Getting Value from Visualisers

Visualisers are a fairly hot topic within primary schools right now and with some visualisers having a price tag over £300 it’s definitely a purchase that needs some justification.

Primary T bought a selection of visualisers from different manufacturers to test and came out with a shock winner which was the Ipevo Point 2 View USB Document Camera. Priced at a staggeringly low £44 it checked all the boxes and was the clear winner. The Ipevo comes buddled with simple software and a fully adjustable stand to produces a remarkably clear and crisp autofocused image  of a much higher quality than other more expensive visualisers (some more than 6 times the price!)

The Ipevo P2v isn’t widely available in the UK yet but is stocked in the Primary T online shop at http://shop.primaryt.co.uk.

And just to prove it’s not just us that loves the Ipevo we asked a local school to test it for us too, this is what they had to say:

“We were recently asked to test the new Ipevo P2V Visualizer. On opening the box, we were astounded by its small size and easy portability. The device plugs into the usb port and worked straight out of the box with no need for any software installation, making it very easy to move between classrooms. There was no need for any training as the device was very intuitive and both teachers and students were delighted with its ease of use. The picture quality for such a small device was excellent and we were surprised at the zooming capabilities it has. Taking still images using the button on the device can be a little fiddly but you can simply click on screen to capture the image, making it much simpler. All in all, if you are looking for a low cost, easy to use, infinitely portable imaging device, then we would definitely recommend one of these.”

 

Xbox Live Games on Windows Mobile 7

So I don’t feel emotional about this, that pretty much sums it up..

I think its cool that Microsoft are trying but I don’t believe it’s enough.  Shame though because I think a load of educational games tied into an Xbox live type reward structure would be highly motivating and more motivating than a reward structure that is purely focused on Edu.

5 main barriers for Microsoft:

  1. WM7 has too much catchup to do on android
  2. WM7 doesn’t have a following of developers
  3. WM7 devices wont be as open as android
  4. The Xbox live market is pretty small (compared to Google owned farmville etc.)
  5. Lots of xbox live games just wont translate well to mobile (control/interface issues etc).

Will I be looking to develop some educational games for xbox live?  Nah.  I’d rather stick with Flash/HTML5 games and a free/open scoring/reward mechanism.

Further reading on xbox live on WM7 is available here.

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#hhl09 Hand Held Learning day 1 review


First presentation of the day by Dawn was great. I didn’t agree with the guy from the second presentation. I then walked around the exhibitors hall, most of which was pointless and confusing as at a hand held learning a lot of devices exhibited were net books which as far as I’m aware isn’t hand held according to um.. Hand Held Learning…..

I don’t know who vetted the presenters but that might need reviewing.. It was good to see the spinny netbook things we have ordered in the flesh before they arrive in the office and also a semi affordable class feedback system (£1600 for a class set)

I didn’t eat/drink at the conference as I went to meet friends/family at a pub for lunch, we came back to see a few semi decent presentations on web2 and mobile learning then it seriously went off on a tangent..
Lots of people who I wanted to meet were there. My twitter was buzzing and I think I gained a lot from chatting with people.
After the conference we headed out for food before heading back to the conference venue to the evening function which we left during the awards ceremony.. The awards ceremony was a joke and I won’t be going again next year. Sorry to say that but at £6 for a bottle of beer and £25 for the best value bottle of wine…
My impression from the conference was that it wasn’t about learning but about money. Everything was incredibly over priced, from the tickets to the exhibitors stands and from the wine to the nibbles. In comparison to #fote09 this was not an inclusive conference..
Time to practice what we preach? Let’s see if BETT2010 is a similar experience…