Test Drive: StarBoard StarTablet T-18SX

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By David McQuin -- School Library Journal, 04/01/2004

StarBoard StarTablet T-18SX

Flat-panel instructional tool

The StarTablet T-18SX and StarBoard software from Hitachi Software Engineering is an 18-inch flat-panel screen and attached electronic pen that will enhance your classroom presentations. The pen, with its precise cursor control, allows you to write directly on the screen to highlight or annotate lessons, while the software adds powerful tools and capabilities to your PC, including graphic options that will help grab students' attention.

The StarTablet replaces your computer's monitor, while the pen performs in dual modes. Touching the screen with the pen's tip moves the cursor to the pen's touch point, while pressing a button on the pen is equivalent to clicking your mouse's left button. In pen mode, you can write directly on the display screen in electronic ink and annotate presentations, highlight important points, or add quick drawings to virtually any program. The electronic writing can also be displayed on a screen using a data projector. Thus, the StarTablet functions as an electronic whiteboard, while adding significant new tools.

The StarBoard software includes a virtual highlighter to emphasize specific text or graphics on a Web page and an extensive graphics library, among other tools. The software can also convert the handwriting created with the electronic pen into type and turn crude freehand drawings of shapes into perfectly rendered squares, circles, and straight lines.

Teachers might use the StarTablet to mark up a student composition directly on the screen, demonstrate a math problem or science concept, or use a musical staff template to illustrate harmony. With the pen and the handwriting recognition feature, they can enter information into a spreadsheet or word processor. The text or graphic files can be added to a class Web site or sent as e-mail attachments, so students can view them later to prepare for a test, or catch up on a lesson when they've been absent.

The StarBoard software requires a PC with at least a Pentium II 300 MHz processor—sorry, Mac users—and at least one serial port. The StarTablet is not inexpensive, but discounts are available. And its precision pen and feature-packed software make it an attractive tool for presenting and saving your valuable classroom lessons.