What is a Smart Board?

(By: Nadine Vitullo)

(Image source: Campus Security Solutions)

A Smart Board is an interactive, computerized whiteboard. A projector is used to reflect the image displayed on a computer onto the smart board. The smart board then acts as a touch screen interface, in which, the teacher or student is able to manipulate the program, image, or text by hand. In simpler terms, the smart board is a glorified computer and chalkboard. In addition, it includes four, colored, digital ink pens in the pen tray. (This is extremely beneficial because teachers no longer have to provide markers or chalk for traditional boards.)

Below, I have listed a few links that help solidify what a smart board is and what it can contribute to education at various grade levels. 

- http://smarttech.com/

This is the main smart board website. Here you can read about how the smart board is effective and what it offers at various grade levels. 

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U05WeXPGlk

This is a great video that explains how easy the smart is to use and it explains a lot of its features, such as, the pen feature.

(Image Source: Teq: It's all about learning.)

Why is the Smart Board beneficial? 

The smart board is important because it bridges the gap between traditional methods of teaching and modern teaching techniques. 21st century teaching, strives to increase the integration of technology in the classroom. The smart board is a great way to achieve this. The smart board offers multiple programs that are extremely beneficial to teaching the majority of subject areas. For example, the smart board can help display notes, educational videos, or pictures. In addition, students are able to become more actively involved because they can physically come up the smart board to write, point out details, or provide answers. Furthermore, the smart board is its own data bank. The teacher is able to locate and display any information at the touch of a few buttons. Ultimately, the smart board is a coming of age tool. Ultimately, it helps immerse students in the technological world, while simultaneously, providing them with a plethora of opportunities to excel academically. 

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWNCHG-xB9o&feature=related

Here is another video that shows some features the smart board has through programs, such as, smart notebook.  

(Image source: Instructional Technology)

How does the Smart Board help teach Literacy?

The smart board provides teachers with programs and activities that help enhance Literacy instruction. For example, during a literacy lesson, you could display the book on the smart board. Students would, not only, be able to follow along but they could even come up and highlight points they found important. In addition, after reading the book, the teacher could pull up a compare and contrast chart or a venn diagram and the students could be actively engaged as they came up to the smart board and filled it in.  Furthermore, the smart board can be used as a way to teach thinking strategies, such as, predicting, inferring, and determining importance. Students could come to the board and on a separate page fill out a chart with their predictions of what may happen in the text. Determining importance could be integrated throughout the reading of the text. Students could again come to the board or offer their thoughts to the teacher and the smart board could record the ideas in thought bubbles or on a separate blank page. This is a great way to get students involved and it also is a way to show them the larger picture. As, we will be able to go back through the story as a class and see what we highlighted and wrote and how our ideas may have changed or improved as the story continued. Also, sequencing is important in Literacy. Students need to know how to differentiate between what took place in the beginning, middle, and end of a story. The smart board would be of great use because you could create a chart or a timeline to help students organize and sequence the events of the story. This would be interactive and provide them with a clear visual example of how the story progressed. As I stated above, there are also a plethora of interactive activities and programs that can be used on the smart board. For example, there are interactive games that students can complete on the smart board that help them with Literacy strategies such as comprehension, vocabulary, and spelling. These are great because they are fun, interactive, and educational. 

Below, I have listed a few websites that provide various activities that can be used to help enhance Literacy instruction, student engagement, and achievement.

- http://pbskids.org/whiteboard/ 

This website offers interactive activities that target elementary Literacy skills, such as, vocabulary, comprehension, spelling, and the formation and inferring of ideas.

- http://www1.center.k12.mo.us/edtech/resources/sbsites.htm#ca

This website provides links to other resources that help improve Literacy instruction. For example, the sites listed even differentiate instruction by providing interactive activities for emergent and advanced readers.

- http://www.theteachersguide.com/InteractiveLitSitesSmartBoard.htm

This website is neat because it even provides a link that will read famous children's stories out loud to the kids. This is great if, you as the teacher, need to confer with students and provide more individualized scaffolding as the story is being read.

- http://exchange.smarttech.com/#tab=0

This is the main smart board website. It offers a bunch of lessons that teachers can use on the smart board. It even provides Literacy based lessons for predicting and inferring. These are two main thinking strategies in Literacy. They are heavily encouraged and taught in schools.

- http://www.webblue.havre.k12.mt.us/Teacher/sb_reading.htm

This website offers links to various other websites that have a bunch of activities for Literacy instruction. For instance, some focus on rhyming words, identifying characteristics, reading comprehension, sequencing, phonics, ect.