SMART Board Teaching Tools
A SMART Board is an interactive whiteboard that interfaces with a computer. Whatever appears on the computer screen appears on the SMART Board. But the SMART Board is more than a presentation tool. Teachers and students can use the SMART Board like a touch screen, clicking on desktop icons and using special pens and highlighters to mark up text. These interactive features are making SMART Boards a popular choice for many school districts and independent schools.
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Writing Tools
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SMART Boards for education come with a set of special pens in different colors and an eraser. Pick up one of these pens and the SMART Board will automatically detect which tool you are using, open the appropriate software tool and display your writing in the correct color. Use different colors to illustrate different steps of a math problem or underline different parts of speech in different colors in a text. If you don't need separate colors, use your finger to write on the SMART Board and it will still capture your work as a screen shot that you can later edit in Microsoft Office software or other applications.
Pointing Tools
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Get students involved in the lesson right from their seats with wireless pointing tools, available for purchase in bundles of four from SMART Technologies. Display a piece of writing and have students point to certain parts of speech, punctuation marks or grammatical errors. Display the periodic table of the elements and have students point to elements based on your verbal description. Display a photograph or painting and have students point out distinctive elements. The possibilities for student engagement are limitless.
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Multimedia Tools
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Use the SMART Board to play educational games from software or the Internet, or show educational videos from your computer's DVD or the web. Add audio with a pair of interactive whiteboard speakers. Upgrade to the classroom amplification system, which includes four speakers and an infrared microphone. The microphone can be a valuable tool for English language learners, students with special needs or students who have difficulty writing.
Assessment Tools
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The SMART Response system allows students to answer questions electronically from their seats. Give each student a device that looks like a remote control, display questions on the SMART Board and have students individually respond. The software tracks student responses for accuracy and provides data that can be managed to create reports or export results to third-party grading software.
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References
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