TECHS : Wii IR Pen Honorees

Wii IR Pen Honorees

We had 19 entries in the Wii IR Pen project. Based upon all catagories, Plainview TECHS was honored as the Wii Pen for 2008-09.

Here were some comments shared by those who reviewed the different areas:

Appearance - Plainview, Heartland, Gothenburg

Very interesting.
I liked to see the creative ways it was done.
Using an old mouse was a clever way to do this.
All types of shapes and sizes.
When you pushed the button, the light actually could be seen.

Summary on appearance - In assessing the honored sites, I would guess that the size and general neat appearance of the Plainview pen impressed voters. Both Heartland and Gothenburg designs were neatly done with the IR LED clearly visible.

Ergonomics - Plainview, Gothenburg, Kearney Catholic 3

Likes easy access to the battery. Made it easy to change out.
The long nose allowed the presenter a chance to get out of the road of the board.
The push button was located in a way allowing the presenter to push the button while easily interacting with the whiteboard.
The pen was small - not bulky.
The pen could be operated with one hand.
The button on the pen turned the light off and on. Both good as you didn≠t have to hold the button down but easy to run battery down and you might get a lot of tracking causing the board to act weird.
The pen was designed to fit in a hand.

Summary about ergonomics - Ergonomics or the way the device fits the operator's hand is almost as important as functionality. Plainview seemed to be the unit of choice because of the location of the button and the smallness of the pen. The Gothenburg pen was a clay molding that was designed for a person's hand. The Kearney Catholic IR pen would be easy to handle.

Functionality - We did two specific tests to determine functionality (how it would work).

Turned on a computer and pointed the IR Pen at the internal camera. With the video preview showing the pen, I could see the light if it turned on when pushing the button.
After the Bluetooth was activated, the IR Pen was tested for smoothness of motion when activating the pen.

Summary about functionality - Almost all of the pens worked. Ansley's pen seemed to work the best. We believe the reason was the that there appeared to be some reflective material that surrounded the IR LED which may have brightened the reflective light to the Wii remote. For the most part, the pens would activate the interactive whiteboard.

Closing Report - Litchfield, Gothenburg, Tie with Dundy County and Heartland (Click below to see pdf files of closing reports)

Eleven out of 19 entries submitted a summary report.
One entry created a video.
Presented both the positives and negatives for the Wii and Smartboard based units.
Gathered comments from teachers regarding their use of Smartboards.
The video was a different way of building through demonstrating the Wii Whiteboard.
Adding pictures and newspaper articles added to the summary.

Summary about the closing report - Summarizing an activity whether it is an extracurricular event or the completing a project is very important. When preparing the summary, my first impression is always based on the appearance of the summary report. Keep that in mind when you submit other summary reports for other projects. The bulleting items provided examples of information that supported the IR Wii Remote efforts.

All entries will be receiving a "manufactured" IR pen from http://penteractive.us for participating in the Wii Remote Project.

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This Page was last update: Friday, April 17, 2009 at 11:40:15 AM
This page was originally posted: 10/17/05; 7:45:01 PM.
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