Category: SMARTboards

Microsoft reveals it's cards…

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It seems that it will be an interesting year regarding the release and development of interactive surface technologies. Now it seems there is a mixture of large players in the market all of which could concievably affect the look of our classrooms in the not too distant future.

As you may have read I have been tracking these products for more than a year now – four major stories seem to be most dominant.

  • Jeff Han’s demonstration of multi-touch technology at TED Talks
  • Philips Entertaible
  • Rumours of new SMARTBoard technologies that incorporates multitouch – ie more than just the rear projector model.

And now…

I suppose the question is no longer about whether or not we will see this type of technology in education but, what form will it take and who will be able to back it?

Plupon

Maths, SMARTboardsPublished onLeave a Comment on Plupon

I came across this great little Maths game – thankyou Sandaig Otters. Lots of Japanese text so no instructions.

All you have to do is choose three spheres that add up to 10 before they scroll off the bottom of the screen, if you get a total that is greater than 10 you lose part of the life at the bottom. You can make other numbers by combining smaller integers. It would be a great little starter for a maths lesson to get the kids brains working – works really well on the IWB.

Laptop project update

Laptops, SMARTboardsPublished on3 Comments on Laptop project update

Back in December I posted about my thoughts on investing in a pool of laptops for classes at school. Well it has been nearly 5 months since those initial thoughts and since then I have managed to pin down the make and series of machine we want and I have a much clearer understanding for the sort of resource we want.

The most important thing for me is the variables that may affect their performance in the classroom and I want to pre-empt these so that the classteachers and children can confidently turn to the technology when they want. The 16 SMARTBoards we have were installed after many weeks of intense research and price hunting. It has been much harder to find the right hardware with this laptop project, for a start. There are so many machines to choose from.

The problems that I envisage (from experience and advice):

  • Battery life – can they be used successfully throughout the working school day? Do we need spare batteries?
  • Wireless strength – we have an old building that is not particularly conducive to wi-fi.
  • Ongoing maintenance – how will problems be dealt with when we only have a part time technician?

Our SMARTBoard project had far fewer variables than this one and so far there has not been a single problem with the SMARTBoards, in what will be 4 years of use this coming December. I want that sort of reliability from the laptops. Inevitably there will be problems, and I am not daft enough to think it will be all plain sailing – I just want to solve them, or at least anticipate them before they happen. Hopefully my considered choices now will help smooth the user experience when and if we finally purchase some.

I say “if” because I was brought back into reality after reading Stephen Hall’s post ‘Laptops are a Costly Mistake for Schools’. It was such a contrasting view on laptop projects and I am curious as to the reasons that such schemes have been considered a failure. I believe that at my school our approach is slightly different in the sense that the children will have limited access within school hours, they will not be taking the machines home. We are looking into this technology as it is part of our ICT vision not to directly address standards – as I have stated previously:

We would like our children to have a uninhibitied personal choice when to use technology; whether that be a calculator or sharing an online spreadsheet on a laptop.

I just sometimes think looking at standards or levels or grades or percentages is the wrong thing when deciding whether the project has had an impact. They did it here in the UK with interactive whiteboards. The impact is so much wider.
Not many tests are taken on laptops are they?

SMARTBoard Lesson Podcasts

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A few months back I was lucky enough to stumble upon Ben and Joan’s Podcast. Predominantly about the use of the SMARTBoard in classrooms, but often branching off into the wider world of Web2.0 etc I really enjoyed listening to the show.

Ben asked me after an initial contact to share my experiences through a series of interviews and so far they have casted 2 out of three, take a listen and let me know what you think. (Show notes from SMARTBoard Lesson Podcast site)

Episode 71:

Our Interview:

Files:

Download SMARTepisode71.mp3

Episode 64:

Our Interview:

  • Tom Barrett, Assistant Headmaster at Priestsic Primary and Nursery School, shares his lesson about using the SMARTBoard to create interactive board games. He also talks about the process of implementing SMARTBoards in his school.

Files:

Download SMARTepisode64.mp3

A whole month on…

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It has been a whole month and more since I last posted to my blog. You may be wondering why? Well it has been a busy few weeks since the Easter break, so much going on. My son, George, is on the very brink of walking for himself and he seems so small and vulnerable when he stands there on his own. He of course had his 1st birthday at the end of April which was great fun, and most of my time out of school has been taken up marvelling at his daily progress. 🙂

As for school – well it is busy as ever. We are nearing the crunch week of SATs exams with my Year 6 children and needless to say we are busy revising and getting ready. So what role does ICT have when it comes to this time of the year?

Well we have continued to use ICT and specific websites to support the children in their revision of the key subjects, especially maths and science. As you may have already seen from a previous post, we are using Turning Point voting keypads to work on our fast mental recall of times tables and on Friday we completed a 50 question (5000 point!) mega test on our 6, 7, 8 and 9 times tables. The children get so motivated, it is great fun.

Next academic year I am going to look into the procurement of another set of voting keypads. Turning Point is a simple, effective technology using Powerpoint that I like. However Smart Technologies, the manufacturer of Smart Boards, have developed their own voting system called Senteo. When I last visited the BETT show in London SMART were wielding the Turning Point system on their stand and I remember asking the question if SMART were going to develop their own so that it integrates with SMART Notebook. They clearly have.

So do we go for Senteo or Turning Point?

It looks like the Senteo devices will be more expensive to buy than the TP keypads. I have also seen some decent offers for buying a class set of TP keypads and getting the second half price. This purchase can also be done through the E Learning Credits budget which is useful.

I suppose the question is whether or not the new SMART devices will bring new features (they have an LCD screen allowing greater feedback and flexibility) that provide value for money.

I would be most interested in any initial thoughts from colleagues who have had the opportunity to use both systems and may be able to shed some light on the advantages and disadvantages of both.