How are you using your classroom smartboard?

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Permalink Reply by Kevin Burkett on May 16, 2008 at 7:20pm

I would agree and tablets are coming on strong! A company that readily promotes their tablet as a standalone solution and alternative to their own interactive whiteboard is the Numonics Mobilepresenter. www.interactivewhiteboards.com. It is more feature-packed including RM Easiteach software. Easiteach uses subject-specific tool bars for math, science, language arts and geography.

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Permalink Reply by SandraL on June 28, 2008 at 5:49pm

Great tip. Thanks for sharing. All of the Core teachers at my school have smartboards. But this may be a way to get soemthing for special area teachers, etc.

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Permalink Reply by LindaMycko on May 9, 2008 at 4:49pm

There are advantages to both SmartBoards and Promethean Active Boards. We started acquiring SmartBoards this year. We have one per grade level. The difficulty is not having it available when you need it. The advantage is having the students light up when you have it. They love the interactivity and hands-on activities. If you use PowerPoint Jeporady games, you'll love using them on the SmartBoard. There are lots of activities available online, you just need to search.

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Permalink Reply by Jared Bloom on May 9, 2008 at 9:53pm

I have been using the SmartBoard for about five years in urban and suburban classrooms. The hardware provides an easy method for taking notes and inputting data into the computer. Smart Tech's new version of Notebook is incredible. The software is what helps to make the magic happen. For instance, the new software allows you to create quick Flash activities without any programming knowledge. I often use the Notebook to work on vocabulary, graphic organizers, and handwriting to text. The new SmartBoard even allows you to use the tools, including the shade, without having the Notebook software open. It does take a little bit of time and preparation to create lessons for the Smart Board, but it is well worth it!

Jared

PS - You can download a trial of the new software for 30 days; however, after that you will need a Smart Board serial number to activate the program on your computer.

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Permalink Reply by Art Lader on May 10, 2008 at 6:47am

I have a Promethean Board in my high school German classroom. One of my favorite things to do with it is to make a screen capture of whatever we are doing and pop it into a Moodle forum. If there are questions about the screen capture, we discuss it right there in Moodle. Nice. :-)

Hope that helps.

-- Art

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Permalink Reply by Jessica on May 21, 2008 at 10:47pm

We have Promethean Activeboards in all Primary School Classrooms. The boards are a fabulous resource / teaching and learning tool.
Instead of writing on a normal whiteboard, we write everything straight onto the Activeboard. For example:

Maths questions / equations. The students love coming out and writing their amswer and working out onto the Activeboard. The Activeboard is alot more colourful, clearer and therefore attention grabbing than a normal whiteboard.

In HSIE, the students are making flipcharts using the software ActiveStudio3. These flipcharts are accompanying their presentations on their Local Community. The flipcharts will have hyperlinks to photos, interactive websites, google maps, local council website etc..

In the mornings when students arrive, the Activeboard is on to play educational games and build confidence using the Activeboard. Check out Hangman on www.crickweb.co.uk in the KS2 section.

My grade partner and I have a Topic or Unit flipchart they we email back and forth as we add new flipcharts throughout the unit. For example: We write each experiment onto a new flipchart page for the students to copy down. Use the "hide" or blind icon tool to hide the conclusion and results section. The next day when you are revisiting the lesson and discussing / coming up with a conclusion, open the Unit Flipchart and the experiment will be there. Turn the page and add on the next experiment the following lesson. Pass downloaded images around the experiment for added attractiveness.

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Permalink Reply by M Robinson on May 26, 2008 at 6:42am

You can always skip over to the forums of SMART and Promethean to ask these questions too...

The Promethean forums (the one I know and write in) is free and very open and welcoming of people asking questions. It would be also good for those teacher to get questions from outside their large - but IWB focussed communities.

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Permalink Reply by SandraL on June 28, 2008 at 5:46pm

The 3rd-5th grade teachers at my school have had SmartBoards for one year. They have learned to use many of the tools including the Gallery. They often begin lessons with a piece of background information that they have gleaned from the Internet or from BrainPop. They have also accessed many of the learning websites on the Internet including memory-like games for antonyms, synonyms, etc. The math teachers are especially adept at using the Math tools like clocks, geometric concepts, etc.

The K - 2nd grade teachers just got their SmartBoards towards the end of the year. They are just beginning to get the hang of it.

We are planning some PD on SmartBoards prior to the opening of schools. I have found many SmartBoard instructional videos on TeacherTube and YouTube. It will take time for the SmartBoards to be used to their maximum potential.

The overall reaction from all of the teachers has been very positive. They are excited to have this new resource and they are taking advantage of all it has to offer.

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Permalink Reply by Tony Searl on August 2, 2008 at 5:08am

Learning a lot here. 2200 NSW public schools will receive a connected classroom over the next 3 years or so. IWBs with video conferencing and ultra short throw projectors ceiling mounted 8cms from the board are a few of the features we have seen so far. Endless options can then be added to the package. $158million will be invested by the NSW government on the CCP so I hope they did their shop arounds carefully before deciding on the Promethean platform. Our school gets ours next term.

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Permalink Reply by Stephanie Bullock on August 2, 2008 at 8:00pm

We have a Smartboard in our 4th grade classroom, and we love it! In addition to creating activities and lessons using the Notebook software (not to mention the Smartboard is a great visual tool in the middle of the classroom) I started taking screen captures of the slides we would create on the Smartboard throughout the day so I could later copy and paste them to our class website. Through the Web, my students would then have an instant review of what we learned on any given day, and they had a built-in study guide. It was great to have a record of what we produced as we studied different topics.

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Permalink Reply by Mims on December 3, 2008 at 6:59pm

Right now I am in the process of writing 200 words or less to my principal about why I should be one of the first people to get a Smartboard in my room. I already house the portable one, but I have to share it . When no one else wants it, I use it all day long, for every subject. I love it, and the kids love it. We play educational games, create graphic organizers, edit work, search for answers spontaneously, travel using Google Earth, the list is endless! I am going to get that SmartBoard!:)

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Permalink Reply by Julie Baird on December 4, 2008 at 3:34am

I think one of the arguments you can state is if you had a SmartBoard permanently installed, you would be able to do better lessons. It sounds right now that you are using it only as a glorified whiteboard when no one else has it checked out. If you knew it was yours all the time, you could really do a lot more with preparing your lessons so that students are more engaged. I personally can't use most of the fabulous items in the Activity Tool Kit on the fly.

There should also be evidence of how often you use it. I know when we were getting our first 2 SmartBoards, the tech guy put one in my room because 1) he knew I would use it and 2) he knew I would play with it until I figured out how to use it to it's full potential (I'm still learning) and 3) I would train others how to use it. Maybe these reasons are also arguments you can present.

Good luck. I hope you get one soon. I know that it has revolutionized the way I teach. I would not want to give it up.

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