Old Promethean Boards and New Computers Don't Mix?
the observer: CHS [Churchill High School] gets new computers
With every new school year come changes and this year CHS students discovered new flat screen computer monitors in place of the old CRT monitors and an upgrade to the computer program Windows 7.
...the computers connect to the Promethean boards differently than before. With the old computers, the Promethean board display was the same as the computer monitor, but now the two displays can be different.
“It is more of a learning curve for some teachers because they have to move from one screen to another now,” ...
I personally preferred the linked opinion piece on Prometheans and screen time. http://www.thechurchillobserver.com/opinions/2010/03/22/prometheans-add-to-excessive-screen-time/
ReplyDeleteI also don't think the article says that the boards don't work with the upgraded computers.
I read the part about different displays as meaning they gained added functionality. For example the teacher could have what is displaying on the Promethean board in one window and then have other windows open on their own computer that didn't also display for the classroom. If this is the case, then it isn't a compatibility issue, more of a new feature that teachers could choose to use or not. I could be reading it wrong.
ReplyDeleteNew feature or not, I still hate the Promethean boards as both a taxpayer and a parent.
- Melanie
One of the points of these "21st Century-$14 million+ paid for with a slush fund" Promethean Boards was that the screen on the computer and the screen that the students see was the same. According to this article, the 2 screens don't necessarily match anymore with the upgraded computers.
ReplyDeleteThat blows one of the main points of having these $5,000 white boards in every classroom (including physical education) in Montgomery County Public Schools.
You can simply purchase a projector that will project what is on a computer screen for a fraction of the cost. Then the image the students see is exactly what is on the teachers computer.
It's actually a selectable option in the computer setup folder for each teacher- most classrooms at CHS are back to using the "mirror" screen option.
ReplyDeleteThe change with the new tech mod computers was they come standard with a video card with dual outputs- so the Promethean and computer monitor connect directly to the computer. Before the was a splitter box that had to split the signal - hence the single signal going to both devices.
The intention behind the split screen setup is for teachers to have more flexibility - put a warmup activity on the screen while being able to do your attendance on the computer monitor type of thing.
But as Janis mentioned - the "Promethean" part of the system has nothing to do with any of this - you can have a split or mirrored setup with any normal projector. It all has to do with the new video cards in the computer, which are pretty common everywhere now.