SmartBoards and other interactive whiteboards (IWB's) are taking root in schools and businesses all over the world. These large, touch sensitive whiteboards promise teachers and administrators new opportunities for educating and interacting with their students and clients. One of the more popular SmartBoards on the market today is the SmartBoard Model 680 (SB680), a 77 inch diagonal IWB that uses a room's existing video projector to turn itself into an interactive media presentation device. Is it worth the $1000 plus price tag?
SB680 Easy Setup and Installation
The SmartBoard itself is fairly easy to install on a blank wall or over the top of an existing whiteboard using a long plastic mounting bracket that attaches with a few screws. One thing that was immediately discovered (although not in the official documentation) is that the mounting bracket on the back of the SB680 also fits perfectly into the metal edged cork hanging strip that many school whiteboards have running along their top edge. Fair warning though, this is not the suggested mounting method, but if the strip is strong enough go for it as it saves a lot of time and drilling.
Once on the wall a long USB cable is ran from the board to the computer. Any distance of over sixteen feet requires the purchase of a special active USB extension cable. Another alternative for special installs is the use of an add-on Bluetooth connection kit. Installing the software on the host computer was easy to do, but took and incredibly long time to complete. Part of the problem lies in that Smart does not ship its optional Notebook Essentials resources with the board. If the user needs to download the entire set of resources be prepared to download an additional 700 megabytes of data during the installation process.