Smart Notebook and Interactive White Boards

Whilst whiteboards (and blackboards) and computers have been in our classrooms for a while now, it is only recently that the mixture of the two have come into regular use within the school environment, in fact, I was actually at school during the introduction of SMART Boards into the classroom. (It should be made clear at this stage that whilst ‘SMART Technologies’ are one of the leading companies in the Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) market, they are not the only company selling the products, however, this blog will be focused on the SMART software). As such, part of becoming a teacher means that you need to be aware of the classroom environment, and the IWBs are now becoming a hugely important part of that environment.

For the sake of this blog, I feel it is important to separate the two aspects of the SMART Technology, namely the SMART Notebook software, and the Interactive Whiteboard hardware, in order to avoid confusion...

SMART Notebook:

The SMART Notebook software, I find, is very simple to use. Whilst there are large amounts of multimedia resources available as well as colour and pen changes that can be made at the touch of a button, the software retains its simplicity and ease of use. As such, I truly believe that there is very little which can go wrong with the human aspect of the operation of the software. Below is a video showing the very basics of the SMART Notebook Software (the video itself is made by SMART Technologies)

However, this is not to say that nothing can go wrong, because it can. From personal use, I can confirm that on occasion, the software can fail to load properly, and be temperamental in places. This obviously, is not ideal within the classroom environment, and teachers should have available resources, away from the computer setting, that they can use in case of a technical failure. It must be said though, that this does not happen very often.

The Smart Board:

Although the SMART Notebook Software is a wonderful development, it remains little more than an advanced version of ‘Microsoft Paint’ without the hardware, namely the SMART Board. Again, very similarly to the software, the board is easy to use, you pick up a pen from the tray, and the tray instantly tells the board, and then the computer, that you wish to write. Same applies when using the eraser. The most obvious application for this in the classroom is using the SMART Notebook Software. The video below, again by SMART, shows the ease of use of the technology in American classrooms (the technology is the same in both The United States and Great Britain).

The other impressive thing regarding the SMART technology is that when outside of the Notebook Software, the board is essentially your computer screen, and in this case, your finger becomes the mouse. Again, the video below shows this function of the SMART Board Technology.

However, similarly to the software, problems can occur. Whilst SMART claims to do all it can to advise their customers on how to best use the hardware, things can go wrong. One of the most common problems that I have found is that many teachers are unaware of how to calibrate the hardware, and as such, find that when they write, it appears to the left or right of where they intended it to go. Furthermore, in case of school system failures, or power-cuts, the entirety of the SMART Board becomes unusable, and plans need to be put in place in case this does happen during a lesson.

Overall Opinion:

The development and usage of IWBs (and appropriate software) in the classroom has helped the teaching and learning within the classroom, I believe, by an immeasurable amount. With the wealth of knowledge and resources available on the computer and internet, it would be ridiculous to continue teaching without giving the children the access that will help and develop their education. In addition to this, I have both used and been taught using the IWB and have found it to be a wonderful experience.

As teachers however, we do have to be wary of an over-reliance on technology, as problems can and will undoubtedly occur, lesson planning needs to account for what can happen in case of a technology failure. This alongside improved education for teachers on the ability of the software and the hardware, especially with regards to the orientation and calibration issues, this is indeed a highly valuable resource.

Until next week,

Keep Calm and Blog On!

Alex

http://smarttech.com/gb