SMART Tables for EC

[Corey J. Mattson]

Does anyone have experiences with SMART Tables?? Good thing, bad thing?? Durability?? Usability?? Thanks, in advance, for any info.

Corey

[Scott Evers]

gotten any yet?

[Scott Evers]

You can get a super nice multi-touch 23" PC for around a $1000

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883108359

Looking around the smart-tables run $8000, the multi-touch PC is 1/8th the price and would have a 1000 more uses.

[Matt Anderson]

Yeah, I'd agree with Scott. The price for the smart table just isn't worth it. If you got that multi touch computer you can load the smart software on it and basically you made yourself a smart table for a lot less money.

It's sad they charge so much for those tables considering there's really not that much to them when you open it up.

[Bryan Berg]

We had one of the SMART Tables in at TECHSPO in the summer of 2009, and Loren, Matt, Damon, Tiff and I opened it up and were amazed to see...just a basic desktop computer, nothing special computer speakers and some connections up to the table screen above...that's it.

What's nice about the table is it's design and size - kiddos can sit around it and interact with the special software that's installed on it to take advantage of the touch capability....but for what I've seen with it, I'm not so sure that a water table, a sand play area and some easles for finger painting aren't still a better option than the SMARTtable or the multi-touch 23" (and this is based on experience, my wife is an Early Childhood Special Ed teacher, and she saw some of these technologies and said that there are a LOT of manipulatives that she can buy for $8000, or even $1000 that do more for brain development and motor skill development than a touch screen, multi-touch or otherwise regardless of size. She had one of those Little Tykes touch screen set-ups for years as well and really wasn't all that impressed with it)!

Cool technologies to be sure, but for the target audience that the Table is geared for, I'm not convinced it's the best option for learning.

[Corey J. Mattson]

Yep, $6500 basic price for one of these. I like Scott's idea. Do I need cool at that price?? Um, no...

[Jen Hegna]

I have an email from another school district that is pretty frustrated with the Table. Apparently it freezes quite a bit and when they originally placed it in EC they soon came to realize that many of the appropriate applications for it... required students to read. We are having this exact discussion right now, and I feel that we need to look at a hodgepodge of devices to better suit ALL our students needs instead of putting all our eggs in the basket for 1 expensive device. Pacer was a resource given to me by MDE. http://www.pacer.org/ I like scott's idea. Touch screen PC. They are really coming of age.