Check your Interactive Whiteboard Gallery
One of the issues that I find when I go into schools to deliver Smart or Promethean whiteboard training is that quite often the software on teachers computers is not installed completely. The software will work fine, but the bank of resources that’s comes as part of the install is often missing.
This is a real shame as, on both Smart and Promethean boards, the gallery contains loads of very useful images and interactive resources that can add additional impact to your lesson resources.
I find that it’s an unknown unknown situation – most teachers don’t know the resource library should be there – so they don’t know what they are missing out on. And often when it’s installed the technicians don’t know to install it either. So it’s only when a whiteboard trainer comes in that they can see what they’re missing.
So, if you are a Smart or Promethean user, here’s what to look out for.
Smart Notebook 10
In Smart Notebook, click on the 2nd tab on the side of the screen – it looks like a picture frame – to open the gallery. You should hopefully have a folder called Gallery Essentials. It might, in earlier installs, be called Essentials for Educators. Click on the plus to the side of the folder to open it up and see the subfolders.
You should also have a second folder called Lesson Activity Toolkit. This contains lots of different interactive resources which can be used to build simple interactive activities such as sorting, labelling and hangman games.
A cut down gallery is normally always installed – this is the Gallery Sampler. It contains a small fraction of some of the resources of the rest of the gallery.
If the gallery essentials is not there – you can try and install it yourself by doing a “Check for updates” from the help menu – but this may not always work on a school install where the admins have locked things down.
I’d suggest you point your network technicians to the Administrator Downloads page where they can download the Gallery Essentials and Lesson Activity Toolkit as zip files and install them sitewide.
Promethean ActivInspire – Studio View
In ActivInspire the resources are known as Shared Resources. In Studio view it can be found on the Resource Browser on the side of the screen – click on the image of the clapperboard/musical note and then the image of the multiple heads. If you can’t seen the browser, then make it appear by going to View and then Browsers.
Click on the plus to open up each category – the bulk of the clip art and subject resources should be found in a folder called Subjects. You might also want to look in Grids for various graph papers.
If the subject resources are not here you should be able to download the Resources file via Promethean Planet here.
ActivInspire – Primary View
In ActivInspire Primary mode the resources are slightly different to Studio mode. You can open it by clicking on the clapperboard/musical note icon from the toolbar on the right hand side of the screen.
The Resource Gallery will open at the bottom of the screen. You might not see anything in there yet. In the bottom right of the screen you should see a yellow button with a triangle on it. Click that to open up the index of resources. The button with several heads on it should open the shared resources. Like the studio mode the subject resources should be there under Subjects.
If the subject resources are not here you should be able to download the Resources file via Promethean Planet here.
So that’s it – do check your gallery is installed. And if it isn’t have a word with the network technician about getting it installed. Send them a link to this page.
Good luck!
Don’t forget, for Promethean training check out my Think Bank website.
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Back to School : Got a new interactive whiteboard?
So it’s mid-August and for many teachers the new school year has begun and for others it’s not too far away. Some of you will be starting at new schools and with that there’s a chance that you’ll be coming to terms with a new interactive whiteboard. You may already be familiar with whiteboards already, and are just starting at a school with a different brand.
Either way, here’s a summary of blogposts I’ve written in the past that hopefully will prove useful to you.
Photo Credit : Library Cart by Sweetjessie
For those changing whiteboard brands.
First of all, if you are moving to a new school with a different whiteboard, here’s a guide to moving between Smart and Promethean and vice versa
General IWB Ideas
Here are 8 ideas to keep it Simple when getting to grips with your interactive whiteboard. Stick to the basic tools and use them well.
In addition here are some Lesson Starter Ideas which are simple to make, yet very effective.
Also here’s a simple guide on the Creative use of colour in IWB files.
For some ideas of websites to use on your IWB take a look at 20 Interactive Whiteboard Resources for Teachers and 10 More Cool Teaching Resources for Your Whiteboard.
If you want to add more oomph to your presentations, check out Powerful Images to Give Lessons Punch and 12 Useful Image Search Tools.
If you want some ready-made IWB files you can find some here on my Think Bank website.
New SmartBoard Users
Getting hold of a copy of Smart Notebook. Download the latest version here. It will run as a 30 day trial version until you activate it.
How to activate your copy of Smart Notebook and What to do when the network technician says you can’t have a licence key.
Smartboard software guides are in the Guides section of this website, and all my Smart articles are here.
Do check that you have the Gallery installed. Click on the icon of a Picture on the side of Smart Notebook. You are looking for “Gallery Essentials” or “Essentials for Educators”
Get more resources from Smart over at the Smart Exchange.
New Promethean ActivInspire Users
To get hold of a copy of ActivInpsire : Download here. You will need a serial number from your ICT technician to make this copy work at home. Otherwise it will run as a trial version and then as a cut down personal version.
Promethean software guides are in the Guides section of this website, and all my Promethean articles are here.
Get more resources from Promethean over at Promethean Planet.
To everyone starting back at school – I hope the new term starts smoothly for you. Any whiteboard questions please get in touch. And if your school need any Smartboard or Promethean INSET sessions run then please let me know. I can do bespoke courses for any level of user. More of that over at my Think Bank website.
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My problem with SMART’s mixed reality concept
With Notebook 10.8 SMART added Mixed Reality into the mix. This was something they’d been showing off since BETT back in January and I was really excited by the idea of adding 3D objects to my notebook pages. 8 months later and it’s finally here and I’m less excited. This post aims to expand on a comment I made to a friend who works at SMART about my problem with Mixed Reality.
First the good – I like the idea that you can put 3D objects into SMART notebook. There’s a large library of Google Sketchup objects and it would be great to be able to include these in a presentation. To have a moveable model of the Earth, or a historical building. I can see the benefits. I like the idea of being able to access these within Notebook without having to switch to another application.
So that’s great. The problem is that unless you have bought a SMART document camera – you won’t have access to this feature past the initial trial period that you get when installing Notebook 10.8.
SMART have called this “mixed reality”. They’ve seen the various augmented reality applications out there (for a good example, see this) and have tried to make something of their own that captures this.
But they haven’t. What they have done is set up a system where you control the 3D object via the document camera using a printed cube with different patterns on each face. Moving the cube will make the 3D object move about.
So here’s my problem with this.
Firstly – SMART have invented and pioneered the massive interactive touch screen. It’s rather a good invention. It puts the 3D model directly at your fingertips. A teacher or student can touch the screen and rotate the model as if it was real – it moves with their hands. With multitouch they could even make it bigger or smaller as they could on an iPhone. The model is right in front of them and interacting with it is pretty intuitive.
That’s not the case with a document camera. In most classrooms the document camera will not be positioned right in front of the board – it will probably be off to one side somewhere. Immediately there’s a disconnect between the 3D model and the person trying to interact with it. Is moving a cube about the best way of making the 3D object move?
This is the problem with a lot of Augmented Reality applications when shown on an IWB. They often work best on a computer with a webcam directly above the screen, or even better on a Smartphone or iPad.
Maybe I am being harsh? The mixed reality will open up more SMART-created content that uses the camera. But at present I haven’t seen any evidence for that – just lots of 3D models.
The ability to drop 3D models into SMART notebook is great. But I don’t like the fact that this facility will be locked away from all the teachers that will not have bought a SMART-branded document camera. I can see why SMART is doing this – to try and sell more document cameras. But it has has nothing to do with any special feature of their camera. I don’t think this is a great enough application to make you want to buy a document camera. I’ll stick with a third party application to access them. So why penalise your massive userbase who have already bought your boards?
The Google sketchup content is open-source. The ability to put these objects into Smart Notebook should be available to all users. If Smart then want to make additional premium content available then so be it. This could be separately purchased resource packs, or could be made free to document camera users with all the added extras of owning their camera.
I just think that the ability to handle Google Sketchup objects, and their Augmented Reality features are two separate things and shouldn’t both be linked to a particular brand of document camera.
So SMART – please let all users have access to the 3D objects in Notebook.
What do you think? Leave a comment below.
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Fusion SMARTboard Video Guides
Smartboard users should definitely take a look at this website from Fusion Universal which offers more than thirty SMART Board tutorial videos on their website.
The videos cover lots of useful stuff for those starting out with a SMART board : from turning on a your board, showing how to orientate the board and how to use the gallery. You can’t download the videos, they have to be viewed via the Fusion Universal website. Each clip is pretty short – about 1-2 minutes, so they are nice bitesize chunks of information.
The Fusion site has a lot of other videos covering different tools such as Skype and Twitter, but not all are free.
It’s also worth reminding you that you can find some of my own SMART notebook tutorial videos in the guides section of this blog 
Thanks to Richard Byrne at Free Technology for Teachers for sharing the link on his blog (via Dianne Krause)
Read MoreMoving Between IWB Platforms
This post is in response to a question raised on the Whiteboard Blog Facebook Page. Stephen Taylor wanted to know what his options were when moving away from a SMART school to a school that uses other boards. There are a few options open to teachers in that position. And also for those teachers heading the other way, away from Promethean boards.
Moving away from SMART
1. Import into ActivInspire
If you are currently using SMARTboards in your current school, you’ll probably have a lot of SMART notebook files. If your new school is using Promethean ActivInspire then you should be able to import these notebook files straight into the new software. Activ Inspire will do a little converting, but you should be able to retain most of the formatting, with only a little touching up needed.
This may not always work, depending on file versions and versions of ActivInspire/Smart Notebook used to save/open the files.
Look under File -> Import -> Smart Notebook File
2. Export as PowerPoint
In SMART Notebook, you can export your files as PowerPoint format. This will allow them to be used on any IWB or even just a projector. You can find this feature under File -> Export -> PowerPoint
3. Save into the Common .IWB format
SMART Notebook 10.7 and higher will let you export as a CFF – Common File Format – file. This has the extension .iwb and should in theory let you transfer your files to other IWB software such as Easiteach which also supports this format. At present ActivInspire does not use these files. Use the same menu as above, and select CFF instead.
4. Use Smart Notebook Express
Smart Notebook Express (http://express.smarttech.com/) lets you open Notebook files via your web browser. This won’t let you legally run Notebook content on another board, but it will give you access to your resources once you’ve moved schools.
Moving away from Promethean
Your options are a little more limited moving this way. ActivInspire no longer allows export in PowerPoint format like the very early versions (and ActivStudio) did. Which is a shame. Likewise it does not (yet) support the common .iwb file format. If your files are in their .flipchart format, you’re pretty much tied to Promethean software I’m afraid.
1. Import into Smart Notebook
Smart Notebook does allow you to import from Promethean, but only the older .flp file format and not the newer .flipchart that ActivInspire uses. It’s a little flakey even then, and may not always work. But it is worth a try.
Look under File then Import. Make sure to select the file format to “All Promethean Files”
2. Import from PowerPoint
The same feature will also allow you to import PowerPoint files into SMART Notebook. Change the file type to “PowerPoint” and open. Again this may be a little flakey and need some work once converted. Of course, you can’t get your ActivInspire files into PowerPoint format, so this option is limited. Also if you do have PowerPoint resources you’ve been using at your old school they will work in PowerPoint at your new school. Import them into SMART notebook if you want to jazz them up a little.
3. Use ActivInspire Personal version
You can get hold of ActivInspire on a personal licence which will at least allow you to access your files and explore them from your computer. You could also purchase a full licence which you can legally use on other brands of interactive whiteboard
Other workarounds might be possible. If you know of any please let me know via the comments, or via email and I’ll add them to the blog post.
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Video Tutorial – Smart Notebook Desktop Capture
Another short video tutorial that shows how to use the Desktop Capture tools in Smart Notebook 10 to capture images from web pages and stills from video sites such as YouTube.
More tutorials can be found in the Guides section of this site.
Read MoreVideo Tutorial: Anagram Games in Smart Notebook
This video tutorial explains how to make an anagram game as a lesson starter in Smart Notebook. I’ll work on a Promethean version shortly. And for those of you across the pond who have no idea about the British television institution of Countdown, here’s a short clip to induct you…
The countdown theme tune for those who want it can be downloaded here. And an example notebook file can be downloaded here.
Other videos can be found in the Guides section of this site.
And yes, before you say anything – I do need to tidy up all the rubbish on my Desktop…. I find it a good place to store shortcuts.
I’ve finally got round to buying a copy of Camtasia to try and produce more video tutorials. I’ve been using Smart Recorder or Jing in the past, which have been great but I wanted to try something with a few more features.
Enjoy the video – I’ll produce more soon!
Read MoreSmart Notebook Search Engine
While at the Teacher 2 Teacher conference, it was a pleasure to meet up with Obe Hostetter, who runs the Smartboard Revolution Ning. Obe has created a very useful search engine for finding Smart Notebook files – this used to be featured on the Smart Website but I can’t find it anymore!
You can access the Search Engine Here
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Smart Notebook 10.7 Released
SMART Board users should be aware that the brand-new Version 10.7 of the Notebook software is available for download now for free for all registered users.
I’m currently stuck in a Premier Inn on a dodgy 3G connection so I won’t be able to download a copy of this until later in the week. So for now I’ll have to quote from the press release.
New SMART Notebook 10.7 software features include:
Multi-touch experience* – Enables two users to interact with digital content simultaneously, with no special tools or multi-touch mode selection required
Freestyle interaction* – Enables two users to work together, performing different tasks, while working in the same SMART Notebook lesson, anywhere on the interactive whiteboard surface
Touch gestures* – Accepts common multi-touch gestures, including one- and two-finger gestures, such as pinching, zooming and tossing
Object awareness* – Distinguishes between a finger, pen, fist, eraser or other object to recognize what action the user is performing and responds accordingly, requiring fewer clicks to perform various tasks
Calligraphic pen – Selecting the calligraphic pen button in SMART Notebook 10.7 software will automatically stylize writing into regular, sleek lines
SMART Ink – Uses ink-smoothing algorithms to make handwriting look smoother and more refined
SMART Notebook software tutorials – Provide an overview of common features and tools that are available through the Help page
SMART product integration – Integrates seamlessly with most SMART hardware and software products, including the SMART Board 600 series interactive whiteboard and SMART Board 800 series interactive whiteboard
* SMART Board 800 series interactive whiteboard only.
The bulk of these features will only be of interest if you if you have one the new 800 series boards and can take advantage of the new multitouch features. But the Smart Ink, Calligraphic Pen and Software Tutorials should be useful for all users.
I’m hoping also that the common IWB file format has also been implemented, but I’ll need to download a copy first to check as it’s not mentioned in this press release. Watch this space. Also not mentioned was the ability to insert 3D Google Sketchup models.
You can download Smart Notebook 10.7 here. IMPORTANT: If you have SMART Response 2009 software or earlier, download and install the latest version on the SMART Response Downloads page.
Update - You can import and export the Common Whiteboard Format .IWB files from Smart Notebook 10.7. Use File -> Import or File -> Export to do this rather than using Save or Open. This does mean you can share files with software such as RM Easiteach.
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About Me
Danny Nicholson : Educator, Science teacher, ICT Consultant, PGCE lecturer, Author and Web2.0 / SMART Masters/ Interactive Whiteboard Trainer. Contact me for any training requests. 
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