Smart Board versus Promethean: Which Is Better?

Learning and education has become one of the fields where the present world is most advanced in. With innovations from books and libraries to online journals, blogs, e-books and web pages; developments from reports written in paper to PowerPoint presentations and acetate under the overhead projector, life has indeed become very easy for students since technology.

Ancient people in the world wrote in rocks and made stone carvings. Then there were inks and pieces of cloths. Then there were papers and pens. Then there were Smart Boards. Smart Boards are basically white boards, only more technical. A projector is used to project inputs from the computer to the interactive Smart Board. The large screen would now display the presentation, and there will be no need for the presenter to struggle in explaining the work because he could already use his or her hands for slide transition, highlighting for emphasis, or in showing illustrations. Everything has to be premade and preset so in the actual presentation, all one would need to do is scroll or click through touching the interactive screen. A smart board works just like a normal white board, except that the person do not use a whiteboard pen or a marker in writing on it, but uses touch detection or pens with digital ink for user input and execution of tasks.

As years passed by and technology became more and more advanced, Smart Technologies, developer of the Smart Board has made significant innovations with the material. They were able to allow dual-touching in the interactive board. Some more years later, multi-touching has been enabled.

But then, of course, there are competitions. Promethean World, an international education corporation that supports teaching and learning through technological innovations, developed their version of the interactive board years after the Smart Board was released. They aren't, however, two completely similar things. The ActivBoard works in the same way the Smart Board does, but the former allows students to use it through a handheld device. This improvement enables the teacher to keep an eye on, and supervise the performance of the students on the spot.

The two interactive touch-screen boards are almost always compared to each other. Both serve the same purpose - to provide innovation in the teaching field through technological integration while not being a hitch to its original aim that is to educate. Both work in the same way, too. So it is just inevitable for people to wonder: which one is better? Considering a lot of factors like durability, the features contained, convenience, price, et cetera, which one is better? But there are a lot of different opinions to that. It really depends on the need of the teachers, the students, or the school itself.

The Internet offers a wide range of reviews and product details which can help a person decide about what to buy. There are threads wherein teachers and students who have used the product themselves talk about which one is the better option. They also give information and recommendations to people who ask and inquire. Moreover, the websites of the concerned companies do their part, as well, in informing their target market about the products they offer through articles and how-to's that are published in their page. There are also corresponding printed advertisements for those who don't find the internet a reliable source.

Both the Promethean World's ActivBoard and Smart Technologies' Smart Board are great innovations and are both representing significant progress. They are uniquely made to suffice the needs of the developing countries, particularly in the field of teaching and learning. So really, it's up to the user to decide which one is better. He or she should not be anxious about it because there's no reason to be. Use the present and existing technologies to know and be informed. That never fails.