Class+2_Team+1

Communicating With SMART Boards By: Stephanie Kastens, Kate Wagner, Minerva Salas

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== **__Overview of Topics:__**
 * Introduction
 * Definition
 * Using a SMART Board
 * Additional Tools
 * Advantages
 * Disadvantages
 * Conclusion
 * References

__Introduction:__

Communication is an essential component of a teacher's job. A SMART Board is a great tool for facilitating this communication. To begin, this section will define a SMART Board and show the benefits of the SMART Board in communicating with students, parents, and other teachers. Communication between teachers, students, and parents is necessary for a student's academic success. Whether the discussion be about class assignments, academic progress, or questions regarding any aspect of the class, SMART Board technology has made it possible for each group of people to partake in receiving information. In this Wiki, we will be focusing on the SMART Board technology based communication between the three parties, give examples of the technology use, and discuss the advantages and disadvantages for the technology in a twenty-first-century classroom.


 * __Definition:__ **

A SMART Board is an electronic interactive whiteboard that receives its user input through touch (drawing, writing, scrolling, etc…). This input is received in the same way that a computer receives its input through a mouse and keyboard. The SMART Board is facilitated through a computer, which sends the display to a projector. The projector then projects the display onto the SMART Board. The SMART Board comes with four different colored pens that are used to draw digitally on the SMART Board, just like a traditional white board would function. The SMART Board also comes with an eraser to remove any mistakes (Wikipedia).


 * __Using a SMART Board:__ **

__Student Use__ <span style="color: #404040; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">To begin, technology continues to appear in classrooms, teachers are beginning to change the way they teach lessons to their students. There have been many waves of technology through classrooms; however, the focus here is a common technology tool that can be used by teachers of any content area or grade level. Interactive electronic white boards, SMART Boards, have been praised by many teachers because of its great value. The value can be observed through the use of the new technology and teachers being able to "appeal to the visual and digital intelligences of students" (Rochette). This appeal is highly important because it keeps student focus on learning while interacting with the material. The SMART Board allows a teacher to illustrate how to apply skills in their reading, break down the writing and thinking processes, and show the students how to interpret material (Rochette). Some very rewarding components of SMART Board use are the "students' responses to this technology" (Rochette). The SMART Board also has many additional resources that can be linked to it. For example, students can interact more readily with the SMART Board through the use of SMART response remotes, wireless laptop connection, and the use of interactive software. The SMART response remotes allow students to be assessed during the lecture. This assessment can help the teacher to gauge the level of student understanding. Connecting wireless laptops to the SMART Board network can also help students to share their thoughts, essays, questions, and other forms of responses more readily. This connection allows the teacher and the entire class to be involved in the process of thinking, collaborating, and understanding about material. Lastly, students can partake in interactive science experiments, geography maps, math situations, and basic color and shape matching. The technology-based lessons help keep the attention of the student because it is interactive.

<span style="color: #404040; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">__Parent Use__ <span style="color: #404040; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Furthermore, parents remain an influential component to student use of technology in schools. Some parents wonder what their child is learning at school and what homework they may have. The former communication for parents to obtain knowledge about the happenings in their child's classroom used to be a newsletter that their child would bring home, but sometimes the newsletter did not make it home. Parents of today's society are being transitioned to or are already seasoned with online information about their child's classroom activities and news. As technology continues to advance, parents may begin to question the effectiveness of technology being in the classroom. To ease parental concerns, having a parent night may be beneficial to you as a teacher especially if you are obtaining new technology such as a SMART Board in your classroom. With the abilities of SMART Boards to save the information that was presented in class, teachers can use their SMART Boards to show parents what the students are learning. Also, being able to show statistics from in-class assessments from the SMART response remotes, parents can see how the students compare across the board. With the interactive experiments, maps, and other tools that the SMART Board has, parents can first hand see the types of interactive activities that the students are working on. Class webpages are also becoming a more common medium of information among the parent population. Teachers may upload information from a certain class that was completed via SMART Board to the class web page in order to inform parents as to what the lesson was for the day. The class web pages allow parents to view the class material, class newsletters, supply lists, links to online textbooks, and other information pertaining to the child's class. Depending on the level of security, grades may also be part of the class webpage. These tools help keep parents informed about their child's class happenings. Another way parents are connected to the teacher is through their child. An upcoming trend that was sparked by the new technology waves is called "parental digital choice" (Project Tomorrow). This trend is basically the choices parents make about technology that affect the learning, empowerment, and school engagement for their child (Project Tomorrow). This is a parent-teacher based connection because of the mode of instruction the teacher chooses will affect parent choices about technology. For example, if a teacher wants to completely have an assignment be completed online, the parent will need to allow the child access to the tools necessary to do the homework, but if the parent restricts access to the technology required there may be a problem. However, based on the statistics of Project Tomorrow's Speak Up campaign, "67 percent of parents said **they would purchase a mobile device for their child** to use for schoolwork if the school allowed it, and 61 percent said **they liked the idea of students using mobile devices** to access online textbooks" (Project Tomorrow). Granted, mobile devices are just one type of technology, it can also be an additional resource for the SMART Board through in-class polls and other tools. These polls can be completed right in class on their cell phones via text message and the results can show up on the SMART Board. The tools that are available for teachers to use is nearly limitless, no matter the age or content area.

<span style="color: #404040; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">__Teacher Use__ <span style="color: #404040; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Lastly, teachers can provide examples, meeting presentations, or step-by-step instructional media for unseasoned SMART Board users. Collaboration about SMART Boards can bring teachers together to learn and grow. With all of the additional tools that can be used to engage students in curriculum, SMART boards can be integrated and used on a daily basis. Teachers could even use their SMART Board in parent-teacher conferences to show the parents the format in which their child receives information, during a meeting with other colleagues to present new ideas and keep everything organized, or to present information to their students in class. SMART Boards also allow teachers to learn together when a school district decides to place the boards in their classrooms by learning the new technology and how to operate it efficiently. Thus, SMART Boards bring together teachers in the work place, inform parents about their child's education, and offer the information to students that they are to absorb.

__**<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Additional Tools: **__

<span style="color: #404040; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">(SMART Tech)
 * <span style="color: #404040; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Smart Document Camera**: a projector that lets the students see the image under the camera projected on the SMART Board
 * <span style="color: #404040; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Smart Response System**: clickers that allow teachers and students to give and receive instant feedback or create and answer quizzes
 * <span style="color: #404040; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Additional Software**: specialized content software for each subject area
 * <span style="color: #404040; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">**SMART Slate**: Allows teachers and students to operate the SMART Board from anywhere in the classroom (like a tablet)
 * <span style="color: #404040; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">**SMART Table**: interactive table top tablet ideal for younger students


 * __<span style="color: #008080; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Advantages: __**

<span style="color: #404040; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Incorporating interaction in the classroom can be a little challenging. The SMART board can enrich the interaction of students during class time. With everything that the SMART board has to offer, teachers can easily incorporate many types of interaction with students. When teachers use SMART boards, students are more likely to be more interactive and motivated to be a part of the class. Students can use the SMART board simultaneously with their fingers or with a marker (SMART Tech). By using this type of technology, the teacher has more time to focus on the students because the SMART board has the tools needed to teach effectively. Teachers can instantly share more information like web pages and videos because this tool is easy to manage. Additional tools can help teachers use the board from anywhere in the classroom (SMART Tech). For example, with the SMART slate, a teacher can operate the board from her desk or the back of the classroom. A teacher can create, save, and share information right on the board for the lesson of the day (Writing). With the saving option, teachers can save information for future use. For example, if a student missed a day of class, the teacher can pull up the previous day's presentation on the SMART board for the student's reference (Writing). The notes can also be available online for any teacher, parent, or student to view (Writing). The SMART board also has the option of Internet access that can save the teacher the time of taking the class to the computer lab. This also allows the reduction of transparency worksheet use because the SMART Document Camera (Dance) can project any document onto the SMART Board. By using the SMART Board in the classroom, we are allowing our students the most advantages and highest technology in a modern classroom. <span style="color: #008080; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> <span style="color: #008080; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">__**Disadvantages:**__

<span style="color: #404040; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Some teachers do believe that there are some disadvantages when using a SMART Board in a regular classroom. First of all, the cost of a SMART board is very high; it can be up to $1,000 dollars. Schools that want to purchase a SMART board may only have the budget to buy one or two, which means that not every student will have the access to this technology (Integrating). According to the article written by Bianca, some teachers think that using this type of technology reduces the traditional expectations of students in a classroom. If students were required to use a computer and print, this technology decreases the opportunities for students to do this. By a teacher displaying all of her material on the SMART board, the students do not get the opportunity to surf the web, look at magazines, read books or use the library (Bianca). A teacher has to be aware that new SMART Board technology cannot completely replace traditional methods. With the Internet access on the SMART board, teacher can find many different types of lesson plans and use those instead of actually creating one of their own (Bianca). This can discourage teachers to come up with original lesson plans. Another disadvantage is that students can be more focused on watching the fun things that the SMART board offers instead of the actual lesson the teacher is presenting (Bianca). As a personal experience with the SMART board, they can be difficult to write on, you may also have difficulty when moving things around, so a SMART Board takes a lot of practice and patience. <span style="color: #008080; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">
 * <span style="color: #008080; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">__Conclusion:__ **

<span style="color: #404040; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">For more information visit the SMART Tech webpage by clicking <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">here. media type="youtube" key="K-_NlAn6Azs" height="315" width="420"

<span style="color: #008080; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">__References:__

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">About SMART (2012). In //SMART Tech//. Retrieved February 9, 2012, from http://smarttech.com/us

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Bianca, A. (2012). The Disadvantages of a SmartBoard. In //eHow Family//. Retrieved February 9, 2012, from []

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Dance, M. (2012). What Are the Benefits of a SMART Board? . In //eHow Discover the expert in you//. Retrieved February 9, 2012, from []

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Integrating Technology In K12/SmartBoards in a Classroom (2010, December). In //WIKIBOOKS Open Books for an Open World//. Retrieved February 9, 2012, from []

Project Tomorrow. The New 3 E's of Education: Enable, Engage, Empower (2011). In <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">// SMART Tech //. Retrieved February 5, 2012, from <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">@http://smarttech.com/us/Resources/Research+and+data/Research+Library

Rochette, L. C. (2007, November). What Classroom Technology Has Taught Me about Curriculum, Teaching, and Infinite Possibilities. <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">// National Council of Teachers of English //, <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">// 97 // (2), 43-48. Retrieved February 5, 2012, from <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">[]

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">"Smart Board." //Wikipedia//. Wikipedia.org, n.d. Web. 8 Feb. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_Board>.

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Writing, A. (2012). The Advantages of a Smart Board. In //eHow Family//. Retrieved February 9, 2012, from []