Teachers Love SMART Boards

SMART Boards and Grammar Ninja

I am so excited to about this post. I have found a great application called Grammar Ninja that really works great with the SMART Board interactive whiteboard. One reason this would be a great game to introduce to your students is because it was developed by Greg Lieberman who developed the game as part of High School Independent Study Program in Videogame Design.

You can check out the game by going to Greg's Grammar Ninja website. However, playing the game is not where the real educational value comes in. Greg has also developed a way to add your own sentences to the game by typing in a sentence and then applying the correct parts of speech to each word. I think this is where the real learning takes place. Check out a screen shot of applying the correct parts of speech:

The application that creates new sentences also works great with a SMART Board since you simply drag and drop the correct parts of speech over each word. When you're done, you simply paste the code that's given to you in file on your hard drive.

Here's a video showing how to download and use the Grammar Ninja application. I honestly believe that the best educational use for this would be to let the students create their own Grammar Ninja sentences and then play Grammar Ninja using their sentences. Here is the link to the zip file that contains all of the files you see in the video.

                             

Please share this wonderful application with your Language Arts or ELL instructors. A big thank you to Greg for creating such a fun education tool. Keep up the great work!

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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 Screencasts: Using FreeScreencast.com

I have become a very big fan of the FreeScreenCast.com website that allows you to record, save, and view screencasts quickly and easily. Best of all, it's free!!

I will demonstrate how to create a screencast video using the FreeScreenCast.com website and Screencast Recorder application that you download from the FreeScreenCast.com website.

This first video takes you through the process of how to record your screencast. The second video shows you the actual screencast.

Video: Recording Screencasts Using FreeScreenCast.com and the Screencast Recorder:

                      

Video: How to use the Screen Shade in the Smart Notebook software:

I hope you enjoyed this demonstration. Please share this with other teachers!

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SMART Boards and Student Engagement

Here's a great example of student engagement using the SMART Board interactive whiteboard. Watch as a fourth grade student from New Hampshire demonstrates how to add fractions using the SMART Board, the Smart Recorder and a flash-based fraction object in Notebook.

Please read the blog post Adding Fractions - Flash - Student Explanation to read more about the importance of the SMART Board.  No other comments necessary!

                                

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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 Mathcasts - Step 2

I hope many of my readers had time to review the Math247 wiki and take a look at some of the screencasts that are being made by teachers and students.

Since my readers are users of SMART Boards, my solution for creating Mathcasts quickly and easily is to use your SMART Board and the Sketchcast website. Sketchcast will allow you to create, store, and share your Mathcasts. You don't need any other tools other than a SMART Board and a microphone (if you want to include audio).

Let's take a look at my Mathcast for using the distributive method of multiplication and then I'll show you the video of how I did it.

Mathcast: Distributive Method of Multiplication

Here is the video of me creating the Mathcast you just watched:

Go ahead and check out the Sketchcast site, I know you'll love it!

If you browse the Math 247 wiki, you'll find instructions for creating Mathcasts that include using various tools such as a writing tablet, a headset microphone, Camtasia Studio, Smart Notebook, VoiceThread, Jing, and/or Screencast. I think the advice is good and I especially like the VoiceThread application. However, writing tablets cost money, Camtasia Studio costs money ($179), Jing and Screencast are good but they have limitations. I also found it interesting that they recommend using the Notebook software without the purchase of Smart hardware. If you do not have a SMART Board or an Airliner tablet, you may be in violation of the software licensing agreement so be careful.

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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.

                                

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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:

Smart Notebook Software Video Tutorials

I would like to introduce to everyone a new resource for Smart Notebook Training. I have created a new group of videos on TeacherTube that has various tutorials for using the Smart Notebook software.

Anyone is welcome to add videos to this group and share what they know with others. Thank you Lynn Reedy for adding your training videos. They're great!

You may also subscribe and/or join to this group to receive notifications when a new video is added. Here's a link to all the SMART Board related groups. These libraries are growing and it's up to you and me to share what we know. Let's see if we can create the best resource library for SMART Board videos anywhere! Sharing is caring!