The Cheap Whiteboard Alternative for Teachers

A teacher that I know has been trying for months to get her school district to hook up her whiteboard but they said that they can’t afford the fees to have a professional come out to do it. The Whiteboard is a touch-sensitive electronic version of the chalkboard that students can play with almost like a video game. She was angry that they had spend thousands of dollars for something that she couldn’t even use because of the school budget restrictions on installing the thing. I told her that she didn’t really need the whiteboard in order to do what she wanted. her response was a dropped jaw and an incredulous, “Shut up.”

I recently saw this video from TED by Johnny Lee (http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/johnny_lee_demos_wii_remote_hacks.html).

He spoke about how to change a $40 Wii part called a Wiimote and some cheap parts from Radio Shack into a cheap replacement for a whiteboard. For school districts contemplating buying ONE whiteboard, why not get one in every classroom? Why not get something more portable? Why note get something cheaper!

This project can also be used as an “equalizer.” If your district doesn’t have the technology budget to cover the needs of every classroom, this is one way that you can fix that! This project doesn’t even have to have soldering if you just swap out the LED of a penlight for an infrared bulb!

If you really want to see some exciting work that Mr. Lee has done, see his website (http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/projects/wii/). He even has the software available for free download along with instructions on how to do the project. Notice that the requirements actually go beyond the Wiimote and include a projector (which many schools have or can improvise), a bluetooth dongle (available for under $10 if your laptop doesn’t have the ability built in), and the free software on Johnny’s website. Don’t forget to turn a LED penlight into an infrared penlight by swapping out the normal LED for an infrared LED. You can see how to build the penlight on YouTube.com.

At the most, assuming that you already have the projector and a computer, it shouldn’t cost more than $60.

Tip: I think that this can be done using a bulb found in the tip of an old remote control or you can just pick up a new one at Radio Shack since the leads will be longer and it makes your job easier.