Distance education is a pretty hot topic these days as many different resources and methods are arising all the time. I've had some experience with IITV in my student teaching placement but I've already touched on that in previous blogs and comments. What I want to talk about now is something that I was shown at the career fair by the two people at the Lakeshore School Division. It was a new type of interactive white board. It is an American product called MIMIO that is apparently much cheaper than a SmartBoard and the best part about it is that it's portable. There is a devise that you can attach above your regular whiteboard in your classroom that captures everything that you write on it. The exact marker strokes that you create can be sent to a computer file and then posted on the internet or whatever. Ok so how does this affect distance learning? Well there is a mini MIMIO product that students can attach to their paper, it comes with a special pen that sends a message to the devise and it captures everything within the 8 by 11 area. This message can then be sent from the devise to the computer through a USB cord.
So the bottom line is...
Students studying subjects like math or science that require more than word processing assignments (like english and history allow for). The students can now do their math assignments as they would in a normal class...on paper...and then send their actual written work by email. I suppose that this could be done by writing out the assignment and then scanning it..but wait....the teacher can actually make comments and corrections using their own MIMIO mini on a blank piece of paper. Their corrections show up on the student's document that was sent to the teacher, on the teacher's computer screen, even though the teachers sheet itself has no work on it. The corrected work can be sent back to the student as if it had been printed off marked and then re scanned.
I know that my written explanation may have lost a few people so I'll attach a link to some demonstrations on YouTube so you can see for yourself first hand how it works!
It seems like a really cool tool that would save a lot of time and give distance education a whole new outlook.
Check it out...until next time...
Dan
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ReplyDeleteGreat comments Dan. I really liked what you said about MIMIO and its uses with distance education. It is cheap, user friendly, and a great way to engage students in lessons. The video that you uploaded was a great way to see things in action. You are a technological wizard!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the video it really clarified what MIMIO is. I would be very interested to see a cost comparison between MIMIO and SmartBoard products. From the demonstration within the video it appears that both share a large number of functions. I would also be interested in seeing a demonstration of the individual MIMIO capture devices.
ReplyDeleteThis product will most definitely revolutionize distance ed and many other aspects of collaborative learning.
Great topic.