Teachers Love SMART Boards

SMARTBoards and Wordle

I have a draft about a website called Wordle that I was planning on posting next week. However, I found a much better post about Wordle that also has a fun lesson plan. The post called Wordle: Using Word Clouds in a Lesson comes from one of my favorite blogs called Box of Tricks. I highly recommend that you subscribe to the blog. In his post, José describes how he uses an interactive whiteboard to help with the lesson.

If you come up with any cool ways to use Wordle, let us know!

Here's the "word cloud" for my last post on Smartboards and Algebra. See if you can guess what my post is about before you read it.

Thanks José for another great post!

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SMART Board Notebook Tip: Reveal Correct Answers

Here is video demonstration on how to use Smart Notebook to create a move-and-reveal effect for displaying correct answers and hiding incorrect answers.

                             

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SMART Board and the Spotlight Tool

Check out this wonderful video created by Matt Granger showing how to use the Smart Spotlight tool. You will need to make sure you're computer is connected to your SMART Board before you can use the spotlight.

[Click Here to Go Directly to the Video]

If you want to network with other SMART Board users like Matt and me, make sure you join the SMART Board Revolution Ning!

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SMART Board and Travel IQ Challenge

Check out what Danny Nicholson from The Whiteboard Blog found as a replacement for Geosense...

It's the Travel IQ Challenge from Travelpod.com. Since they allow you to embed the game into any website, I'm providing the game on one of my pages so it's free from advertisements. I'm certainly glad Danny got back from his vacation so he could share this. Don't forget to check out his blog as well as his company's website, Think Bank Ltd, that contains all sorts of great resources for your interactive whiteboard.

Here's a screenshot of the game:

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What is the SMART Board? - The Answer

A big "thank you" to my readers for responding to my online poll "What is the SMART Board?"

I would like to share with you why I think this is such an important question and why I think the SMART Board is such an innovative and exciting tool to use in the classroom.

The possible answers and the percentage of people who answered the question What is a SMART Board? are:

• An output device (1%)
• An input device (10%)
• Both an output and input device (82%)
• Neither (2%)
• I'm not really sure (5%)

The technical answer to the question is "An input device." While the answer may surprise many of you, it's not surprising that over 80% of you thought it was "Both an output and input device."

First a reminder, an input device is anything that gives data or information to the computer. The most popular forms of input devices are the mouse and the keyboard. Is the SMART Board an input device? This is a no-brainer. When you touch the SMART Board, it sends data to the computer so it is indeed an input device. An output device, on the other hand, is anything that gives data or information to the user. Common output devices are printers and monitors.

Is the SMART Board an output device?

I will admit that the answer to this can be a little tricky. It is this "trickiness" that makes the SMART Board such a wonderful and fun tool to use. Firstly, I would like to ask you if your mouse is an output device. Does the computer send any signals to the mouse that could tell you anything about what's happening on the computer? For example, does the computer make your mouse vibrate or light up or do anything at any time? The simple answer is no. The mouse does not give you any information about what the computer is doing. So how do you know what your mouse is doing? The answer is that the computer sends information to the monitor and the monitor shows you a picture of a cursor. You rely on the cursor to tell you when to click your mouse.

Now for the SMART Board. Does the computer send any information to the SMART Board to let you know what it's doing? The answer is no; the computer sends information out through the projector. The projector's image on the SMART Board is the data that tells you what's happening on your computer. Therefore, the SMART Board is not an output device.

The transparency in which the SMART Board works in conjunction with the projector (output device) is what makes the SMART Board such a fun and exciting tool to use. It is this transparency that makes it seem like the SMART Board is both an input and output device.

Two things help make it seem like the SMART Board is both an input and output device. Firstly, because the projector is projecting an image on the surface of the SMART Board, you never look at the actual output device (the projector) to see your data, you look at the SMART Board. Secondly, the SMART Board eliminates the need to control a separate object (your cursor) to control your computer. This is a requirement when using the mouse. With the mouse, you're relying on the monitor to show you where the cursor is to tell you when to click the mouse. With the SMART Board, YOU become the cursor.

I believe this subtle difference gives us the perception that we're interacting directly with the information. It's the difference between telling a taxi driver where to take you and driving there yourself. (I don't know about you, but I remember being a lot more excited the first time I drove a car compared to the first time I took a taxi ride.)

All of this is perception of course. However, I believe it is this perception which helps engage people when they're using the SMART Board. This is exactly why I believe the iPhone is such a popular and fun tool to use. With the iPhone, we don't use buttons to make a cursor move up or down and select the things we want, we simply touch on what we want. I believe this type of interaction is much more powerful than we know and I believe this is what puts the SMART Board in a class by itself.

Let me know what you think!

Teaching With SMARTBoard Video Podcast

I had the opportunity to talk to the creators of the Teaching With SMARTBoard Video Podcast last week. This podcast is not to be missed. This week's episode shows an amazing technique where you can "burn your lesson plan" to help students learn. You can also go to their TeacherTube site to check out all their video podcasts.

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Smart Video Recorder and Video Podcasts

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to talk technology integration with Dave Sladkey and Scott Miller from Naperville Central HS in Naperville, IL. Dave and Scott are the creators of the new video podcast Teaching With SMARTBoard. We had a lively discussion and I was impressed with how they were using technology to engage the students.

Here is a short video that shows how Dave and Scott created a student-centered learning environment where their students create video podcasts that describe how to solve various Math problems. These videos can be uploaded to the Internet and viewed at any time.

                                

Launch in external player

Smart Technologies Earth Day Contest

There's still time everyone!

Here's a message from Carol posted on the Smart Exchange Forum:

Earth Day is coming soon, and SMART is looking for your best lesson activity on the environment. The winner will receive a SMART classroom package worth over US $3,500, including a SMART Board 600i interactive whiteboard system and an annual subscription to the SMART Learning Marketplace, a subscription service with over a million digital resources.

How to enter
Create a lesson activity about climate change, your local habitat or any topic relevant to the environment. Lesson activities can be for any subject or cross-curricular. Lessons that use Notebook software features and video, sound, Adobe Flash, screen captures, links and other interactive tools will be given preference.

To submit your lesson activity, follow these steps:

1. If you haven’t already, join      the SMART Exchange
2. Click on the Downloads tab at the top of the      page
3. Select the Lesson Activity Contest folder      from the Browse Folders section
4. Click on the Upload button
5. You will be taken to the Upload      File page.
6. Click on File/URL. An upload window will appear. Complete      the following:
   1. Click the Browse button and attach the       lesson activity file
   2. Enter a title in the Name field
   3. Enter the grade level and a       brief description of your lesson activity in the Description field
   4. Enter key words in the Tags field [NOTE: tags must be separated by a semi-colon and a space]
   5. Once finished, click the Save button

You can upload lessons activities until February 21, 2008. A panel of SMART experts will select the top 20 lesson activities about the environment.

These 20 lesson activities will be highlighted on  the SMART Exchange from February 28 to March 27, so members can vote for the one they like best. The lesson activity with the most peer votes will be announced as the winner on April 1, 2008.

 

Contest details
Your lesson activity must follow the guidelines below:

• Lesson activities must be      created in Notebook collaborative learning software 9.5 or higher. Download      the latest version.
• All lesson activities must be      a minimum of five pages long
• The file size must not exceed      4 MB
• Lesson activities must be      easily adaptable by another teacher
• All submissions must comply      with copyright laws

For a full list of the contest terms and conditions, click here.

SMARTBoard - Notebook 10 Press Release

Here is a snip-it of the press release for the upcoming version 10 of Notebook™ collaborative learning software:

CALGARY, Alberta --- January 9, 2008 --- SMART Technologies announces the release of version 10 of Notebook™ collaborative learning software, which offers over 30 new features that make lesson creation and delivery even easier, and learning more exciting and fun. The latest version of one of the most popular collaborative learning software products in the world now includes access to more than 100,000 new pieces of educational content and an updated teachers’ resource hub, which connects teachers to hundreds of lesson activities and offers tools that help them use Notebook software 10 more effectively. Version 10 also offers support for 5 additional languages, which brings the total to 41.

The entire press release Notebook software 10 raises the 21st-century teaching and learning standard can be found on Smart Technologies website.

You can see ten short video demonstrations of the new features on my TeacherTube site or by using the video player below:

SMARTBoard Whiteboard Tips Presentation

It's time I share with you a presentation created by users of Interactive Whiteboards. This initiative was started by Tom Barrett and it has over 30 tips and tricks for using your interactive whiteboard. Here's Tom's blog post about this initiative. If you would like to help make this presentation even better, please contact Tom Barrett and he can provide you with the required privileges to edit the presentation.

Awesome idea Tom!
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