Ohio TESOL 2009 was 10/31-11/1 in Columbus, Ohio.
Ivan and I presented the $50 Interactive Whiteboard to a standing-room-only audience of other teachers of English to speakers of other languages at Ohio TESOL this weekend. Not only have I now distributed all five from my original Ohio TESOL grant, but I’ve also got over a dozen people signed up for test drives. Looks like I need to write another grant.
If you’re reading this and you’re a member of Ohio TESOL, let me know if you’re interested in test-driving this technology. We might be able to put one in your hands soon!
ESL Technology.com 
Hi! I was at your conference on Saturday. I am not a member of TESOL, but I do teach ELL students. I am interested in making a white board for under $50 dollars. I have two questions what was that website Ivan found for the different kinds of pens? I didn’t write it down. Also, I still don’t quite understand what blue tooth think I need to buy at radio shack to make my wii remote “talk” to my computer? If you could let me know that would be great. Oh, I guess I also have one more question. If I bring my wii remote from home and make it talk to my computer at school can I bring it back home and reprogram it to my wii player? Please email me!
Thanks,
Carey
Great questions, Carey. The application that Ivan demonstrated is called Screen Marker and can be downloaded for free at http://www.screenmarker.com/. Of course, most MS Office applications have a variation of this built-in, if that helps you.
Your Wiimote can talk to your computer, but it only “speaks” Bluetooth (a way that devices connect to each other wirelessly). If your computer already has Bluetooth (most Macs and many newer PCs), you’re all set. If not, you will need a USB adapter ($5-20). This will allow your computer to “hear” your Wiimote.
There’s no reprogramming involved at all. When your Wiimote “talks” to your Wii, your Wii understands left, right, up, down, etc. When your Wiimote “talks” to your computer, the freely downloadable Interactive Whiteboard software – http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/projects/wii/ – allows your computer to understand mouse-click-here, mouse-click-there.
Hope this helps. Let me know how it goes!
I saw your presentation at the TESOL conference. Best presentation ever, Hands down!
Thanks for the feedback, Micheal. Glad you liked it.
Hi,
I saw your presentation at TESOL and immediately began working on building an interactive whiteboard. My students used it for the first time last week to play a math game called “phit” (coolmath-games.com). They loved it. I can’t wait to see what else will come of it!
Thanks so much!
Glad you were able to get things up and running and that your students enjoyed it so much. Please keep me updated on how you use this technology in your classroom and congrats on your early success!