CompuServe Messages

Ken, Definitely a Robotel M160 System. There's only soo much you can do with an overhead projection system… The only disadvantage to the Robotel system compared to the overhead is that you can't have a drawing up on robotel while the students work at the same time, while you could leave your overhead projector on and have the students look at it while they work <g>. But that's the only serious disadvantage.. With a video switching system, ANY station can broadcast anywhere else. Any group can watch someone's station while the others work. In teamwork mode, any individual can baocast to any other in the team etc… In your place, I'd start out by getting the Robotel M160C (control unit), the M160J (junction box) and the M160I (interface boxes) for the system with all cables and stuff. This will have you switching video, keyboard and serial NOW, and with the new bandwidth the video network can carry (350 Mhz), you shouldn't worry about switching it even if you upgrade and start running 2048×1476 resolution <g>.. The next thing you shoulf think about is a video NTSC input card. Something like the WaveWatcher. You can get the card, plug it into one of the stations (teacher station for example), then connect anything you want to the three video inputs (Camcorder, VCR etc..) and baodcast in the lab. Be careful with these cards, as most have limitations on the resolution you can get from them… Now you can broadcast video to the whole group. You'll need some sort of sound system with it (we just roll in a TV and use the TV's speakers or a boombox) and you're done. After this, you could start thinking about getting the student control terminal units (M160T). These will allow you to go into teamwork and testing and evaluation modes with the multimedia enhancements… I dunno how much it will cost, but for 13 machines I *guess* the TOTAL cost for everything above would be about $10-$14K. Rob Alge, the US Robotel rep. should give you more info on this… If you DO get pricing on the above please let us all know. So then, your Xmas shopping list based on Robotel M160: Phase I: One M160C unit. One M160J unit. Thirteen M160I units. One NTSC video input board. (Wavewatcher, Hauppage, TV in a PC, etc…) Some kind of speakers for sound of VCR video. Phase II: Thirteen M160T units. Thirteen microphone-speaker headsets, one with a looonger cord, or equipped with wireless FM. I am *convinced* that's your best bet. If I would hold a PPT anywhere and I had the choice, I'd go for this anyday. I've done both the overhead method and the old video switching system, and there's no comparison. If we get this in our labs, we will be walking around with a wireless microphone/speaker headset on our heads looking like Madonna (but without the conical breasts <g>) Mark K.