SmartBoard Level 2 Topics

Recently I spent one full week training with a group of teachers from NYC on the SMART Board.   The certification course/training was offered by Teq allowed me to increase my knowledge on SMART Boards and becoming certified was an added bonus. Teq offers educators a variety of professional development services designed to help schools make the most of their technology purchase.   I have taken several courses from them at the Cicero, NY location and I have found all of the training sessions very informative, useful, and at a reasonable cost.

Sharing what I learned with professors and students at Fisher by offering the next level of training on SMARTBoards.  Below is a list of  Level 2 topics for SMART Boards.

Adding Sounds:

To add sound to an object, select the object and from the drop-down menu select Sound. The sound will play when the object is touched/clicked on. The sound file format must be .mp3.  Alternatively,  drag and drop the MP3 file on top of the object - the faster the better, automatically adding the sound to the object. 

 

 

 

 

Sound Resources: 

*always remember to site your source, even if it is free*

American Rhetoric - online speech bank
FindSounds - a free site where you can search the web for sound effects 
The Looney Tunes SoundSource  - a large selection of Looney Tunes sound files

Convert Sound files to .mp3:

iTunes, Audacity, and Format Factory require installation of software on your computer.  Zamzar website emails the sound file to you.  My choice for converting files is convertfiles.com- a website were you can browse or from a link convert sound files and save to your computer. 

1. Browse to choose a local file or download from a link. Select the Output format (.mp3) and click on Convert.  
2. Right-click on the link and select "Save Link As or Save Target As". 

Container Sort/ Magic Tunnel effects:

All students no matter their age love magic- so as a teacher let's give them what they like!

Create a Magic Tunnel for students to drag items through to reveal an answer.  Using an object, color and ordering and understanding how Notebook manages objects makes this a simple task.  Remember to lock your tunnel so the students can move it when using the SMART Board.

1.  From SMART Notebook, draw a rectangle over 3/4 of a page, select a fill and line color.  Lock in place
2. Enter your text (math problem, words, etc...) select the answer and change the color to match the rectangle.  Drag objects onto colored rectangle.
3. Add an object to be the tunnel.  I used MS Word shapes (copy and paste) into SMART Notebook.  Add text, group the text and object, then lock in place.  When the students drag the problem through the tunnel the answer is revealed. 

 

A container sort adds another type of interactive feature to engage learners.

1. Create container objects.  I used MS Word and drew a slot on the top of cylinder.   You can use a garbage can, basket, cup, etc... for the container.
2. Within SMART Notebook, place 3 containers on a page.  Choose an object to sort, i.e., coins and place on page too.  At first when you drag the coin into the container it goes in front.  We want it to appear that the coin is really going into the container.  Remember each object placed on the page goes in front (layered) of the previous object. Layers and order of items placed on page will help to make the process easy.
3. Using the Screen Capture tool, we will take a picture of the container from the slot down.  This object will be placed directly over the first container. Continue the same process for all containers.
   
   
   
4. Select the quarter and the two container objects and from the drop-down menu select Order and click on Bring to Front.  Select the nickel and the two container objects below it and from the drop-down menu select Order and click on Send to Back.   

The result is that quarters will go into the quarters container but will not go into the other two containers, same for dimes and nickels.   Locking both pieces of each container will ensure students won't be able to move them.  

 

When a student drags the coin to the wrong container it won't go in.  Teq has a wonderful video on how to create a container sort page in SMART Notebook- their video along with my directions should be all the tools you need to create this interactive feature. 

Adding Groups

Creating Groups allows you to place pages into specific groups that you can access directly.  This is a great way to work with a file that has many pages.

• From the Page Sorter view, from the drop-down menu select Edit Page Groups. 
• Add new groups, move, re-name or delete groups
• From the Groups View, click on the X in the upper right corner to return to your working screen. 

Adding Themes

Themes allow you to add a page design to multiple pages or an entire Notebook file.  You can select a Theme from the Gallery or create your own.

• From the Format menu, select Themes and choose Create Theme or Create Theme from Page. 
• Enter a name for the new theme.
• Set text style; font, size, etc...
• Set the background color(s) for the theme from the Properties Tab.
• Add objects to page, drag and drop from Gallery.
• Click on Save to save the new theme to the Gallery.  It will appear in the My Content folder under Backgrounds and Themes. 
• Drag and drop onto page and from dialog box select Insert theme on all pages, Insert theme on all pages of current group, or Insert theme on current page only.