panasonic provides elite Panaboards with integrated Easiteach software. Easiteach is a complete, whole
class teaching and learning application, which puts teachers in the driving seat for creating and delivering engaging lessons and resources. The tools are rich and powerful and very easy to use, removing many technological and physical barriers for the user. This allows teachers to make the most of the interactive whiteboard. Easiteach is an influential and
flexible software application for creating and delivering motivational, interactive lessons. It provides teachers with a wide range of cross-curricular teaching tools in both primary and secondary contexts. Teachers can use it to combine animations, videos, flash files, text, hyperlinks or number based activities in a single document. Easiteach can be used to create
personalised lessons or resources from scratch. It is possible to create and
prepare resources well in advance of lessons or use Easiteach as a
high-end, narration tool to support lessons. Other examples of Easiteach’s
versatility, is the function to record voices onto any object at the touch of a button, use the bouncy ball tool to assist the class in reading text in unison and finally, annotate selections of a page to emphasise
particularly important messages to the pupils. In summary, Easiteach helps
teachers respond to pupils’ curiosity with a multi-sensory experience.
Circle No.E14 GESTURE RECOGNITION UNVEILED
What distinguishes Panasonic from other suppliers, claims the company, is greater insight into future technological releases accompanied by a willingness to listen to education professionals. In this light, Panasonic
demonstrated a new gesture recognition technology for the first time at BETT this year. This technology is likely to be integrated with Panasonic’s interactive whiteboard solutions to enable students to engage and interact with digital content in fresh methods, providing a new tool to teachers who are looking for new ways to manage and monitor student attention and response. Although it is technology in its
infancy, the demonstration of Panasonic gesture recognition technology showed how the combination of a Panasonic interactive whiteboard combined with a camera and PC can control presentations or videos through gesture recognition. For
PANASONIC DEMONSTRATES A NEWTECHNOLOGYWHICH COULDWELL HAVEA BIG FUTURE
example, by holding an open right hand up for one second, a PowerPoint slideshow will react by moving to the next slide in the presentation and a QuickTime movie will pause and proceed one step.Aheld up, left open palm emulates the opposite action and will move a PowerPoint slideshow to the previous slide in the presentation or pause a QuickTime movie file and move it one step back. The demonstration illustrated a total of five gestures, which showed how gesture can be used to switch between windows, play/pause movies or exit tasks to start new applications. In an educational setting where
a nominated student is tasked with identifying a relevant part of a video, staff and other students in the class can
Technology in Education No.176 June/July 2010 32
positively identify the moment of a fellow student’s decision making. This is because the physical action of the student is directly related to the change in content on the interactive whiteboard. The established teaching method of asking for ‘hands up’ is augmented with gesture recognition, and subsequently a more immersive and engaging multimedia experience adds to the educational tools for learning, resulting in more fun, appealing and rewarding lessons. Other capabilities of the
system are featured in the combinations recognising and registering faces and hand gesture. For example, this can be used to take a class vote or to see how many students know the correct answer to a question.
Before the teacher starts the exercise, they input the number of students in the class into the PC and a threshold at which to measure the required number of students giving the correct answer.Ateacher could ask a question about something displayed on the interactive whiteboard, for example, ‘what colour is this flower?When the students start raising their hands, the gesture recognition technology recognises the faces and references them with the raised hands of the students that claim to know the answer. Flash animations are displayed on the screen, for example, a progressively smiley face whose smile widens as more pupils raise their hands can be used. Once the threshold number of students is successfully reached and enough students claim to know the correct answer, the celebration animation can be displayed, for instance, fireworks or hand clapping.
Circle No.E15 Check out our website:
www.technology-in-education.co.uk
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