Let me know if it isn’t and I’ll also let you know how I get on with Windows 7 and Mobi. I think that’s enough for a quick first view. In my experience the screen did not always sync with the e-voting software, so I guess a bit more testing would be good… With the instructor Mobi you get to see on the screen how the votes are shaping up unless it’s a survey question, in which case my screen was no use.
Again, the same lecturer friend got his students to vote after working on the mindmap on the elements which they thought were the most important ones. What this means is that you can have an ad-hoc or a pre-prepared voting session based on or following some groupwork which uses the tablets. The secod coolest thing is the integration with eInstruction Response, the e-voting app. It was great fun, interesting to see the progression from I’ll-draw-something-rude-now to -I’ll-do-work-if-I-don’t-want-the-rest-of-the-group-to-lynch-me. One of the lecturers I work with has used this to get the students to draw a mindmap: he’s given them the 1st level of headings and assigned one to each group and then students took over. Not only can you annotate your computer screen (draw, highlight, insert shapes, lines, and text), but you can insert the annotated screen back into a PPT, open up MS Office files while you annotate something else, record whatever’s happening on the screen, bring in images, switch between mouse mode and annotation mode quite easily (if only those shortcuts on the tablet worked!) and lots more.īy far the coolest thing for me is the possibility of splitting the screen into up to 9 areas, handing out up to 9 Mobis to your students and getting them to work independently at the same time. intended use (by that I mean with the proprietary software): I used eInstruction Workspace which is occasionally mental (does anyone actually use the line-of-apples drawing functionality), but generally very cool.PowerPoint annotation was possible with the Mobi! Result! Now, how do I get the same result on my XP machine? (sigh… never satisfied, am I?) The last thing I want to try is to bring a Windows 7 machine in and test it then (more to follow today) UPDATE: GREAT NEWS! YEY! I’ve just tried the Mobi on my Windows 7 machine and it just worked!!!! No hassle, no nothing.
The version upgrade recommended on the eInstruction forum didn’t help, either. WISPTIS.EXE (Windows Ink Services Platform Tablet Input Subsystem) was not going to let me use it and it just kept folding its arms and blowing raspberries at me. However, I just wanted to draw with it, preferably on top of a PowerPoint in slideshow mode. The manufacturers have built the Mobi to be used with their proprietary software. independent use: as with (almost) everything else, my first instinct is to use it for anything but its recommended use.It also has shortcut buttons along its top edge to functions in the dedicated software, but they didn’t work on my machine. The RF dongle clips on the back of the tablet, the battery life is not bad (I got about 4 hours heavy use last) and to charge it you can either stick it into a docking station (together with 3 more if you have them) or use a USB cable. You are now officially in Primary school ? Seriously now, you no longer have to stay behind a presenter computer to be able to annotate your slides/anything else you are projecting to the class.
(image of the instructor Mobi – has a little screen as an extra – from the eInstruction website) But it isn’t quite that yet (not too far off, though).
Potential for being the best thing since sliced bread. RF (radio frequency) dongle goes into computer USB port and bam, you have a wireless graphics tablet.
In my experience their software has been user-friendly (and almost worked everywhere) and their hardware has been use-friendly (and almost worked everywhere) ? Now, with TurningPoint and others stepping up their game quite significantly (a full comparison to follow), the margin for error is shrinking quite a lot, though… Even if they have the very annoying habit of releasing versions for their software more quickly than it takes me to go across campus to our IT team and say “right, there is a final stable it may be updated by the time you get back from lunch”, I think eInstruction (formerly Interwrite) has done quite a lot for electronic voting in the classroom.
Have just been woken up by the hungry foxes in my neck of the woods (this is no euphemism) and, until I get my hands on a Nokia N900, I thought I may update you on the results of my latest playing with the eInstruction Mobi tablet.