2010: PASS Oddysey "Ten Basic Tools for SmartNotebook" Eleven, actually.

Yesterday I presented on SmartBoards, and I hadn't worked on a smartboard for about a month, with testing, finals, grades, and the two weeks of camping (not even Internet, people!) immediately after school let out. First, let me thank everyone who attended the conference yesterday. I hope you are sharing and improving upon what we shared with you! I am happy to have feedback to improve what I use and share with others, so feel free to send me more things you have found useful in your teaching, or would like me to post on my blog.

Lesson Plans and Resources for your SmartBoard
(or IWB, Interactive White Board if you have a Mead or NEC, or Promethian or WiiBoard)
Trying to find Smart Presentations to utilize the tools we are beginning to get in the classroom is a very important topic to cover when talking about IWBs. The time went by so quickly at the conference yesterday that I did not spend nearly enough time introducing this web resource. If you are struggling to make your class a Smarter class, this is a searchable database and can be sorted by grade, subject, et cetera. I have found excellent resources that I have then adapted using what I learned about unlocking locked items, and then customizing them when needed.

The 10 Simple Ways to Add Interactivity by Colleen Schafer

1. Move to Reveal

Create a text box with the info to be revealed, then place a graphic from the gallery or your own graphic library over the text. SmartNotebook layers the items automatically. I recommend you lock the answer beneath so it does not accidentally get moved.

2. Erase to Reveal

Type the answer or message you'd like to reveal, then cover up with a pen tool with a matching color to the background. To reveal the answer, pick up the eraser and wipe away the pen markings.

3. Change Color to Reveal

Type the text you want to hide, change the background color to the same color as the text. Then, as you are presenting, right click on the background and change the Properties/Color to a contratsting color of the text items you wish to reveal.

4. Order of Objects

The Order of Objects refers to what is layered on your page back to front. The oldest thing on the page is by default the bottom layer, think your background. You can change this order by moving things forward or back. To use this as an interactive tool--First, type your text on the page. Second, create an object in a different color that you will use to reveal (like the rectangle, grouped with an arrow in the example).

5. Spotlight Tool select the Magic Pen from the SmartNotebook toolbar (bottom or top, pen with the stars around it). Draw a circle with the tool and it will become the Spotlight Tool, greying out the screen all over, but leaving one round section highlighted. (No Video Clip)The Magic Pen is a three-in-one tool to spotlight, magnify or zoom in on an image, or write notes that will disappear in 10 seconds. Draw a square to magnify an object or draw a circle to add a spotlight. Here's SmartTech's demo, I could not do it justice...
Magic Pen Demo

6. Table Tool inserts a table, very similar to the Insert Table button in MS Word. You can drag graphics and words into the table, hand as a graphic organizer.
Table Tool Demo by SmartTech

7. Identify and Label allows the user create labels for graphics on the smartboard.

8. Infinite Cloner is on the drop down menu of any object on the page. If you select infinite cloner, when the item is clicked on it creates an duplicate of the object that may then be dragged and dropped.

9. Pull Tabs are found in the Gallery, and can then be grouped with text or objects. Mark the target for the tab to be pulled to for accurate placement, over the other objects on the page. Grouping items is key for this to work, so use a select box or your mouse and the CTRL button to select multiple items, them CTRL G to group them together for easy movement.

10. Dual Page Display is a button on the SmartNotebook 10 Toolbar, next to the Elmo button. Displays two pages side by side.