My review of SMART Boards, SMART Exchange and Scholastic Study Jams and their impact on teaching and learning in the K-12 setting

Intro

This blog post is broken down into three sections to review one specific technology tool and 2 educational resources and how they can be used within the K-12 setting. I will note that because of my Primary/Junior background, I will speak more in depth on how these tools are used in the Primary/Junior setting. I would also note that rather than going with more broad tools, I chose tools that I have a lot of personal experience with and used frequently during my teaching placements.

Tool: SMART Board 
(Click to view SMART Technology Website)


The first tool I would like to review is the Interactive SMART Whiteboard. I feel that the integration of this technology has completely revolutionized the way students learn and teacher’s teach; especially in terms of keeping up with modern technology and differentiating instruction. School boards across the greater parts of Canada have taken very clear initiative to implement Interactive Whiteboards into almost every classroom. According to The SMART Technology website, “over 2.3 million [SMART Boards have been] installed [globally] in K–12 classrooms, reaching more than 40 million students and their teachers”. That is an incredible statistic!


How to incorporate SMART Boards in the classroom:


SMART Boards can be incorporated in the classroom in two ways. Teachers can create interactive presentations for their lessons by using the SMART Board Notebook software, and teachers can also use the SMART Board as a window into their classroom computer. They can be sitting at their desks and yielding material on the screen or they can stand at the front of the room and utilize the touch screen technology to navigate through programs, look things up on the internet and share video/audio media etc. I will go more into detail of how to use the Notebook Software in the next section of this post, but at this point I will now break down my own personal experience and how I have seen the SMART Board being used, as well as how I have used it myself.
I was first introduced to the SMART Board in university and before we began incorporating it into our lesson plans we were given a brief but detailed presentation on the basics of how to effectively use the SMART Board, as well as some neat tips and tricks. We were blown away! I thought to myself, if I am this impressed with how this technology works then I imagine students must be just as excited to use it. So I made it a point to learn the ins and outs of the Notebook software on my own computer so that I could create lessons using the technology. This was in hopes that my students would be excited to participate in interactive lessons. I learned how to embed video and audio into every lesson, and I made sure to incorporate a lot of interactivity into my presentations to avoid feeling like my lessons were one big power point presentation. I would have students come up and do the clicking for me, (great for those kinaesthetic learners). I also used the SMART Board to access media in my classroom. For example during a lesson on compassion I showed my grade 5 students a Youtube clip of the story behind the child who won the Sports Illustrated kid of the year award in 2012. The clip told the story of a child, Connor, who showed compassion for his younger brother who suffered from cerebral palsy. Connor decided to include his brother in triathlons by having him ride in a coach that he attached to the back of his bike and then he would detach the coach during the running portion and push his brother past the finish line. The story brought my students to tears. The message was firmly delivered and the children had a very clear grasp of what compassion was before completing an assignment where they had to demonstrate their understanding. To fully appreciate how this was so effective on my class I urge anyone reading this post to watch the amazing video clip:

Imagine being able to share the emotions that this clip evokes with a classroom. That is just one example of the many ways in which I have used the SMART Board to enhance my lessons. One of the greatest things about being able to use the SMART Board with students is it allows ALL of the technology that I have been talking about on this blog, (Twitter, Instagram, Classroom Blogs, Youtube, Google) all of that can be used on the SMART board with the class in a safe and effective manner. Teachers can even freeze the SMART Board screen while they preload a site or a clip to avoid the children being exposed to any unwanted pop ups, advertisements etc. 

My Review:

Overall my review of the SMART Board is a 5/5. I love that this tool is being integrated into the classroom. I think it is highly effective in reaching audio, visual and kinesthetic learners. For example, one of the great things about making a presentation using the Notebook application is that the software is loaded with virtual manipulatives such as Tangrams. A teacher can be teaching a lesson in Patterning and Algebra and rather than have to draw out the Tangram or have students gathered around a table looking at small manipulatives, the SMART board allows a clear view of what the teacher would like to demonstrate. The teacher and students can be manipulating on the board while students have the physical manipulative in from of them to work with as well. It makes working together and interacting with eachother in a “whole group” a lot easier.

Students are growing up using touch screen technology from Infancy so in order to be leaders in 21^st Century education it is integral for teachers, (if they have access to it) to learn how to safely use this tool in the most effective ways possible. Please watch the video below, (another great tool: Youtube how to videos) if you are unfamiliar of the basic uses for the SMART Board.
I found that the SMART board was an invaluable tool in my teaching and would be very grateful to have a classroom with a SMART Board.

Resource: Smart Exchange 
(Click to go to Website)

SMART Exchange branches from smarttech.com and is a resource for educators to share presentations which they have created using the Notebook application. It is an excellent resource and one that I have used many times!

How to incorporate SMART Boards in the classroom:

SMART Exchange is international. You can choose your country and go further to find presentations that are not only grade specific but that are literally straight out of the curriculum. While teaching Rocks and Mineral to my Grade 4 class I found a number of excellent presentations which offered a review of everything the children had learned before the culminating task. The presentation was perfectly aligned to the curriculum, but I would urge every teacher using SMART Exchange to always download and walk through each presentation and tweak the content to directly reflect your students learning. I would often use Presentations I found on SMART Exchange as a template for my own lessons because they already included videos, pictures and interactive animations that take a lot of time and effort to make. I was able to make the presentations my own and suit them to my own students learning. Please watch the short video embedded here in order to understand the benefits of Smart Exchange.

My Review:

Smart Exchange is another 5/5 in my opinion. I think it is a great tool for teachers to use to share presentations that they worked hard on. I found most of the time I only used the presentation as a template but even doing just that saved me a lot of time on choosing background and pictures and even a lot of the text was very relevant. The fact that a lot of these presentations have a notation to let the teacher know exactly which curriculum expectations their presentation covers, makes it a very helpful and reliable resource.

A personal note/warning about SMART boards and Notebook Software:

Although I am a huge supporter of using the SMART board tech and software I would still like to say that these tools must be used responsibly and safely. The SMART Board is not meant to replace the teacher. I fell that personally it is a fantastic asset that has helped me reach my diverse learners in ways that excited them. But I know there is concern that the screen will replace the teacher but I am confident that this is not the case. The screen is a tool; it is a manipulative in itself, used to help the teacher to implement familiar technology in the classroom that will give the students greater access to more knowledge and information. The other warning is, (as I mentioned above) with SMART Exchange, every class is different, every learner is different. SMART Exchange presentations can provide an excellent foundation but teachers need to carefully fine tune lessons to ensure that their students are being reached effectively and with information relevant to them.

Resource: Scholastic Study Jams 
(Click to view website)

This website is one that I used many times in my placements. It is a great resource that teachers can give to students and or use with students to help them study material that they learned in class. It covers math and science topics and the website is laid out so that children can easily navigate through the topics to utilize activities and videos for effective learning. 

How to incorporate Study Jams in the classroom:

It is a fun, engaging way for students to review for a test. I prefer to use this tool once I have covered all the material myself and then I sift through the many practice quizzes, songs, games etc. that cover the topic, (I used this while teaching Rocks and Minerals as well as Matter and Energy), and I make sure that the students are only looking at the material we covered in class, and material they will need to know/understand for their Culminating Task.

When I taught Grade 5 Matter and Energy I booked some computer time for my students and I gave them a list of websites that had different study resources they could explore. The resources included different games, powerpoint presentations, quizzes, videos etc. As I walked around to see which resources appeared to be “trending” on my students screens what I saw was that all of my students were bopping their heads and singing out loud to the Study Jams video I had suggested they use for review. What was amazing was that the Video was so entertaining and catchy that the kids couldn’t get enough of it. The video also contained very important information, in fact, most of the answers to the test were covered in the song. What ensued was that all of my students ended up doing amazing on the test because they memorized the video. I even made a bonus question from the lyrics because I thought the song was such a great study tool! 

Click here to -> Watch video

My Review:

I would give this resource a 4.5/5 I love this resources and think it is really a fun and clever tool for Scholastic to have created. The only suggestion I would have, is that when using this resource with students be sure to review the resources first and closely with curriculum expectations in hand. Also, when giving it to students, be specific! Make sure they know which link to click on and what information is pertinent for their review. We want our students to use these resources but we need to guide them to the right ones so that they are not overloaded with information that is not going to be on their test. I was very lucky that the Matter and Energy song went perfectly with what I wanted my students to know. There was no information that wasn’t already on their review sheet. I would absolutely recommend this resource to anyone teaching for junior grades.

Additional Resources:

If you are interested in looking at more resources and resource pools feel free to visit the links below. 

As 21^st Century Educators we are blessed to have such a vast pool of educational resources!

Ontario Educational Resource Bank http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/elearning/bank.html

 - An Excellent group of resources for K-12 teachers

“As Ontario's learning object repository, the Ontario Educational Resource Bank (OERB) offers a growing number of free digital learning resources to teachers and students, from Kindergarten to Grade 12. There are thousands of resources, including units, lesson plans, activities, maps, and interactive learning resources”

Learning Gateway for DSBN http://www.dsbn.edu.on.ca/gateway/

- another website offering a pool of interactive web resources put together by DSBN