Thursday, May 01, 2008

Smart Boards

This week, I have been helping Nick out with a large class of keen tutors learning more about how to use ICT in their teaching and learning. One of the sessions was on the Smart board. I had a look at one last year (a stand alone model) and was not overly impressed as the images were slightly washed out as they were projected from a normal ceiling mounted data projector. The board also tended to move when you pushed on it, leading to having to realign it before you were able to use it properly.

This time around, tried out a wall mounted smart board that had a projector mounted just above the board. CPIT now has almost half a dozen installed in the school of science. The images were crisp and the board surface easier to get used to as the board was stable. The notebook functions were well demonstrated by James Jowsey. Of note was the ability to access a gallery of pre-drawn diagrams (clip art) and to be able to manipulate these to form the base from which you could set out a note book page. Especially useful for mathemathics (graph paper, number lines) but also for geography (maps) & science (science apparatus etc.) It is also possible to download the smart book software on to a computer and use the notebook functions just from a laptop or desktop. I will try it out next week on one of my trade maths sessions to see how well it goes.

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