A New Generation of Interactive e-Boards in Education

Seamless, wireless and perfect for education

The customer:
The renowned prep school, Handcross Park School in West Sussex.
The challenge:
To replace Handcross Park School’s inventory of 15+ year old SMART Boards with high-quality LED interactive e-Boards, providing the school with an enhanced range of functionality.

Samsung products and services:

• 10 x Samsung DM65E-BR SMART Signage e-Boards.Benefits

• Samsung’s LED displays provide a string of benefits over projection displays, including consistent image quality, no ongoing running costs replacing bulbs and no degradation in the quality of the touchscreen functionality.

• Innovative options for incorporating a range of high-end features in the classroom via MagicIWB.

The challenge:

To update a school’s inventory of dated interactive whiteboards The renowned Handcross Park School in West Sussex was founded in 1887 and provides education for children from the ages of two to 13. The prep school, which is part of Brighton College’s family of schools, is set in 50 acres of Sussex parkland, and was given the top grade in every area of school life in a recent inspection.

The school is well equipped with the latest technology, with a bank of chromebook computers and interactive whiteboards in every classroom. Its current inventory of whiteboards, though, is quite dated and in need of a refresh. The school’s IT Co-ordinator Des O’Connor explains: “Our SMART Boards have been in use for a number of years and are showing signs of age. Our
teaching staff are getting frustrated by them. They are projection-based and this isn’t ideal as they require extra cables and power, none of which is necessary with fl at panel LED interactive displays.”

“Added to this, the licensing of the software for our SMART Boards has changed for the worse,” continues O’Connor. “Previously you could get a site license but the licensing is now more complex, more expensive and time-limited, which is very off -putting.”

So, rather than opting for an updated replacement for its well established SMART Boards from the same manufacturer, Handcross Park School looked to the wider market to check out a broad range of more flexible and powerful alternatives. One of the key criteria was to move away from projector-based systems to LED displays.

At the early stages of the school’s exploration of the interactive e-Board market, O’Connor came across the Samsung LED SMART Signage e-Board display and was immediately impressed: “I really liked the look of the Samsung e-Board,” he says. “So a demo device was brought into our school environment where it was tested by staff and they also enjoyed the experience.” “Although I had a preference at this stage for the Samsung display, I did investigate other examples such as the BenQ and SMART Board LEDs,” adds O’Connor. “However, we weren’t overly awed by these and I still really liked the Samsung display. As the staff also liked it and we’d already tested it on our systems, we opted for this product.”

“Samsung is a well-known manufacturer and the price was attractive when taking into account the competing products available and the extra quality provided by the product,” he says.

The solution:

An investment in 10 Samsung DM65-BR SMART Signage e-Boards Handcross Park School has invested in a total of 10 Samsung DM65E-BR SMART Signage e-Board displays. These 65” interactive Large Format Displays are ready-to-use, all-in-one e-Board displays with a pre-assembled touch overlay and e-Board software. Advanced e-Board functionality is available through optional MagicIWB software, as selected by the school. This provides a dynamic interactive educational experience with on-screen note-taking functionality, video and image capture capability.

It is also possible to wirelessly screencast content from the students’ chromebook computers to the displays, without the need to install any additional apps on the school’s devices.

As well as all the benefi ts provided by the innovative e-Board hardware and software, the service and support off ered by Samsung was also praised by the school. “With the Samsung e-Board, the educational deal is for a 10-year lifespan, which is appealing,” says O’Connor. “There’s guaranteed to be no image degradation over this time – it will be as good in 10 years as on the day you fi rst used it. This isn’t the same with projection displays where the bulbs need replacing and the touchscreen functionality degrades over time.”

The result:

Opens up new and innovative approaches to classroom teaching

The Samsung DM65E-BR SMART Signage e-Board displays have been installed in 10 classrooms, as a direct replacement for the school’s previous SMART Boards. The displays have only recently been put into classrooms so the vast majority of teachers aren’t currently utilising the full functionality of the displays and e-Board software.

As O’Connor explains: “Just a few members of staff are making the most of the functionality of MagicIWB at the moment. These are using MagicIWB features to take screenshots, circle
parts of the screen, and so on, but it’s still early days for our Samsung e-Boards in the classroom. One of the key things we’re working on is getting Google Drive up and running on the e-Boards so what’s on the e-Board automatically appears in the children’s Google Drive folders.”

“Our teachers are mostly just using the touchscreen functionality of the displays at the moment while they get used to having them in the classroom,” says O’Connor. “We are going to start rolling out training covering how the e-Board and MagicIWB software can be utilised to enhance the learning experience, to ensure everyone is up to speed with what’s possible.”

Following its initial investment in Samsung e-Boards, Handcross Park School is already planning on extending its inventory of Samsung interactive displays as it continues to swap out its SMART Boards. It aims to have replaced all its interactive displays with Samsung e-Boards by summer 2017.