This week we were all given new SMART Document cameras that communicate with our SMART Boards. They are similar to the old document cameras or overhead projectors but, far more advanced. We have taken time this week to "play" with them to see what they are capable of. This camera actually is cooked up to the SMART Board and also to your computer. When the SMART Notebook applications are downloaded onto your computer, you will be able to actually capture and save images that are placed either under the camera or on the screen. I have attached the flyer of information regarding what the capabilities are. As a teacher, one of the best features is the ability to capture any document that is placed under the camera. Then, students can use the white board and interact with it by using the pens. Their work can be saved and revisited for later use. I know that this sounds confusing but, once you play around with it, it's easy to catch on.

Yes, we are very fortunate to each have a laptop, unlimited Internet Access and SMART boards in each of the classrooms where I teach. I think that, unfortunately, many teachers use them as a display board or as a device to simply show movies using the projector. Unless teachers are trained or willing to do some research, it is hard to see what a SMART Board is capable of doing and teaching. One of the tools that I will share is actually a site titled SMART Exchange. This is a place where lessons are already created and uploaded onto the site for you to download and use instantly on your SMART Board.
It is free to join SMART Exchange and most of the lessons are also free of charge once you are a member. All of the lessons on the site are interactive and it is a great opportunity for students to get up and show what they are learning. I will note that in order to successfully download and use the lessons as they are supposed to be used, your computer will need to have the SMART board software installed on it.

Once you are on, you can search by subject, grade or file type. If my subject happened to be 'moon phases' I would type that into the search box. I would also select 5th grade and science. Before actually downloading the lesson, you have the option of previewing it first. This will show you a few of the slides that you will see once you have completed the download. These lessons are great because they are all interactive and if any of them require a student doing work, there is an option to save the work that is done to revisit it later. I have found that I use the SMART exchange lessons to enhance my current curriculum. They are excellent for review and the grade levels are right on target. Even if you do not have a SMART Board or the capabilities, I highly recommend checking out this site for lesson ideas!

I am going to discuss electronic white boards for my next blog topic. I have been teaching for 14 years and when I first started, I had two chalkboards in my classroom. Straight up white chalk and erasers. After a few years, we slowly started replacing the chalkboards with whiteboards and a few short years after that we were introduced to the first interactive whiteboards. These were available on a sign-out basis and could be wheeled from classroom to classroom. When they were first introduced to our school, we trained only those teachers who were interested in learning about the new technology. They were tricky to use because if the board was bumped or moved just a small bit, it would no longer be in line with the projector (which, at the time, was also not mounted) and it would need to be re-configured. Over the past few years, our school has been equipped with an interactive whiteboard in each of our classrooms that is mounted to the wall along with a projector that is mounted to the ceiling. I think that the interactive whiteboard has been an excellent resource for educators and for students throughout the learning process.

What is an interactive whiteboard?

An interactive whiteboard is a touch-sensitive screen that communicates and works with a computer and a projector. They were first introduced in education in 1991.
Educators were the first people to recognize the interactive whiteboard’s potential as a tool for collaboration and lesson planning.
An overview of possible uses in our classrooms include:
• Manipulating text and images
• Taking notes and saving them for later use, empaling or print
• Viewing websites as a class
• Interacting physically without having to sit in front of computer
• Creating digital lesson activities with templates, images and multimedia
• Viewing and writing notes over educational video clips
• Using presentation tools 
• Displaying student presentations