Airliner: Useful Addition to SMART Experience or Waste of Money?

[Matt Granger]

Just to get the discussion going, what do you think of the Airliner? How do you use it that makes it a valuable addition to the SMART Board?

14 teachers in my building got them last year. I think 2 of us use them. The rest are packing them up and sending them off to teachers that got boards this year. How are other people effectively using them that makes them worth the money?

[Linda Rush]

I teach special needs children and with the airliner the mobility challenged students are still able to participate using the SMARTBoard.

[Todd Magnuson]

Matt,
I will throw my two cents in. I have been using the Smartboard for about 8 years. The Airliner has been a great addition to my classroom. I teach 8th grade Algebra and Pre Algebra. Many times when I have one student at the board working on a problem I will have another student working from their desk with the Airliner. I will also use my Airliner when I present new material to the class. I love how I can walk around the room to make sure students are doing their work as I am presenting the new material with the Airliner. I feel the money invested in my classroom for the Airliner has been well worth it.
We recently had a parent night at our school and used my Airliner to present my little 5 minute presentation to the parents and they were just in awe of the technology being used in my room. I even had a few parents using the Airliner before they left that night.

[Matt Granger]

That's awesome. That's what I want the teachers who aren't using it to see. Thanks.

[deirdre doherty]

The fact that you are really engaging your students and parents in the technology is awesome. This will allow them to feel empowered like you do when you use it. Teachers need to do more activities that actually put the technology in the students and even better parents hands. Our students are extremely talented when it comes to technology. We need to give them the freedom to explore and learn.

[Patricia Ogden]

I would love any specific ideas that you could share with me. I teach 7th and 8th grade math and just got the Airliner today and have had no training with it. I read the booklet and am searching online for ideas. Thanks

[E.R]

http://freescreencast.com/screencasts/watch/647/20-Cool-Ways-to-Use...

I found this website to be very helpful to me when I began using my Airliner. I do not have a Smart Board in my classroom, but I do have two Airliners. Like you, I was unsure how to use this technology in the most effective way possible. This website should give you a few good ideas. It is a podcast with visual. Hope this helps!

[Nancy DePasquale]

A former student of mine, now our tech guru, hooked up my airliner and it sat idle for two weeks because I couldn't think of a thing to do with it. Once I tried it, I became hooked. Although, I like to circulate around the room, I still get attached to my smartboard. With the airliner, I can walk around the room, have a student at the board and a group with the airliner and I can direct the instruction. They can teach each other. One lesson that went well recently was order of operations. The group with the airliner put an expression on the board and highlighted each step for the student at the board to solve. Another time, I had the group with the airliner put algebra tiles on the board while a student at the board wrote the expression. They seem more involved. It's new and we are learning together, but anything that motivates them can't be all bad.

[Jason Neely]

I have been using a smartboard for about 2 years. My school recently purchased airliners and here is my first impressions with them after 1 week. I think that they are very difficult to use. For me I struggle with the size of my writting. When I write I usually have to make it smaller to fit on the board. I also have tried letting my students use them and the amount of time for them to write on them isn't worth their benefit. However the one plus that I have seen is that I have one student who will not contribute answers on the board but he will on an airliner. So now I give my students three choices to provide feedback: at the board, on the airliner or on the document camera. By the way I love my smart document camera.

[Shelly Moses]

How I wish I had an airliner! I would just love to be working with the SMART Board from the back of the room. I can't imagine getting one and not using it, or having the students use it. As long as I'm wishing... let's just throw in a set of Senteo clickers as well.

[deirdre doherty]

Perhaps you should look into writing a grant and purchase those $1800 Senteos for your students. Ask if your district has any grant opportunities.

[Linda Treilman]

I found I liked being able to walk around to different parts of the room to teach but in my Pre-calculus class I could not write quickly enough nor clearly enough to use the slate. Instead I put the slate in my students hands and I found this very successful to get more student involvement into the lessons so I started doing this in all classes. I have created pages with drag and drop features to use at the beginning of the year. Instead of going up to the board students pass the slate around the room (more efficient). The mouse seems easier to use and this gets all the students into using the slate, then I start using problems writing with the pen. I have definitely found the slate worth the money, only wish I had more than one in the class.

[Megan Troyer]

In higher education, the Airliners are invaluable for the larger lecture hall. They are used more with the Sympodium than the SMART boards though. There is a learning curve, but if you learn the "hover method" that curve becomes almost nil.