My school has ripped out all their Promethean activeboards and their noisy projectors and replaced them all with Clevertouch screens. Though this isn't a review of the hardware, I like them. They don't have the pen precision of an activeboard, but they are clear from the back of the class, and the multitouch makes navigating webpages and using software like Google Earth almost like an iPad. The built in speaker is impressive too.
The major limitation is the CleverLynx software. This is Clevertouch's equivalent to Smart Notebook or Promethean ActiveLearn. It's a bit complicated to use, and not particularly powerful, though the handwriting recognition works well.
So what are the alternatives, and what do they cost? I have only tried these for Windows, as that's what we use, but many are available for OS X and Linux as well.
Microsoft PowerPoint
Not free, but you probably have a copy if you work in a school. Good for lesson preparation, and includes annotation tools. Rubbish for any other sort of interaction.
Smart Notebook
Newer versions of Notebook need a subscription, but if you still have a Smartboard anywhere in school, chances are you can download Version 11.4 from their website. Our computers still seem to have this version installed. Smart Notebook seems to work well and caters for multi-touch, so you can resize and rotate objects with two fingers, but I find it freezes too often for me, which is a problem in the middle of a lesson.
You can download this and use for it for free. It's impressive, but takes a while to get used to. You may have to fiddle around in the settings to set it up for a touch-only board, because by default it works with the ActivBoard pen.
OpenBoard
A forked and updated version of the excellent French software Open Sankore, and maintained by the Eductation Department of Geneva. I find this one of the most elegant and easy to use whiteboard programs, and it finally shows the widgets in English!
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