Interactive Whiteboards part 2

At first, I thought I really would like interactive whiteboards. The tools seemed similar to powerpoint, or at least similar enough that I could adapt without too much difficulty. My experience, however, was not a positive one.

First and foremost, it took me three hours to figure out how to actually install the software, install it, and get the resource packs. In that time I could have run a half marathon, watched 3.4 episodes of Doctor Who, dyed my hair 3 times, or baked approximately 48 cupcakes.

Running a half marathon: approximately 2.5 hours

3 episodes of Dr. Who: 3.5 hours

Dyeing your hair 3 times: about 2.75 hours

Making 48 cupcakes: 2.55hours depending on bake time

ActiveInspire download with resource pack: 3 hours and tears

My next problem involved the user interface, which I find to be mildly frustrating at best and at worst an experience that brings me to tears. Typically, objects are sensitive to the actions of the user, but in the case of ActiveInspire, you can right click on something until the cows come home, but the software won't budge. Were this software a car, I would say that you have to slam on the breaks to slow down. However, you can only right-click with so much veracity. 

This is how you stop a car with bad brakes. This is also the force required to right click with the strength requisite to group objects in ActiveInspire.

My final complaint deals with the first two: what teacher would ever have the time to actually use tis program? It takes hours to assemble one of these flipcharts and moments to go through. Where is the pay-off. While I can see how this would be an incredibly useful software if my time were infinite and I did not have 300 papers to grade, that is just not the case. This could be a valuable teaching and review source were it not for the sheer time required to work it.