Promethean Boards vs. Smart Boards

[Art Bentheim]

My school is looking at writing a grant to buy more interactive whiteboards. We currently use Smart Boards and I love them but I heard the Promethean's have a lot of great, cool features that Smart does not have.

What is your opinion on them? Which one do you prefer, and why?

Thanks for the help,
Art Bentheim M.Ed.

[May]

We only have smart boards at our school so i can not comment on Promethean's. There are 3 things i like about Smart Boards:
SMART Recorder, you can record and then replay an entire lesson, presentation or meeting.
Blinds/Split screens
Embedding movies

Also you might be interested in this http://smartboardrevolution.ning.com/

Hope this helped
May

[Danny Nicholson]

always a tricky debate this... and like a mac/pc debate both have their fanboys

both boards have their strengths and weaknesses.. but both are far better than the competition. And i am a fan of both.

Don't forget you can legally run a cut down version of ActivInspire on a smartboard now.. so you can access both sets of resources. In terms of features, they are pretty similar.

I would suggest - having seen discussions like this on other nings go haywire - that people expressing an opinion, who are in the paid employ of either Smart or promethean make sure they declare it.. quite often they forget to mention that...

[David Kapuler]

I have to agree w/ Danny both of them should meet your needs and easy to use. I have more experience w/ Smart Boards and really like their technology and tech support.

Also, w/ Notebook Express coming out you can collaborate w/ others, share notebooks, etc etc. It really does open up a lot more options for users.

More info can be found here....http://cyber-kap.blogspot.com/2009/10/notebook-express.html

[David Wees]

Having used both, the Promethean boards are much easier to use. The features are easier to find, the software is less intrusive and more clear to use. They have similar features, at least that I've found so far with the Smartboards. I find the Smartboards 10x harder to use though.

Usability in my mind is key, given that teachers, who may lack experience with technology, will be using these devices.

[Casey Mayfield]

We went the route of Mimeo ... cheaper and uses the whiteboard already present. I loved mine. Don't have it anymore since all students have laptops and we can use DyKnow.

[Robert Baker]

I've been using a Smart Board for over a year now and I love it. The kids really enjoy being able to work on the board with their fingers. It makes it much more interactive. The web support for Smart Boards is extensive and I have found many lessons that I have been able to incorporate into my curriculum

[Lisa Thumann]

I think it comes down to the educator. I have both and use both.
I think the boards are the same, it's the software and the available resources that are so vastly different.

I really likely Promethean's online community. It's very easy to find quality flipcharts - much better than Smarttech's. I think that will change though.

Many districts I talk with go with the price and the commitment of the educators that are going to use them. As long as they are implementing the technology in their classrooms and letting the students use the Boards, it doesn't matter which brand.

Of course, this is just my opinion.

Lisa

[Mary Beth Hertz]

In Philadelphia we have a contract with Promethean. When I asked why we chose Promethean, I was told it was because of the large amount of free online resources that Promethean offers for its boards. (http://www.prometheanplanet.com)

The only thing that I really liked about SmartBoards when I went to a session at NECC 09 was the ability to use your hand on the board. From what I have been told, Promethean Boards require a pen (you can get 5 for $100).

Hope that helps!

[SherriLibrarian]

Have you looked at the Smart Airliner tablets. It uses Smart software and seems to be a step up.

Mary Beth Hertz said:

In Philadelphia we have a contract with Promethean. When I asked why we chose Promethean, I was told it was because of the large amount of free online resources that Promethean offers for its boards. (http://www.prometheanplanet.com) The only thing that I really liked about SmartBoards when I went to a session at NECC 09 was the ability to use your hand on the board. From what I have been told, Promethean Boards require a pen (you can get 5 for $100).

Hope that helps!

[Alan Stange]

I prefer the pen. Finer control. I have little experience with Smart Boards. All I can say is ActivBoards are effective and elegant to use

[Carol Tonhauser]

Art, you are fortunate to be able to shop and compare the two different IWBs. My district uses Promethean board, so I haven't had the opportunity to use Smart technology. I know that Promethan Planet has amazing resources available online for teachers.

Carol

[Mr. Arakaki]

I started this year with a new Promethean Board in the classroom. I've used Smart Boards in college (2 yrs ago) and I do like that you can use your hand.

With the Promethean Boards that my school has, we also purchased ActiVotes and ActiExpressions. The ActiVotes are used by the students and allow them to provide limited input into a flipchart. These voters are usually used to answer multiple choice questions, true/false questions or to conduct quick surveys/polls. The software will graph and track data provided by the voters.

The ActivExpressions are like little text messaging devices that allow students to see unique text to their device as well as provide unique input. I haven't had much experience with these yet. These are coming in within the next few weeks.