By Telecom Lead Team: SMART Technologies,
a provider of collaboration solutions, has launched SMART Notebook 11 collaborative
learning software.
Version 11 of SMART Notebook will enable teachers to
integrate online resources into SMART Notebook files, enhancing instruction and
increasing classroom efficiency.
More than six million teachers have activated SMART Notebook
software to create and deliver engaging lessons for more than 40 million
students in 175 countries around the world.
SMART Notebook software is increasingly
being used as a standard lesson creation and delivery tool in classrooms around
the world. SMART Notebook 11 makes collaboration with online resources more
interactive and comprehensive, benefiting both teachers and students, and
enhances creativity for increased student engagement,” said Linda Thomas, vice
president, Products, SMART Technologies.
The company said a new embedded web browser allows
teachers to insert a live browser page directly into a SMART Notebook file.
Users can write, draw, and drag and drop content on the page.
Version 11 includes widgets such as a dictionary and
translator, which will let users handwrite a query, receive the answer and move
that answer to the SMART Notebook software page.
An avatar widget will let teachers bring their dynamic
talking avatars into SMART Notebook 11 and save them to the Gallery. The widgets
can be downloaded from the SMART Exchange website, where educators
can find over 51,000 learning resources and lessons, and used directly in a
SMART Notebook 11 file.
A software development kit (SDK) for SMART Notebook
allows educators and third-party developers to create an unlimited number of
custom web-based widgets. SMART Notebook 11 software will be available as a
free download for existing license holders of SMART Notebook or for purchase in
spring 2012.
The new software development kit has allowed us to
create our own widget, which provides direct access to our student information
system data, within a SMART Notebook lesson. Having access to that
student data within SMART Notebook provides numerous opportunities for our
teachers to create lessons that match the needs of specific students,” said
Daniel Gratton, Director of Information Technology, Conseil scolaire de
district catholique de L’Est ontarien (CSDCEO), Ontario, Canada.
Version 11 builds on that success with
many new features that offer creative and efficient tools for increased
interactivity. Students can be more engaged with tools that allow them to
customize interaction with the SMART Board interactive whiteboard. The crayon
feature allows students to create authentic crayon drawings on the interactive
whiteboard, and the customizable creative pen builds individual pen types based
on any image.
New features allow teachers to create
activity objects with the activity builder tool that reacts to actions made by
students or teachers with animations or sounds for engaging interactions. The
enhanced contextual toolbar responds to actions by changing when users choose a
certain object, giving them the required tool choices.
The reset page function brings the SMART
Notebook software page back to its last saved state. SMART Notebook 11 also
features new gestures, supporting four-touch capability for the SMART Board 800
series interactive whiteboard and the SMART Board 8070i interactive display.
