While I was up at Nipissing University recently, I was pleased to find out that although the Pre-Service Teacher Program has an active SmartBoard program, they are also investing an inexpensive alternative, the WiiMote Whiteboard. I interviewed Ken Waller, the Iteach Co-ordinator and Education Faculty Member about the WiiMote Project including how to set up the WiiMote Whiteboard. What resulted is the 18 minute video below which provides a plethora of tips and tricks for getting this inexpensive technology working in any classroom. Hopefully Ken Waller’s excitement about the project will spill over to a classroom near you!
I’m thinking that a worthy addition to the blue WiiMote Kit would be a flash drive loaded with the above video, several portable applications such as kindlelabs, VBDoodle, OpenOffice and Edusim, and lastly several ‘ready-made’ activities.
In order to provide a comprehensive instructional video, I needed to rely on other sources around the web… including numerous creative commons copyrighted works and thankfully I received permission from several others who didn’t have their work listed CC. Here is a list of additional resources:
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You can listen to an extended version of my conversation with Ken Waller about the WiiMote Whiteboard here (right click to download 30 minute 27meg mp3 file)
Great blog.
You will find a comprehensive setup guide at http://www.boonjin.com/smoothboard
Includes everything you need or want to know about setting a Wiimote IWB up.
Ben
Smoothboard 1.6 version (http://www.smoothboard.net) now does not require manual Bluetooth connection but handle automatic connection with the computer through a Bluetooth adaptor using MS Bluetooth Stack.