The Best Interactive Whiteboard Software for Education
When it comes down to it, it’s the interactive whiteboard software features of the interactive display that really power the board and what it can do. Each manufacturer has its own software — SMART has the SMART Learning Suite, ViewSonic has myViewBoard, Promethean has ActivInspire, etc. When evaluating interactive whiteboard technology features and capabilities, some of the features you should be looking for include2:
- Infinite canvas that can be zoomed in and out of
- Shareable whiteboards, so that users can still collaborate before or after a live meeting
- Exportable and downloadable boards
- Designed for interaction with tablets and smartboards; supports multiple touches at a time
- Integrations with video and web conferencing platforms
- Built-in design features such as templates, color, shapes (like virtual sticky notes or arrows), digital writing tools, and text/font options
- Support for multimedia (images, videos, etc.)
- Support for importing data from other documents
- Polling capabilities
Additionally, two very other important factors to consider are cost and price.
Cost – While some interactive whiteboard software may seem like their free to use, there is usually a feature restriction and you need to upgrade to a paid version to unlock all of the features. For example, the SMART Learning Suite offers a free version of their software with up to 50MB of lesson storage, but to unlock unlimited storage, plans start at $59 per teacher/year. It’s important to keep this in mind when evaluating different brands for your interactive display needs.
Integrations – Searching for a virtual whiteboard software for Windows? It’s important to understand the integration and compatibility of the interactive whiteboard software you’re investing in offers with your existing platforms such as Mac, Windows, Android, and iOS. For example, ViewSonic is a Google for Education Partner and the myViewBoard Classroom platform is Google for Education certified which would be very important to a Google school.
