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 * Smart Boards in Elementary Education **

Introduction
Throughout history, there have been many different tools that have come in and out of the classroom. These tools have all had an impact on education. However, none of them had an impact quite as strong as the SMART Board. The SMART Board helps improve the classroom experience for both students and teachers. SMART Boards allow for a more hands-on, interactive classroom experience. While there are some disadvantages, the changes the SMART Board is making are almost all positive. The SMART Board appears to be one tool that will continue changing classrooms and education for years to come.

‍Definition
‍A SMART Board is an interactive whiteboard that is used by teachers to help make daily lessons more hands on and interactive. SMART Boards allow teachers to make lessons more dynamic. Teachers can write notes, create engaging lessons, and save their notes onto their computer all with the touch of their finger (SMART Technologies, 2010).

History
While many people think of the SMART Board as a relatively new form of instructional technology, the SMART Board actually celebrated it's 20th anniversary in 2011! In 1986, a man named David Martin came up with the idea of starting a company called SMART. A year later, he and his partner, Nancy Knowlton, started the company (SMART Technologies, 2010). Originally, the company only sold projectors, and they used the money they made selling these projectors to fund research on developing the SMART Board. In 1991, the first SMART Board was created. The SMART Board was the first interactive white board to allow touch control of computer applications and to provide the ability to write over standard Microsoft applications (SMART Technologies, 2010). It took many years to inform people on the benefits of SMART Boards and why they might want to use them. Eventually, people began to understand how innovative this technology was and how much it could improve their teaching and presentations. To date, more than two million SMART Boards have been installed in schools and businesses around the world (SMART Technologies, 2010)!

‍Advantages ‍
The SMART Board has many advantages for students and teachers. The SMART Board is a colorful tool that can be customized to write or highlight text. The use of the SMART Board can reach a wide range of learners in the classroom, which is beneficial for all of the students. By using the SMART Board in the classroom, students can develop and strengthen their critical thinking skills. The SMART Board is an interactive tool that allows for the teacher to use the computer then put the lesson or activity on the SMART Board for the students to write on the SMART Board. The SMART Board also enables students who have fine motor skill problems to interact in the lesson by touching the SMART Board with their fingers or hand. The SMART Board is great for classrooms with only one computer. One computer can be used to input activities, lessons, videos, and more onto the SMART Board for the whole class to see and participate in (Bell 2002). The SMART Board is also very easy for both students and teachers to use, as shown in the video clip below.

**Disadvantages**
The SMART Board has several advantages; however, there are some disadvantages of the SMART Board as well. If the SMART Board is used too often in the classroom, the students will not think that the SMART Board is a fun and exciting way to learn. The SMART Board is not always used to learn new ideas. Instead, teachers may spend too much time playing games on the SMART Board rather then teaching the students through use of the interactive SMART Board. Another disadvantage of the SMART Board is that it can be difficult to write on because a person's shadow can block the projector causing the letters or words not to be written on the board correctly (Smart Boards). Also, only one person can use the SMART Board at a time for it to work (Rosson, 2010). The biggest disadvantage of having the SMART Board in a classroom is that it is costly to install and maintain (Evaluating the Total Cost of Ownership for SMART Board Interactive Whiteboards, 2006).

Module || $1,000 || (Evaluating the Total Cost of Ownership for SMART Board Interactive Whiteboards, 2006).
 * ~  ||~ The Cost of a SMART Board ||
 * SMART Board || $1,399 and up ||
 * Projector || $1,000 ||
 * Computer || $1,000 ||
 * Wireless
 * Bulbs || $400 ||
 * Total || $4,799 and up ||

**Future Direction**
The era of classrooms containing younger students who have grown up with learning capacities dependent on technology is fast approaching (Gambardella & Sherk, 2010). Technology is increasing at a rapid rate, and the days of white boards are numbered. Teachers want students who are engaged in their lessons and with the age of technology, old methods of teaching no longer intrigue young minds (Gambardella & Sherk, 2010). SMART Boards have the capacity to far exceed the use of projectors and white boards in the classroom. Their ability to interact with the students via programs such as Google Earth, virtual field trips, and other free internet learning sites that seem to take students “outside of the classroom,” makes SMART Boards far more appealing than the average white board or projector (Gambardella & Sherk, 2010). Twenty eight percent of U.S. classrooms already possess interactive boards, and that number is steadily rising (Gambardella & Sherk, 2010). Soon, SMART Boards will become a fundamental learning tool in classrooms all over the United States (Gambardella & Sherk, 2010).



Conclusion
The SMART Board is an innovative tool for the classroom that offers a vast range of educational opportunities in the classroom that used to be inaccessible due to limited technology. Allowing for a more interactive, hands-on approach to teaching, the SMART Board enables teachers to strengthen lessons and show in-depth examples to support the concepts they are teaching. The classroom has become more student-centered with the introduction of this technology, and students with special needs can be further helped in their academic journey. Although the SMART Board is an expensive piece of equipment, the advantages of the tool have appeared to outweigh the disadvantages due to the steady increase of SMART Boards in schools throughout the United States.

References

 * <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Ann Bell, M. (2002, January). Why Use An Interactive Whiteboard? The Baker's Dozen Reasons!. In //Teacher.Net//. Retrieved February 9, 2012, from http://teachers.net/gazette/JAN02/mabell.html
 * Evaluating Total Cost of Ownership for SMART Board Interactive Whiteboards (2006, January). In White Paper . Retrieved February 12, 2012, from http://downloads01.smarttech.com/media/research/whitepapers/tcowhitepaper.pdf
 * Gambardella, K., & Sherk, C. (2010, August 9). Primary grade teachers see role for technology [Electronic version]. //Electronic Education Report//, //17//(16), 1-3.
 * <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; line-height: 15px;">Smart Boards (n.d.). In //Technology Education//. Retrieved February 9, 2012, from http://www.technology-education.net/smart-boards.htm
 * <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">(n.d.). N.p.: IVCI. Retrieved February 9, 2012, from http://www.ivci.com/videoconferencing-rear-projection-smart-board-2000i.html
 * Rosson, Amanda. (2010, June 26). K-12:Interactive Smart Boards. In //Blooger//. Retrieved February 9, 2012, from http://medt3401.blogspot.com/2010/06/interactive-smart-boards.html
 * SMART Classrooms (Poster) (2009, April 13). SMART boards why are they so easy to use? [Video] Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U05WeXPGlk
 * SMART Technologies. //SMART//. N.p., 2010. Web. 12 Feb. 2012. Retrieved from <http://www.smarttech.com/us>.