Ipevo!

           

        Ipevo

Webcam from Hong Kong

At a recent Maths PD day at CEO Revesby, were were given a glimpse of a digital web camera called an IPEVO - I was really excited with the applications I could see immediately in the the classroom including demonstrations of art or craft techniques, using concrete materials in maths, modelling writing, editing, observing experiments, displaying documents and the like...so I ordered one straight away ;) ....... So far I've pretty much used it for everything I have listed above and it has been great! At this point in time they are $85 ex GST from Learning With Technologies, a great IT supplier we use at school from time to time for non-CEO catalogue items...

Being the hardened budget conscious eLearning Coordinator that I am however, I wanted to explore cheaper alternatives, jumping online to check out webcams direct from Hong Kong. I settled on the model above right as it had a flexible mount and looked as though it could do the same job all for $12.

In comparing the the two products - I was wrong. 

The picture quality of the iPevo is much higher, the extension arm allows for better positioning, and it is packaged with it's own software that is simple to use and does a great job.

The cheap webcam had a small viewable area, less clear picture, unstable, short stand and came with absolutely no software - I had to install some freeware to even get a picture...

Although the cost is way above it's competitor in this case - the iPevo wins....let me know if want to borrow it for your classroom (if you are from my school), and depending on more feedback we could look into further purchases...