What’s New At mimio?
I interviewed Manuel Perez, mimio’s director of research and development about a new upgrade.
mimio is a whiteboard solution that can be attached to any regular whiteboard to make it interactive. Education pricing, starting at $499, makes the mimio solution less than buying an interactive whiteboard. The biggest advantage is that you can put it up and start using it immediately on the regular whiteboards most classrooms now have. It’s durable and can be moved, if necessary, to another classroom’s regular whiteboard.
DA: “What’s new at mimio?”
Manuel Perez, director of research and development for mimio: “Within the next few months we’re going to be releasing a new version of our software. We’re completely revising the way we do our mimio tools to be smaller, sleeker, and easier to use. We’re adjusting our gallery to make searching possible and incorporating user generated content as well as our content. We’re going to make it easier to import and use, and creating the ability to store entire lessons. We’re going to supply template lessons that teachers can modify. We’re finding that teachers don’t want us to create lessons for them; instead, they just want to be shown what they can do with the software and mimio and create the lesson on their own. So, they will be real lessons, but they’re really meant as samples. We’re also including the ability to add movies and animations, which we think can be really powerful for creating more colorful lessons. Also included will be the ability to convert a Word, PowerPoint or PDF file just by dragging and dropping. Teachers will go to the multi-page view, drag it in where it can be combined with other sources.”
DA: “What will the cost of the upgrade be if schools are already using the mimio solutions?”
Perez: “All the upgrades are free and we’re going to do it with our upgrading system. Of course, it’s the district’s choice whether to upgrade or not.”
DA: “When will the upgrade be available?”
Perez: “Well, after testing, so we’re looking at the end of May (2008), but certainly for the next school year.”
I use this in my classroom and can’t imagine teaching without it.
Just awesome and affordable technology that makes sense!