Smart Notebook App for Ipad Announced
Rumours of this app were leaked last week, then it all went quiet, so its good to see that there’s now an official announcement on the EdCompass blog. From this summer, teachers and students will be able to use SMART Notebook software on an iPad using the SMART Notebook app.
Using the SMART Notebook app, it will be possible to use many of the tools typically used on the SMART Board. It will be possible to open SMART Notebook file on their iPad, from an e-mail or site such as Dropbox, and write, erase, add text, move objects and insert images.
The app will be AirPlay enabled and so will supports AirPlay for Apple TV to share iPad screens.
More info is on the EdCompass Blog and also check this area of the Smart Website over the next few months.
I’m looking forward to finding out more!
Read MoreCheck 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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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 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 Video Guides
Here’s a short post to highlight three video guides I produced a while back which outline three different things that you can do with Smart Notebook to produce simple lesson resources.
The ideas can be carried across to other IWB software, but the videos show how to do it in Smart Notebook.
Making a Rub and Reveal activity
How to use pen to mask text so that you can then use the eraser tool to remove the pen and reveal the text that is hiding behind. Good for cloze procedures and labelling diagrams.
Making a Plenary Circle activity
How to create a simple activity which can be used at the end of a lesson where the children make sentences to show what they have learned.
Making a Pictogram with infinite cloner
A simple idea for using the infinite cloner (drag a copy in ActivInspire) to create pictograms using simple images from the gallery.
I have plans to create a few more of these guides when I get the chance, plus to produce some step-by-step guides for the main types of IWB. Watch this space.
Also, I’m aware this is an older version of Smart Notebook… I’ll update, but the buttons will pretty much be the same.
More guides can be found in the Guides section of this blog.
Read MoreInteractive Whiteboard Training
Just a quick plug, if you’ll indulge me for a minute, for my services as an interactive whiteboard trainer.I regularly deliver bespoke training sessions on how to use interactive whiteboards in schools and colleges around the UK. I’ve also delivered for Military and Corporate clients. In recent weeks I have been to universities to deliver introductory sessions to PGCE students studying to be teachers. (I am a PGCE tutor myself)
I am an accredited Smart Masters trainer for Smart Notebook v10 and also for the older v9. I am also happy to deliver training on Promethean boards – for ActivInspire but also ActivPrimary and ActivStudio. I can also offer training on voting systems such as Smart Response, ActiVote/ActivExpression and Turning Point. Non-whiteboard sessions, such as blogging, podcasting, web 2.0 and datalogging are also available. Find out more on the Courses page.
If your school or college is in need of training, then please get in touch and we can discuss options. Get in touch via info (at) think-bank.com.
Lesson Starter Ideas for your Whiteboard
Here are a few ideas taken from some of the talks I have given this academic year for ideas on using your Interactive Whiteboard during lesson starters. They could also be used as plenary tasks. Some of the ideas you may have seen before in various places (such as the Canada, Germany talks), but I’m bundling them up into one file for you to download.
Here are some of the activities that are in the file:
Organ Reveal : A student comes to the board and pulls out an organ. They then have one minute to talk about the organ and its role in the body without repetition or pauses…. I’ve also included the fishing rod and balloon activities from previous presentations.
Put it in the box : This activity makes use of the layer feature. One group of objects will go into the box, the other group will not go into the box. In this example drag the insects into the box…. Easily adaptable for any two groups of objects.
To customise. Add all the items to the page. Unlock the front of the box and “send to front”. Relock. Then select all the objects that do not go into the box and “send to front”. They will stay outside, while the other objects will now go inside the box again.
Keyword Bingo : Pupils use a selection of words to create a bingo grid on a piece of paper. Teacher can then reveal definitions at random. Cross it off the grid and see who can get three in a row and a full house.
Plenary Circle : Simple idea, but can be used at all key stages. Pull in pairs of words to make “I know that…. ” sentences. If you have a more able group, you could leave one word in for the next pupil to use in their sentence – this means you have to think more carefully about the range of words you put around the edge of the circle.
Word Builder : How many words can you make that relate to science. Give everyone time to make as many words as they can. Students can come to the board to show examples of the words they have made.
Use the links below to download a version of the file for your whiteboard:
Promethean ActivInspireVersion : Download here
Smart Notebook 10 Version : Download here
If you use the files, I’d love to hear how they went. If you do adapt them for your own subject, please let me know what you did – I’d be interested in having a copy. It’s always good to get ideas from other subjects. All my resources are covered by a Creative Commons Share-Alike license. I am more than happy for you to pass on, rework and modify any of the files that I produce. BUT…. share alike. You got it for free, pass it on for free
And a subtle plug – if you ever want training sessions on how to make these kind of resources – please get in touch. I’m happy to travel around the UK and can go further afield if dates allow. Email me for more information.
Read MoreTeacher 2 Teacher Smart Notebook Files
I had an absolute blast at the Teacher2Teacher conference in Bow Island, Alberta this week. It was fantastic to meet so many great educators who up until now I had only contacted via Twitter. There was such a great buzz around the school – it was brilliant.
I’ll write more about the conference soon – but for now, I just want to put this post up quickly because I told the delegates I would.
(EDIT – I’ve taken these files down for now…. If you attended the conference you can still get them via the Prairie Rose file area)
Links to the websites I mentioned in the sessions were all tagged with the T2T tag on delicious, so you can find them all here : http://delicious.com/dannynic/t2t
Thanks to the everyone involved in the conference for making me feel so welcome! Hope to see you next year too!
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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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