Student Editions

Wouldn’t it be great if you could save all the notes you had written on your interactive whiteboard during a lesson and then give it to the students to revise from? Or to give to students who missed the lesson? How handy would that be?

But did you know you can already do that?

Both Smart and Promethean have produced student editions of their software. These are cut-down versions which allow students to view the files you produce in a lesson.

Promethean’s ActivSoftware Student edition can be downloaded here.

Smart Notebook Student Edition can be downloaded here.

Both versions are free to use, and your students are licensed to use the software as long as your school has purchased the corresponding IWBs

All you need to do is come up with a way of giving that file to the students. If you have a shared area on your network you could save your file to that. Name it accordingly (Teacher name, class and date would be good) and then students can take it home on a USB stick or email it themselves. Alternatively you could put the file up onto the school VLE if you have one.

Both Promethean and Smart software also lets you export files in PDF or PowerPoint format - if you just want students to have a static record of the lesson notes. Because you’re dealing in digital files it can be easily shared

This is a very handy way of making your lesson notes available to your students after the lesson. Try it now!

Announcing SMART Notebook Math 2009

I received this email from SMART yesterday. It should definitely be of interest to secondary maths teachers and KS2 school teachers. UK teachers, just stick an "S" after each use of the word Math ;)

"Math tools for SMART Notebook software are high on educators’ wish lists. This June, SMART will grant their wish with a beta version of SMART Notebook Math.

SMART Notebook Math extends the capabilities of SMART Notebook collaborative learning software by incorporating math-specific tools for teachers. With SMART Notebook Math, teachers and students can now create, solve or graph mathematical concepts directly in SMART Notebook.

SMART Notebook Math features include the following:

• Equation creation and editing
• Equation handwriting recognition
• Graphing tool
• Real-time linked relationships between tables, equations and graphs
• More shapes additional to those that come with SMART Notebook 10
• Shape manipulation and feedback
• Advanced-measurement tools
• Ability to launch and operate Texas Instruments™ emulators from within SMART Notebook

Details on pricing and sales tips for SMART Notebook Math will be provided later in the year.

To find out more. visit this page to sign up to receive the beta version of SMART Notebook Math."

I've signed up for the Beta, so hopefully will be able to let you know more about what this entails later this year. I would guess it's a suite of tools like the Lesson Toolkit - but it may also be something that "plugs into" Smart Notebook like the Senteo software does.

Watch this space.

SMART adds "touch recognition" to SMART Boards

According to this post on Engadget, SMART are releasing an upgrade to their boards that allows them to distinguish between a pen, a finger and the side of your hand.

Touching the board with a pen will write, your finger will move things, and your hand will erase.

I don't know yet if this is only on new boards, or is a firmware upgrade for all (or recent) Smartboards. I also don't know how this will affect people who have become used to using different pointers on the board (such as paintbrushes)



I can't find any info about this on the Smart website, but if I hear anything I'll post it here. Likewise if you know about it let me know too!

Update. This is now on the Smart Website. All Series 600 boards will come with Touch Recognition. An older 600 series board or a second- or third-generation 600i board can be upgraded by replacing its SC9 controller with a new SC9 controller from SMART. Only the SMART Board 600 series can be upgraded, and Touch Recognition cannot be activated on a first-generation 600i . More here.

Senteo 2 video tutorials

If you use the Smart Senteo voting kits then you may already know about the brand new version of the Senteo 2 software. If not, you can download it for free here.

When I installed it I had a few issues. I think this was because I tried to install it over the top of the old Senteo and Smart Notbook install. I found I had to completely uninstall Smart 10 and Senteo v1, and then install Senteo v2 and it all worked fine. That may not be the case when you install it, but be aware.

To accompany the new version of Senteo 2, Smart have updated their training guides with some new printable guides and also 2 minute video tutorials. Follow the links below;

Printable Senteo 2 Guides

2 Minute Video Tutorials

If you haven't been to the Training section of the Smart website before it's well worth a visit.

Don't forget you can also ask for help and support on Smartboards and Senteo kits in the Smart Exchange forum; http://exchange.smarttech.com/forums/

Happy voting!

ActivStudio 3 Toolbars

Here's a very quick helpsheet I have written for a training day that covers the main buttons from the ActivStudio 3 toolbar.

Activstudio 3 Toolbars - Upload a Document to Scribd

Read this document on Scribd: Activstudio 3 Toolbars

This is the first time I've used Scribd to distribute a document, but it looks quite useful. If you also need it, I've uploaded my Smart 10 toolbar sheet there too.

Smart Notebook 10 Activation

I know that people are still having issues upgrading to Smart Notebook 10, so here's a quick post to explain how to do it.

For those of you who want to upgrade to Smart Notebook 10, the download process is a little more complicated than it used to be. You can't just download the Smart software and promise them that you are a valid Smart user anymore. You need to prove it by having a Smart product serial number.

Annoyingly you can't just use that serial number to activate the Smart software. You need to go to a website, use the serial number to have them send you a product key. Then you can use the product key to activate the Smart Notebook software.

In a nutshell you install a 30 day trial, then you need to activate it so it becomes a full version. If you don't activate it, then it stops working after 30 days.

You can read more about the process here: http://www2.smarttech.com/kbdoc/124761

The Process

First you should get yourself a product Key. So go to this page:

http://smarttech.com/nb10productkey/

On this page you need to know your Smart product serial number. This will be on the side or on the bottom of the smart board or on the back of your Airliner tablet. There's a guide to finding it here

http://smarttech.com/nb10productkey/FindYourSerial.aspx

For those of us on our summer break, you may not be able to do this until you get back to school. Don't panic, you can still install the software and activate it at the end of the 30 day trial.

Once you have entered your serial number, Smart will email you with a product key that you can use. You can use this product key on your classroom computer, but also on your home computer if you want to prepare resources away from the Smartboard.

Next you need to download the smart 10 software go to the software download page

http://www2.smarttech.com/st/en-US/Support/Downloads/SBS/NBSv10WinEval.htm

Download the "trial version" - this version is OK to use, once you have the product key we can activate it and make it work permanently and then install the file that you downloaded

If you did not type the product key during the installation, you can activate Notebook software after the installation.

1. Press the SMART Board icon in the notification area, and then select Welcome to Notebook.

2. Press the Help/Support tab.

3. Press Activate Software and the Software Activation dialog box appears.

4. Follow the on-screen instructions - this is when you will enter your product key that Smart emailed you.

Hope that helps!

Senteo Software Update

Senteo users might like to know that Service Pack 4 has been released by Smart which fixes a few issues with Senteo and Smart Notebook. It's a large file since it also includes Smart Notebook (rather than a patch)

To quote Michael on the Smart Exchange forum:

Senteo SP4 includes fixes for Notebook 10 that are needed to address problems in the way Notebook 10 interoperates with Senteo.

3 important things to note with this new version of Senteo software:

1. This version will install Notebook Software as well as Senteo Assessment Software

2. The Software will automatically update itself if it can detect a receiver plugged into the computer. No need to type in messy serial numbers, no need to fumble with the "Find License Code" button in the previous activation process.

3. When Senteo software is activated, Notebook Software 10 is activated as well. Kill 2 birds with one stone.

Although slightly more time consuming because of the larger download, it is recommended that you download the complete Senteo SP4 upgrade package.

You can download it here.

Senteo Questions

I haven't got round to writing that many question sets for my Senteo just yet, that's a job for the summer once I've got my other writing jobs done.

But, if you are looking for Senteo questions for Primary Science then can I point you in the direction of Mark Warners excellent Teaching Ideas website.

They don't have their own section, so you will need to look in each science page and pick them out, but there's plenty to choose from. The links to the three pages are below:

Life Processes
Materials
Physical Processes

Smart Exchange UK Area

Just a quick post, the Smart Exchange forum for Smartboard users has now opened up a few more regional forums, one of which is a UK forum.

http://exchange.smarttech.com/forums/74.aspx

If you are a smartboard user from the UK then please pop along and say hello!

There's also a Mid-Atlantic user group and a Texas one. Plus one for Colorado's 21st century classrooms.

The SMART Teacher Content Challenge

Just to make you aware, if you're not already, of a great competition from Smart:

Show off your lesson development skills with the SMART Teacher Content Challenge. Take the opportunity before July 31, 2008, to send us an innovative and effective lesson that incorporates digital content – you could win a seven-day trip for two or a school subscription to the SMART Learning Marketplace.

And SMART makes entering the challenge easy. We provide you with 30 MB of free digital resources from the Marketplace – find images, video clips, audio files and manipulatives (learning objects) to help you make your lesson great!

Teachers in the US and Canada will win a trip to London to see BETT :)

Teachers in the UK and Ireland will win a trip to Calgary to see Smarts Headquarters.

I've been to Calgary in the past (not to Smart HQ though) and it's a great place. I know which prize I'd prefer ;)

Follow these steps to submit your lesson to the SMART Teacher Content Challenge:

1. E-mail your name and school details to smartteacher@globalgridforlearning.com. You’ll receive a promo code within 24 hours.
2. Visit the SMART Learning Marketplace site and enter your promo code
3. Download your free 30 MB of digital resources
4. Create a dynamic lesson with your newly acquired images, manipulatives (learning objects) and multimedia files
5. Write a report about your experiences teaching with the lesson and submit your report and the lesson before July 31, 2008 to www.globalgridforlearning.com/smartteacher.htm

More information can be found here

Senteo

I've recently got my hands on a set of Smart's new Senteo voting kits. They look really nice and I can't wait to try them out with a class soon.

Smart is moving into a quite crowded market, against products like Activote, TurningPoint, Quizdom etc but this is a pretty nice product.

Once the software is installed you get a Senteo option on your Smart Notebook toolbar (and also in Powerpoint, but I've not investigated that yet). Adding questions for the students to answer couldn't be easier and I've made a short video to show how to do it.

Take a look at the video here.

The handsets are quite chunky, and less "nickable" than the TurningPoint ones. They come in a very nice padded bag with a carry strap for ease of transport. The receiver was installed pretty quickly and it was really simple to import a class list into the Senteo Manager. I'll do some more tutorials soon to show how to do this.

First impressions are very positive. I set up a test, logged in some handsets and ran the quiz very quickly. Output to Excel was also simple. I don't know how good the data mining is yet, that's something else I need to investigate.

Will post more on here once I've had more of a play.

The Magic Pen

One of the small niggles I had with Smart 9 was that there was no spotlight tool on the toolbar in Smart Notebook. I know you could get it via the floating toolbar, but it annoyed me that I couldn't get it quickly in Notebook without having to use workarounds.

So I was really happy when I was first shown a beta of Smart Notebook 10 with the tool called the Magic Pen.

The Magic Pen is brilliant.

If you write with the Magic Pen it stays on the screen for a few seconds and then fades away. This is great for adding quick annotations that you don't want to last - underlining an area on the screen, circling a key point etc.

If you draw a circle on the screen with the Magic Pen then it automatically turns into a Spotlight tool! This is my favourite!

If you draw a rectangle on the screen it will turn into a magnifyer - making an area of the screen larger. Good for making text larger such as web addresses etc.

Here's a quick video that shows how to use the Magic Pen. I made this with the beta but couldn't show them due to the NDA, which is why it talks about being the second video... I can't find part 1!!

http://www.screencast.com/t/WBCypM5Pcn0

Smart Notebook 10 Toolbar

I've always found it useful when doing IWB training to give teachers a sheet with all the icons on the toolbar and what they do. Many teachers like to print this off and stick it on the wall next to their IWB.

Here is my new guide to the Smart Notebook 10 toolbar. If you want, you can download it as a pdf file here.



In the future I'll do a post that explains what each of these buttons actually does.

Smart Lesson Toolkit

A while back I wrote about the beta version of the Smart Lesson Activity Toolkit, which was a fantastic way of adding interactive elements to your Smart Notebook page.

Well, with the release of Smart Notebook 10, the full version of the Lesson Activity Toolkit has been released.

If you don't yet want to upgrade to version 10, but want the new Lesson Toolkit, then you can download it separately via this page. Installation instructions can be found there too as well as some videos on how to get the most out of it.

Smart Notebook 10 Released

Quick blog post as it's late as I've just been watching the season openers for Battlestar Galactica, my favourite show! But I wanted to get the following onto my blog, and will write more another time.

Anyway, The final release version of Smart Notebook 10 is now available for download!

You can download the software and any new drivers here.

Please note that the version on this page is a 30 day trial version, it looks like Smart are taking steps to stop people buying lesser whiteboards and running Smart Notebook on them. Be aware of this before upgrading version 9.7

To activate and get hold of the full version, you will need to know the serial number of your Smartboard (or other Smart product such as an Airliner slate) and visit the registration page. One serial number will do multiple installations - so you can still activate your classroom version and your home version for preparation purposes.

More information about Smart Notebook 10 when I get a chance tomorrow.

Update: Some more information, and a few new demos to watch on the new Smarttech Notebook page at: http://www.smarttech.com/notebook

Smart Seminars

If you are a school in the UK you may be interested to hear about a series of seminars that Steljes/Smart are running at venues around the UK. Or you can have the session come to you!

The sessions will focus on getting the most out of your Smart board as well as a demonstration of Smart Notebook 10 and Senteo, their new voting system. You can view a course agenda here.

These sessions are taking place during April/May in 5 locations around the UK. For more information on the locations, and to register a place then click here.

If the dates don't suit you, Steljes can also arrange to have an approved Smart trainer (like me!) come into your own school to run a twilight 60-90 minute session with your staff. Even better, if you arrange this as part of a cluster of 5 schools then they'll pay your school £100 as a hosting fee.

If you are based in the South-East of England, then there's a chance it will be me delivering this session. If that interests you, then get in touch with me and i can explain more. Otherwise get in touch with Steljes on 08450 724800 and they can explain more about this and organise a more local trainer for you.

If you have Smartboards in your school, and you feel you haven't been making the most effective use of them, or you feel you'd like to see what's new or maybe get a look at the Senteo voting kits, then its well worth getting in touch with Smart and having a free training session.

Smartboard Browser

I just found this post on the Smart Exchange forum by Quentin D'Souza of teachinghacks.com. He has written a fab little flash tool that you can add to a Smart Notebook page which will let you browse the internet within Notebook itself.

You can add it to the My Content area of your Gallery, and drag it onto a page whenever you want to use it. It's PC only for now, see the note from JoeS about it not working properly on Macs.

The instructions to use it are as follows:

a) To Bring Into Notebook

1. Right-Click on http://www.teachinghacks.com/files/Browser.swf and select 'Save Target As" and place on your desktop
2. Open up Smart Notebook
3. In Notebook - Select from Insert Menu "Flash File" and then locate the "Browser.swf" on your desktop
4. Drag the SWF in your Notebook file to your Gallery.

b) To Use:

1. Click on the Browser to Activate it
2. Enter the url and select enter.
3. Default Web Browser Opens to the Web Page You Entered.

Thanks Quentin for sharing this!

Smart 10 @ BETT

Steljes ran a competition. Wear a Smart Tshirt around BETT and win prizes.

Then gather round the stand at 3pm.. they were mobbed :)

Fast Video Downloader

Save embedded video files from video-hosting servers such as YouTube. This is very useful for those schools that block access to YouTube and prevent you showing some of the great video clips for use in education.

You can download the video downloader here:

Videos are saved in the .flv Flash Video format and can be dragged straight onto the page in Smart Notebook for viewing.