Gail Desler's Page

I'm certainly trying to wrap my head around using Smart boards and their relevancy to learning and teaching.

I would recommend you download and seeing some of the Language Arts SMARTBoard presentations from the SMART Exchange at http://exchange.smarttech.com/files/folders/vste/default.aspx These are excellent examples of the Notebook software being used as an interactive tool for learning on the SMARTBoard.

There are several discussions ongoing that may be interesting to you. And start a discussion asking your specific questions. It might be good, after you've been around a while, to promote this to your teachers and show them how they can use it for their own PD.

Technology is a tool that is only worth the money if the student or teacher are taught how to use the tool effectively to engage the learner and increase learning. That is why training and sharing resources on this network are essential for helping all of us to use the SMARTBoards to their potential.

If teachers use the SMARTBoards just to project on and don't learn how to develop interactive learning lessons on Notebook or PowerPoint, or don't use interactive websites, then it isn't worth the money. However, I have heard from several teachers that their reading and math scores went up after the teacher began using a SMARTBoard as an interactive learning tool. Seeing teachers use the SMARTBoard to instruct with as well as use the SMARTBoard as a learning center is an incredible sight to see.

I put a free Notebook 10 training file with K-5 lesson examples in the forums at http://smartboardrevolution.ning.com/forum/topics/notebook-10-trainingmultimedia Feel free to download this free file and use it for training or sharing with teachers.