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Teaching Guide
The activities that make up this curriculum web are designed to help educators learn the basics of using the SMART Board in a classroom setting. The SMART Board is an interactive whiteboard that helps teachers transform their lessons into activities that engage students. Using the SMART Board creates an environment for interactivity, helps motivate students, creates an environment that supports different types of learning styles, and helps keep students interested in the lesson. Associate Professor Joe Garofalo, from the University of Virginia, has found through a three-year study that the majority of students in a class taught with SMART Board interactive whiteboards outperformed students taught without them. He also found that teachers using them are able to organize and plan comprehensive lessons more efficiently and feel less anxiety over implementing classroom activities and lessons than those teachers without. The SMART Board has a great deal of functionality, but can overwhelm the beginning user. This curriculum web will support new users, and give seasoned users a place to refer during the year. It may be used as a resource for starting with the basics of turning on and orienting the board, and easily progress to creating lesson plans with Notebook. The most important recommendation is to use the board every day to do simple tasks to become comfortable using the technology. This curriculum web will step you through these topics and, upon completion, you will be ready to create lesson plans on your own. This curriculum web is designed for teachers who have:
Learning to Use the SMART Board, as a teaching tool requires professional development, collaboration and simple practice. This curriculum web is an online professional development where you will learn:
Upon completion of this curriculum web, participants will be knowledgeable about the SMART Board in terms of:
To actively use this curriculum web you will need a computer connected to a SMART Board that has the SMART Board software installed. You can also use many of the modules with just Notebook software and not be connected to the board. It is also possible to view the curriculum web not connected to the board, but you will not be interacting with the board; rather you will be stepping through instructional lessons and observing how the board can be used. This curriculum web is intended to assist educators in using a SMART Board within a classroom setting. There is no prescribed order that must be followed in this tutorial; rather, educators are encouraged to visit pages within the curriculum web as deemed pertinent to their own needs and at their own pace. The activities in the curriculum web are designed to provide basic SMART Board instruction by demonstrating SMART Board procedures and providing links for additional resources including existing lesson plans on the World Wide Web. Plan for assessment and evaluation Each lesson will have lesson goals. At the end of the session there will be a Review section where you will be given the opportunity to test your understanding of the session. A hands-on practice session will conclude each lesson. Participants who do not achieve the session goal should go back and review the lesson and work with the hands-on practice to get comfortable with the SMART Board and its tools. Finally, collaboration with fellow teachers gives tremendous value towards moving up the learning curve. Sharing with other teachers will result in using the technology to its fullest potential. Keep your efforts simple and try to use the board daily. Consistently using the board develops a comfort level that grows. Instructional Goals of the Curriculum Web The goals of this curriculum web are to familiarize teachers with using the SMART Board, an interactive whiteboard that research has shown enhances education in terms of students performance, teacher organization, and lesson preparation, (Grove, 2007). Using the SMART Board creates an environment for interactivity, helps motivate students, supports different types of learning styles, and helps keep students interested in the lesson. The SMART Board has a great deal of functionality, but can overwhelm the beginning user. This curriculum web will support new users, and give seasoned users a place to refer during the year. It may be used as a resource for starting with the basics of turning on and orienting the board, and easily progress to creating lesson plans with Notebook. The
curriculum web will step teachers through these topics so that, upon
completion, they will be ready to create lesson plans on their own. The
Massachusetts Department of Education’s Office of Instructional Technology
“supports schools in using technology to increase student achievement and
technological literacy,” (Mass Department of Education, 2001). Our goal is
to assist teachers in bringing a new methodology into the classroom—an
educational tool that offers the potential to engage students in any
classroom subject area. Some key findings from research commissioned by the
British Educational Communications and Technology Agency include the
following: Local Technology Plan Benchmark Standards Massachusetts Department of Education has outlined a set of six benchmark standards to guide districts in establishing goals for their Local Technology Plans. Using the SMART Board meets Benchmark Standard 4, specifically C, bolded below: Benchmark Standard 4: Technical Support, Technology
Curriculum Integration, and Professional Development A. TECH SUPPORT: The
district ensures that every administrator, teacher, and student receives
high-quality user and system support so that by the year 2003 there will be
at least one FTE (full-time equivalent) person to support 100-200 computers.
Technical support can be provided by dedicated staff or equivalent services.
B. CURRICULUM INTEGRATION: The district provides at least 0.5 FTE staff
person to support every 30-60 users (staff only) in their efforts to achieve
technology competency and to integrate technology into the curriculum. C.
TECHNOLOGY PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: By the year 2003, at least 85% of
district staff will have participated in technology training sponsored by
the districts. D. ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY: The District has an Acceptable Use
Policy regarding Internet use. (Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks Database, organized by SmartEDU, Inc Retrieved 12/2007 http://www.smartedu.net/mcf/default.htm) Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks 1. Strand: Instructional Technology 2. Grade Span: 9-12 3.Strand: Instructional Technology 4. Strand: Instructional Technology 5. Strand: Instructional Technology 6. Strand: Instructional Technology (Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks Database, organized by SmartEDU, Inc Retrieved 12/2007 from http://www.smartedu.net/mcf/default.htm) Proposed Massachusetts Recommended K-12 Technology Literacy Standards In addition the use of the SMART Board meets standards in the proposed Massachusetts Recommended K-12 Technology Literacy Standards, released in October 2007. These standards incorporate the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Literacy skills developed by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, the National Educational Technology Standards for Students (NET.S) developed by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), as well as ISTE draft NETS Refresh into three broad standards: Standard 1: Basic Operation, Concepts and Productivity
Tools The Use of the SMART Board will facilitate teachers in incorporating the following standards at a minimum: Basic Operation and Productivity Tools (MA. Department of Education website. Educational Technology, Technology Standards, Draft of Revised Recommended K-12 Instructional Technology Standards. Retrieved December 2007 from http://www.doe.mass.edu/edtech/standards.html) We chose to create this curriculum web in a way that is clear, easy-to-navigate, and user-friendly so as to be available not only as a how-to guide, but as a continuous reference site for those in the field of education. The home page offers a series of “buttons” that can be viewed in order if a learner would like to begin with the basics and progress through until the end of the web for an overall unit on how to use the SMART Board. The “buttons” also offer more experienced SMART Board users a quick way to jump to an area in which they may need only that information, instead of having to progress through the rest of the material to find what they are looking for. We utilized a large number of graphics so as to make the curriculum web understandable in a visual way, not merely with a huge amount of text that can become confusing when learning technical processes. Using Captivate to add audio clips to our graphics adds another layer of explanation for learners, leading to a greater understanding of the material. References Grove, J.C. (2007). New ICT Benefits. Interactive Educator. Vol. 3, No. 3. Retrieved November 3, 2007 from http://downloads.smarttech.com/media/education/pdf/ieSummer07.pdf
Researchers conclude interactive whiteboards produce significant results.
Retrieved on November 20, 2007 from http://www2.smarttech.com/st/en-US/About+Us/News+Room/Media+Releases
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