SMART Board Training!

As anybody will know from having read my 'reflective journal' blog last year, I thoroughly enjoyed my GTP. However, there was one thing missing from the year...SMART Board Training!

Yep, that's right, I've never actually received any SMART board training and as such any knowledge I have of my IWB and the SMART software has come from observing other teachers or by just messing about with it in class and trying things out. So, it's fair to say that my skills are far from perfect with it's usage. This, is something that I've wanted to get sorted.

Luckily, Miss Moore [@kutrahmoore] (the other half of Mr Collins) is currently doing her ITT and has recently had said training session. So, yesterday, as I needed to go into school briefly to use the guillotine, pick up a few books/paperwork I had forgotten to take home with me etc Miss Moore came with me and as I was doing the things I needed to do she showed me a few things she had been taught about the SMART software and the IWB.

Here's a video we created using SMART to showcase the things I was taught about (and now plan to use in my lessons to improve my use of ICT)...

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/37694946/smartboard.wmv (couldn't upload it onto the blog for some reason and so used Plan B...Dropbox!)

 

Here's what I was taught:

 

You can record everything you do on screen and then save this as a video file (wmv file). I thought this would be great for saving lessons and then sending to students via e-mail to use as guidance for homework or for revision. [click on the camcorder icon, then record button, minimise, carry on...stop recording, save]

You can use the 'transparent screen' as a 'layer' which allows you to write over any other file/program you have open. This will come in extremely useful as sometimes I have got a w/sheet or exam question that I get off the Internet or from the TES that I just print out and give to students to work through in class. Then, to go through the answers I'd load up the file and try and write over it, this either draws a weird pencil line on the doc (if in Word), doesn't allow you to scroll down to other pages without having to rub off what you have just written on it etc and so this will avoid these problems. [click on transparent screen, where the 'full screen' icon is]

You can take a snapshot of parts of a document/file/page etc by clicking on the camera icon and then the one on the left hand side. Miss Moore was told that was the only one her trainer had used. I took a snapshot of the mangahigh logo, which then automatically gets uploaded into SMART.

Then, you can by writing anything on screen get SMART to recognise what it is you have scrawled on the screen and they put this as a text. [write anywhere, highlight with mouse pointer on screen, right click (press arrow in top-right) and then click 'recognise'] I found this even works with equations, although not always?!

Next was I could do the same thing with shapes so if I draw a wonky line I could get SMART to recognise it as a straight line. Or draw a circle and then get SMART to draw an accurate one similar in size to the one I drew etc. [right click after selecting the shapes like before].

Lastly, I found how I could get a new background to the slides i.e. a squared grid/dotted grid etc.

 

I then was playing around with the protractor tools and found how you could create an angle from the protractors. just move the green dot round to the required angle then click the green arrow to the side of the protractor and it then places a image of the angle you selected - makes this much easier than I had been doing it (don't ask).

 

So, many thanks to Miss Moore for this tutorial/mini-training session, in return I helped her with her QTS numeracy test (she passed first time)! What a fun half-term we've had!