In recent days, we discovered how Ghanaian professor Richard Appiah Akoto taught his students computer science with chalk and a blackboard, and more than one of us shed a tear. Imagine what Richard Appiah Akoto could do with an interactive whiteboard like OpenBoard, which offers the following tools: drawing, adding text, images, documents, audio, geometric shapes, Flash animations, showing the desktop screen while using the whiteboard and making annotations so that the explanation is even more visual.
Interface and Tools
OpenBoard is an interactive digital whiteboard that comes with a built-in web browser, in which you can browse the Internet and show everything on the Web to your students. Once you download and install the environment, you will see a white whiteboard canvas with a toolbar at the bottom and a menu at the top. In the bottom bar you will find the following options: draw on the whiteboard, highlight any element, move objects added to the canvas, enlarge the canvas, use a laser pointer, add lines, move the canvas, add text, capture the screen, erase, etc.
In the top menu you will find functions to: choose the eraser size, the whiteboard background, undo and redo changes, add new pages to the whiteboard, browse web pages, etc.
Web Browser and Screen Capture
To use the “Web” option, click on the Internet icon in the top right corner, and the integrated browser will open where you can show your students any information on the Internet. While browsing, you will see a toolbar on the right with options to capture part or the full screen, or extract any type of Flash content from the pages.
Importing Documents and Sharing the Desktop
From the Documents icon you can import images, PDFs, audio files, Flash animations, geometric shapes, and also export all these documents. The files will always be visible even if you change projects. Next to Documents you will find the Show Desktop service. When you select this option, the desktop screen will appear with a toolbar on the left.
A Valuable Tool for Teaching
OpenBoard is a very good interactive whiteboard with many features for academic activities. Today you will come across many similar environments, but you will surely not find a whiteboard with an integrated web browser and the option to share the screen and make annotations on it.
Official site: OpenBoard
