Testimonials

Wayne Facer Principal Beaconsfield School

Over a month ago I started into what is essentially an overview (and review) of the alternatives in presentation tools available to teachers. The idea which gets the most coverage on websites is the use of a Wiimote as part of a system to create an alternative to use of an interactive white board. There are many sites out there which have ‘covered’ this idea, and a few sites which purport to provide a usable classroom alternative. I mentioned on the 15^th of February that the coverage amounts to a lot of gee-whiz fluff. I have never seen any site online which actually tried out the technology (except for some who sell it…). The same goes for the online businesses which purported to sell systems which would allow schools to use (this means a reputable company which stands behind its products…).

After this post, I received a couple e-mails from the guys at 3P interact, a company in New Zealand which sells complete systems which replaces interactive white boards. From the correspondence I have had with this company, to the newly arrived products of theirs in my home, I can finally say that there is a reputable business out there which provide real, usable, simple to set up products which REALLY do replace interactive white boards for much, much less money.

I need to reiterate this point again; this is the only company out there which provides products which are usable in a real classroom. There are many other companies out there which have products which can be used by experimenters, and some of them provide good service. This is not the same as what a school district needs.

I received the 3P interact portable system in the mail a couple days ago. The package provided simple directions to set up the components, and I had the whole system up and running on a Windows Vista machine in only a few minutes. Every piece of hardware worked, all of the software (the Smoothboard software) worked without a flaw.

I intend to make a complete review of this system during the coming week, along with several other tools (hardware and software) which I have found to be worth looking at. I am just a bit excited to get a system which works! I suppose I owe the people at 3P interact a bit of an apology since their system worked exactly the way they told me it would, and intellectually I understand and believe them, but emotionally, I am still thrilled to see this system working when so many other tools have fallen by the wayside for me in the last month!

Here is their website, and their blog. I suppose I should mention that this company has impressed me so much that I will be adding to to my blogroll (i.e. the links on the side of my blog…this will en up as the first…maybe the only company which I endorse. I am that impressed!)

Richard Riehle ... http://www.riehler.com/3pinteract/