Or any other one that you like for that matter. I work for an RESD that services 5 school districts in 2 counties (yes that's only 5 districts in 2500 square mile area, good ol' rural mid Michigan...). We have a combination of both SMART boards and ENO boards scattered throughout all of our districts. I have to honestly say that I am more partial to the ENO boards. It seems like we have had a lot more trouble with the SMART boards. I've only been working here for a little over half a year and I split my time between two of the districts. We have had to replace 3 or 4 boards in just 1 district alone that were having troubles with the lines going crazy when you tried to write on the board. It would draw a squiggly line whenever you tried to draw and sometimes the line would jump several inches when you crossed the center of the board. (when you hit the other screen on the dual screen models) When I hired in, it seemed to be accepted that this was a recurring/very annoying issue with the SMART boards and it had something to do with the circuitry so we just had to call and argue with SMART until they sent us a new board. By recurring I mean the two districts with the most SMART boards were in a perpetual cycle of replacing 1 board only to have another go down within a week or two.
I did discover, about a month or so in, that the boards will freak out if they aren't insulated from a metal surface so maybe a lot of these boards that have been replaced before I was here really were not in that bad of shape. It seems the maintenance in one particular district failed to use insulated washers on the screws so the metal screws that ran through the metal brackets and into the metal chalkboard/whiteboard were shorting the board out. I noticed that this made the board go nuts when you were trying to write on it. This does make me wonder how many of the other boards that were replaced before I was here had this same simple solution. I do know, however, that there has been a few boards where the circuit board went bad for sure. Plus, mounting the SMART boards is a feat on its own.
ENO boards, on the other hand, seem to be great in my opinion. I like how easy they are to put up. What I really like is the complete absence of circuitry in the board itself. I've had only 1 instance where an ENO board made me curse and I eventually figured out a bad Bluetooth dongle was the issue. It only took so long to figure out because the first time I tested the dongle idea, I had somehow managed to use a different dongle that was apparently also bad, so of course I thought that couldn't be the issue when trying a different one didn't work. Other than that incident, which will never happen again, the ENOs seem to be the best. Of course that's from the repair tech standpoint. From the end user standpoint, the ENOs seem to confuse them for reasons I cannot understand. I think it's because the SMART boards seem to be designed a bit more around the idea that the person using it will take the least amount of time possible to learn how to use it.
I will admit that there seems to be a bit more actual material available for teachers to use with the SMART boards but I say ENO gets my vote, especially if the teachers actually learn how to utilize everything it has to offer. I honestly don't have any experience with any other brands of interactive whiteboards so maybe there is one even better than either of these. Anyone else have a preference, or something about a particular brand that you either love or cant stand?
I did discover, about a month or so in, that the boards will freak out if they aren't insulated from a metal surface so maybe a lot of these boards that have been replaced before I was here really were not in that bad of shape. It seems the maintenance in one particular district failed to use insulated washers on the screws so the metal screws that ran through the metal brackets and into the metal chalkboard/whiteboard were shorting the board out. I noticed that this made the board go nuts when you were trying to write on it. This does make me wonder how many of the other boards that were replaced before I was here had this same simple solution. I do know, however, that there has been a few boards where the circuit board went bad for sure. Plus, mounting the SMART boards is a feat on its own.
ENO boards, on the other hand, seem to be great in my opinion. I like how easy they are to put up. What I really like is the complete absence of circuitry in the board itself. I've had only 1 instance where an ENO board made me curse and I eventually figured out a bad Bluetooth dongle was the issue. It only took so long to figure out because the first time I tested the dongle idea, I had somehow managed to use a different dongle that was apparently also bad, so of course I thought that couldn't be the issue when trying a different one didn't work. Other than that incident, which will never happen again, the ENOs seem to be the best. Of course that's from the repair tech standpoint. From the end user standpoint, the ENOs seem to confuse them for reasons I cannot understand. I think it's because the SMART boards seem to be designed a bit more around the idea that the person using it will take the least amount of time possible to learn how to use it.
I will admit that there seems to be a bit more actual material available for teachers to use with the SMART boards but I say ENO gets my vote, especially if the teachers actually learn how to utilize everything it has to offer. I honestly don't have any experience with any other brands of interactive whiteboards so maybe there is one even better than either of these. Anyone else have a preference, or something about a particular brand that you either love or cant stand?
