Class+2_Team+6

Smart Boards in the Classroom By Carmen Osorio, Megan Ponath, and Letha Fitzgerald

=Introduction = Imagine walking into your classroom and having the planets displayed on the board. The teacher labels the sun and asks for a volunteer to move the correct planet that is closest to the sun. This type of interactive lesson no longer has to be imagined! It can be done in any classroom with a Smart Board. Teachers and students can find many ways to incorporate learning from traditional content to social stories for students in special education. Once a teacher is trained, the possibilities are endless. = = =Definition = A Smart Board is essentially a large touch screen on a white board. Students and teachers can display computer images onto the screen and then interact with the materials by moving it around and adding writing with special pens. Smart Board was developed in 1991 by Smart Technologies. Teachers can develop lesson plans in Microsoft programs that can be used in the classroom. Teachers can also find prepared lesson plans online provided by other teachers. Additional training can be done online, as well, from Smart Technologies website. Regular education teachers and special education teachers have found a variety of uses in the classroom for Smart Boards.

=Advantages =
 * The interactive electronic whiteboard is great for demonstrations.
 * The interactive electronic whiteboard is a colorful tool. Research indicates that students respond to displays where color is employed.
 * The board can accommodate different learning styles. It is very effective in special education classrooms where students that often times cannot sit and read from a book, will gladly get up and interact with the board, and the experience is just as educational, if not more so than the traditional approach.
 * All ages of students respond favorably to board use.
 * Distance learning is an excellent setting for interactive whiteboard use.
 * One-computer classrooms can maximize the use of limited computer access.
 * The boards are clean and attractive tools.
 * Students with limited motor skills can enjoy board use.
 * It is interactive.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 105%;">The board is great for meetings-it can be used outside of the regular teaching day for instances such as parent-teacher conferences, and faculty meetings.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 105%;">It is a kid magnet! It allows students to get excited for the upcoming lesson. They'll want to be participating and engaged on the activity at hand!
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 105%;">For newer teachers, there is the opportunity to use pre-set programs to help them teach lessons, which can ease the burden of coming up with all of your own lessons, and wondering if they will be beneficial or not.

=<span style="color: #008000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Disadvantages and Issues =
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Because you are essentially writing on a computer, the writing won't be as neat as it would if you were writing directly onto a white board or chalk board. The touch screen can be problematic, and you may need to recalibrate the screen multiple times to get it to work the way you would like it to.
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Cost and assembly required to install this into a classroom. The basic model of the Smart Board is just under $1000, and this does not include any extras. It is a technological device that needs to be installed by a professional, and if you do not have someone on site to install it, there is the additional cost of labor. Depending on who is operating the board, there will most likely need to be training to go along with it as well.
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">There will eventually be upkeep with the device. It is possible for the screen to become damaged. Something you have to remember with any technological device is that things can often go wrong. If you only set up your lesson depending on your Smart Board, and you cannot get it to work, or the internet or your computer is down, coming up with a quick lesson plan may be difficult.

=<span style="color: #008000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Future Direction = <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">As the Smart Board concept continues to evolve, many changes and improvements are expected to take place in the near future. First, as the popularity increases, more and more companies will become involved in developing software to be used with Smart Boards. So far, there have been only two companies, Promethean and Mimio, who have developed software for this tool. Smart Boards currently operate with the concept of a touch screen. Additional applications, like a microphone used to detect speech and turn it into typed messages on the screen, will likely be seen in the near future. With more companies developing software, the Smart Board will naturally become more accessible and economical to school districts. Along with this idea, new technology always becomes more reasonable to purchase as time goes by. Just like plasma and LCD televisions that were extremely expensive 10 years ago, they are now reasonably priced. As Smart Boards decrease in price, more schools will be able to afford them. Schools will likely start with a single Smart Board for each department and increase the number of them as it become evident how affective they are. Also, as younger teachers who are more comfortable with technology are replace retiring teachers, schools will have pressure placed upon them to utilize technology, such as the Smart Board.

=<span style="color: #008000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Conclusion = <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Smart Boards are a magnificent tool to have inside the classroom because, not only does it benefit teachers and staff members of the school community, but it will also revolutionize the way students learn in a classroom setting. It has also been proven that kids with learning disabilities have an easier time communicating, between their teachers and fellow classmates, while using this device. Teachers find the interactive boards very helpful because they can display all sorts of information and use it for any type of activity without having to erase and write again. This eliminates wasted time and frees up more time which can be used to focus on other learning activities. It is suspected that Smart Boards will continue to gain popularity and cultural acceptance as time goes by and they become more economically accessible.

=<span style="color: #008000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">References =

<span class="noformat" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Bell, M. A. (2002, January). Why Use an Interactive Whiteboard? A Baker's Dozen Reasons!. //Teachers.net//. Retrieved February 9, 2012, from []

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Dakss, Brian (2009, February). 'Smart Boards': School Wave of Future? Retrieved February 9, 2012, from []

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Kuhn, Brian (2010, April). Teachers Teaching with SMART Boards. Retrieved February 9, 2012, from []

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Smart Technology Training Search (2012). In //Smart Technology//. Retrieved February 9, 2012, from []

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Süleyman Nihat Şad, An attitude scale for smart board use in education: Validity and reliability studies, Computers &amp; Education, Volume 58, Issue 3, April 2012, Pages 900-907, ISSN 0360-1315, 10.1016/j.compedu.2011.10.017. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">([])

<span class="noformat" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Tonarely, K. (n.d.). The Disadvantages of a Smart Board. //eHow//. Retrieved February 9, 2012, from []

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Whiteboard's Technology Wiki (2012). In //Smartboard-Mimeo-eBeam//. Retrieved February 9, 2012, from []