I recently wrestled with same question. Ultimately I ended up learning how to write PGN files, with the FEN string manually to set up demonstration. Then you just email them to your table with droidfish, or, in my case, laptop with scid. If you really are set on having a computer board, then you just hook up to your laptop, but with tablet, it's all touchscrren anyway, so why bother? For me, I think it's good for kids to start verbalizing the board coordinates, so I want it up on the projector. The smarboard should work just like other computer IO, although I hate it as one school has different buttons on the pens you have to remember, another one has different places on the board you touch to do certain stuff... prefer to use my tablet w/ the projectors, but haven't been able to get it to connect via. network / BT.
Using a Computer in lieu of Demonstration Board
I have the original question from Patzer59. I find it hard to believe that there is not a simple and cheap/free tool to use for this purpose?!
"I am trying to find a computer program/software which will allow me to use my computer screen as a demonstration board. I have a smartboard and projector in the class room and would like to take advantage of it to teach chess. Thanks your thoughts and suggestions. I am look for a computer board that could be manipulated and where I could save positions as puzzles to save time in class."
You can save a game in PGN or a position in FEN and then just copy-and-paste into any chess program while in class. For exmaple, chess.com /Fritz has the analysis board that lets you do just that. Like the above poster said, get a projector for your computer; oh, many classrooms and conf rooms already have a projector so you might want to check that first before buying one. If there's no place to project the image, a large screen TV might be an option (you don't need 4K resolution to show a chessboard, so you can get them pretty cheaply).
I am trying to find a computer program/software which will allow me to use my computer screen as a demonstration board. I have a smartboard and projector in the class room and would like to take advantage of it to teach chess. Thanks your thoughts and suggestions. I am look for a computer board that could be manipulated and where I could save positions as puzzles to save time in class.