SMART boards?

SMART boards showing up in classrooms.

SMART Boards (a trade name for interactive whiteboards) are now
part of educational delivery at Dassel Elementary.
SMART Boards are installed in all grade levels as well as in the music
room and media center.
The touch-sensitive whiteboard connects to a computer and digital projector, displaying the computer image. Students can control computer applications when they write, type, and manipulate objects directly on the SMART Board.
Recent studies and surveys on the use of SMART Boards in education have been very positive.
SMART Board interactive whiteboards provide a dynamic, interactive learning environment.
Students are more involved, attentive, and motivated when lessons were offered using SMART Boards as opposed to other teaching methods.
Because a standard SMART Board screen is approximately four by five feet, whole classes may view and interact with computer applications.
SMART Board lessons based on curriculum standards are available online for teachers to download and use in the classroom. Educators can further integrate video, animation, graphics, text and audio with their lessons and presentations.
Anything on the screen can be saved as a “snapshot” making it easy to review at a later date.
SMART Boards can also be used to display a number of sources, including educational websites, DVDs, and VHS tapes.
SMART Boards provide all the familiar educational features of traditional classroom blackboards or whiteboards. However, they add so much more as an exciting, electronic tool for enhancing the curriculum. Students entering Ms. Halvorson’s 3rd
grade classroom and seeing their SMART Board for the first time were unanimous in their declarations of approval: “Sweet!!”

For further information and research on SMART
Boards see:
SMARTER Kids Foundation
http://smarterkids.org/research/paper6.asp
Kent ITC
http://www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/ict/IWB/index.htm

Third grade teacher, Ms. Halvorson, watches Emma
Huikko select hot or cold lunch by dragging her
name to the appropriate column. Her classroom
also uses the SMART Board for math, reading, and
science lessons.
Luke Karlgaard’s first grade classroom was
introduced to their SMART Board on January 5,
2009. First grader, Rylee Johnson, tries his skill at
a memory game.

**taken from the Dassel Elem. February newsletter**