I had been reading about this for a while and thought that the idea died with BECTA but no, it seems that starting with the last release of ActivInspire, you can now import AND export .iwb format.
Here's an article (old) from eSchoolNews on the subject.
Has anyone tried this yet?
What advantages/disadvantages do you see?
Do you think that cool stuff (basic for many folks) like page notes, actions (hide/show/reset), questions settings will export (and import)? I don't see how. If not, just slides of text and graphics?
Trying to get my arms around this. Is it a good idea?
Let's discuss!
I plan to test this out right away! My district bought what the reseller told us were iwb add- on to a math calendar program. Turns out the files are SMARTnotebook files and their idea of iwb friendly is to use the browser based smarttech express....its awful! I have tried importing into ActivInspire but the calendar lost ALL ability to be manipulated. Even the simple things like drag a copy which is clone on SMART didn't work at all. Wondering if I exprt these as .iwb out of notebook software and import into Inspire if they will work better. Tend to doubt it but I am willing to try anything!
~Anne
Anne Truger [co]
Instructional Technology Specialist
Special Education District of Lake County
OK so I ran a test. I just tried to post the .notebook file I have but of course it wasn't a recognized file format so I compressed it to a .zip file. I imported the file as an ActivInspire flipchart and it lost all interactivity. There was no easy way to add it back either due to layering, locks and such. When I had a colleague export the file as a CFF (the form the SMART recognizes as .iwb) It was a little bit better but not enough of a difference to make it usable. : (
I tried importing to Smart From Inspire and nothing sticks except for the images and/or graphics. Even then, the graphics and images come out distorted, or not the same size and a lot of work has to be done to rearrange everything. I think it is a tad easier than starting from scratch, but still playing with it hopeful to find some advantages.
Was it an ActivInspire file saved as .iwb?
Yes, it was a flipchart file saved as .iwb and then I opened that .iwb file in Smart.
Yes, that's what I imagined. OK for EXTREMELY basic flipcharts. Other than that...
a common IWB file format that would allow teachers to keep their own resources to use in any school they go to, whatever the board used, would be a great idea.
Sadly the .IWB file format is not quite there yet.
Is there a list somewhere that lists the features that DO survive the import/export?
I'm going to do a little experiment and try some stuff out. Will report back
details here : http://www.whiteboardblog.co.uk/2012/01/an-experiment-with-the-common-iwb-file-format-in-smartpromethean/
Very nice! Thanks for the link, Danny! That will save us a WHOLE bunch of time!
No problem - the file seems to work much better if imported into Easiteach than into Smart Notebook. Probably says something about the way Smart treats the file format. For images, text and basic objects you should be OK.