Smartboards--One New Thing

On Tuesday, I helped an English student teacher use our Smartboard in the media lab to display and teach about the great features of our new library system, Destiny. The Smartboard allows you to circle or underline with a special pen on a screen that looks like a whiteboard, but is connected to the computer. I was able to show students how to navigate in the library catalog, and point out features as one would do on a blackboard. Some of the new features include the ability for each student to create a list of desired books and websites for further research. The websites embedded in this catalog have all been reviewed by teachers & librarians, so they come complete with the proper bibliographic information. This is one step students won't get on Wikipedia. The student teacher was impressed with the idea and ease of using the Smartboard, and said her students got a lot out of my presentation. I still am insecure about actually setting up the board; you have to calibrate it according to the computer's physical location every time you use it, and I'm still new at this. But it is a tool I see so many uses for all over our building. We have a couple in classrooms, and many students remarked about using the Smartboard--they've seen it before.