In these budget conscious times, schools who want to integrate modern interactive technologies have a choice, buy a SmartBoard , or build your own for a fraction of the cost. Johnny Chung Lee has done some of the groundbreaking work with the Wii, the build instructions and downloads can be found on his site. In addition to the Wiimote, you'll need an infrared light emitting pen, which you can build yourself for short money.
Since the Wiimote can track sources of infrared (IR) light, you can track pens that have an IR led in the tip. By pointing a wiimote at a projection screen or LCD display, you can create very low-cost interactive whiteboards or tablet displays. Since the Wiimote can track upto 4 points, up to 4 pens can be used. It also works great with rear-projected displays.
Rather than spending thousands of dollars per classroom, students and faculty could make them in-house while helping to transform the school into a more technology-rich learning environment. With a project like this in your school, it could be a great way to do some electronics, system design and get a taste of mass production of the components. While this may not fit in to your current curriculum to have students build these systems, it could be a great way to collaborate across subject areas, or it could provide a great after school club activity.
Has your school built one of these $40 smartboards? How well do they work in comparison to other interactive display systems? Let us know about your experiments and experiences in the comments. [Thanks Rachel!]
So after putting our house on the market, Deena and I returned to Boston. Our realtor was confident our home would sell quickly. The house across the street sold in 42 days, within $5,000 of the asking price. We were priced in the same range, and had the same floor plan so we were confident.
Despite several showings, good comments and open-houses we were still missing an offer. After 6 weeks, we decided to drop the price by $5,000 to attract a buyer. In the meantime, our offer on the new house expired. We decided that was ok and we really should focus on selling the Mahan house, and then make decisions after that took place.
One afternoon we got a call from our realtor. It seems that the sellers of the new house were in the market for an investment property, and they wanted to see our house and gage its potential as a rental. To make a long story short, we soon had a cash offer in hand for our house from the sellers of the other house.
Deena and I were amazed. Everything continues to fall into place to allow this transition in our lives take place. As of last week, both inspections were accepted, and we are on track for a double closing on July 23rd.
Now that you know the story, I would like to start discussing plans for the new house. In my next post I will outline some of my thoughts and ideas. I'm definitely looking for input and advice from any of you that may be doing similar projects.
