Using SMART Boards in the Classroom

Some educators think that SMART Boards are great tools to use for teaching and learning in the classroom... and others consider them to be "glorified chalkboards." As with many teaching tools, I believe it's the educator who makes the difference. In my opinion, an excellent teacher will use a SMART Board well.

Smart Board / Brandon Dill / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Personally, the Notebook software that comes with SMART Boards is one of my favorite applications. It's so easy to design activities to meet the needs of your students and the curriculum. And, if you don't have time to create your own activities, there's bound to be appropriate ones available--for free--created by others.

I am selecting resources for an upcoming summer workshop that serves as an introduction to using SMART Boards and Notebook software. I searched for appropriate resources for this workshop using my educational sandbox (a Google custom search engine for a select list of blogs discussed at How Do You Search for Information on a Topic?). Because I have taught this topic recently I want to add just a few outstanding resources to what I already use.
 
I categorized the resources I found by the blogs where they are located. I hope that will encourage the workshop participants to explore those blogs for other ideas, also.


CYBRARYMAN…

• Smart Board ... http://www.cybraryman.com/smartboard.html ... Cybraryman’s SMART Boards site
• Educational Hash Tags ... http://www.cybraryman.com/edhashtags.html ... includes hashtags for SMART Boards
• Dinosaur ... http://www.cybraryman.com/dinosaur.html ... dinosaur resources for the SMART Board
• Dr. Seuss ... http://www.cybraryman.com/drseuss.html ... SMART Board resources for Dr. Seuss
• Insects ... http://www.cybraryman.com/insects.html ... includes SMART Board resources for insects
• Rain Forest ... http://www.cybraryman.com/rainforest.html ... includes rainforest resources for SMART Boards
• Thanksgiving ... http://www.cybraryman.com/thanksgiving.html ... Cybraryman’s Thanksgiving site… includes SMART Board resources

EDUCATORS’ TECHNOLOGY…

• Great Resources for Smart Board Users ... http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2011/05/smart-notebook-search-engine-great.html ... custom search engine for SMART Board resources… searches a specific list of sites… you could make your own custom search engine for the sites that you want to check!

EDUDEMIC…

• Halloween Resources For Your SMART Board ... http://www.edudemic.com/halloween-resources-for-your-smart-board/ ... Halloween resources for SMART Boards

EDUTOPIA…

• Smart Ways to Use the SMARTBoard ... http://www.edutopia.org/pdfs/stw/edutopia-stw-s.carolina-differentiated-instruc-smart-ways-to-use-smart-board.pdf ... list of categorized links for SMART Board resources
• Technology Combined with Good Teaching Leads to Success ... http://www.edutopia.org/interactive-whiteboards-technology-success ... some specific information about Marzano’s results when he researched iwb’s in 2009
• Kindergartners Explore Through Project Learning ... http://www.edutopia.org/kindergarten-project-based-learning ... using a SMART Board with kindergartners

FREE TECH 4 TEACHERS…

• Dozens of SMART Board Tutorial Videos ... http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/05/dozens-of-smart-board-tutorial-videos.html ... SMART Board tutorials (videos)
• Two Excellent SMARTBoard Blogs to Bookmark ... http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2012/03/two-excellent-smartboard-blogs-to.html ... Teachers Love SMART Boards blog by James Hollis… last post January 2013 ... and The Whiteboard Blog by Danny Nicholson… posts are current
• Make Your Own PBS Cyberchase SMART Board Game Show ... http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2012/10/make-your-own-pbs-cyberchase-smart.html ... free template to make a mathematics game for students in grades 3 through 5 
• Five Places to Find Thanksgiving Lessons and Activities ... http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2009/11/five-places-to-find-thanksgiving.html ... includes Thanksgiving lessons for SMART Boards
• SMART Notebook Search Engine ... http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/03/smart-notebook-search-engine.html ... search some specific sites for SMART Board resources

LEE’S SUMMIT…

• Lee's Summit R-7 Instructional Technology ... http://www.lsr7.org/its/ ... school district instructional technology resources site… includes SMART Board resources and many other instructional technology resources

SPEED OF CREATIVITY…

• Podcast67: Engaging Math Students with Smartboard Technologies ... http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2006/07/08/podcast67-engaging-math-students-with-smartboard-technologies-and-resources/ ... podcast… interview with a grade 4 mathematics teacher who uses a SMART Board
• iPad as an Interactive White Board for $5 or $10 ... http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2011/03/24/ipad-as-an-interactive-white-board-for-5-or-10/ ... using an iPad instead of a SMART Board
• Separate Wifi Access Point Works Best with Apple TV on Busy Network ... http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2012/04/15/separate-wifi-access-point-works-best-with-apple-tv-on-busy-network/ ... experiences mirroring iPads

LIBRARY GUIDES…

• Interactive Whiteboards - New Tools ... http://sdst.libguides.com/content.php?pid=192765&sid=1618991 ... multiple resources for SMART Boards (and other instructional technology topics)

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Will I use ALL these resources in the workshop? Most likely not. However resources that do not become part of the workshop activities may find themselves in a list provided for the participants to access on their own during the workshop or later.

These sites should help facilitate some interesting and useful discussions. How do you help other educators discover the benefits of using SMART Boards?