Current mood:

chipper

Shared Scribbles
Phil posted an interesting question on the Moodle mailing list about using tablet computers with interactive electronic whiteboards that got me thinking.  Yesterday at the VITTA conference I have heard Don mention about using a classroom set of cheaper graphics tablets, shared whiteboard software and a conventional projection system. This would work in a similar way to this flash based, ImaginationCubed collaborative drawing too.

I had a chance to see Elluminate, a slick Java solution. Whilst free for up to 3 users, it seems sadly overpriced when you consider any enterprise wide. A quick dig about the web showed me some cool open source software whiteboards under development that could be used in the classroom such as HiveBoard, DimDim or Drawboard.

There are a couple of different groups working to integrate these free tools DimDim into Moodle and another group at Cornell that has undertaken an even more challenging Moodle and Second Life integration with Drawboard and other project at San Jose State University.

All up, this is fun collaborative stuff that doesn't lock users or presenters into using a particular vendor or hardware system :-)