Collaborative Tools

A host of conferencing tools can streamline and enrich a virtual business meeting experience, including, but not limited to, digital video, program and document sharing, and whiteboarding. These tools help your staff find new ways to learn and collaborate online in real time.

Digital whiteboards employ a board, a pen and an eraser to store every word, line and color on the computer. Using an electronic projection system (EPS), you can share this information electronically over the network with learners, creating an electronic flipchart in real time. In collaborative systems, learners can add comments to the flipchart that are visible to all session participants.

Digital whiteboards must detect the following two things:

1. The type of marker used.

   Since the board records each individual's writing in color, it needs to know what color pen you are holding. Some products require you to indicate to the whiteboard what color you are writing with, either by interacting with the software, or by selecting your pen from color-coded trays. Still others use special markers that allow the board to automatically detect the color you are using.

2. The marker's location on the board.

   The board device needs to know what you are writing, and achieves this through various means, including sonic devices, resistive membranes, magnetic pick-up and laser scans.