The smartness of SMART Notebook

SMART Notebook 11 has been a revelation to discover when it comes to teaching. It has the best parts of PowerPoint presentation, mixed with innovative features that make it a delight to work with. After using both PowerPoint and Prezi Presentation, I was still looking for an ICT tool that I could use in lessons that also made it more interactive. SMART Notebook is a collaborative learning software. As the picture shows below, SMART Notebook contains a tool bar which offers the chance for teachers to write on their slides using an interactive whiteboard magic pen. The chance to write notes and students comments on the board as the lesson progressed was something which was not offered when using Microsoft PowerPoint.

The pen is an interactive magic pen and is easy to use; just make sure you remember to calibrate the whiteboard first. You are also able to save these changes during the lesson, and therefore enabling you to use notes as examples for other lessons or comparing answers of various groups. SMART Notebook has made me confident in using ICT in my teaching, mainly because once you know how to use the various functions, it is easy and accessible to use. It feels more modern and educationally-geared than PowerPoint. When it came to doing my assessed micro-teach lesson, I chose to use SMART Notebook.



What was really useful about using SMART Notebook 11 is how it contains activity builders, images from multiple subject areas that can be inserted into my slides and also the ability to erase words that I write using the toolbar eraser icon. I created a 'drag and drop' feature in my presentation that meant that students in my micro teach could come to the board and drag written sentences with their hands to the correct columns, which I had created. This interaction worked well and got all of the class involved. Using SMART Notebook has made ILT a fun integration in my lessons and it is not an intimidating software for the teacher or the student. Without a doubt I will use SMART Notebook when teaching in the future, and it has eliminated my reliance on PowerPoint. The smartness of SMART Notebook really does overwhelm the power on Microsoft PowerPoint.

Below, I have added a youtube clip of a user going through the features of SMART Notebook 11. It is a useful introduction into the amazing features that SMART Notebook can offer. Give it a go and it may just transform the way you teach:

References:

Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCr4fkMrQks [Accessed 29 December 2014].

Prezi Presentations

After using PowerPoint presentations in my classes, I researched elsewhere to see if there were presentations I could use that offered more. I came across a site called Prezi.com. The word prezi is the Hungarian short form of presentation. This presentation is different to the ordinary slide-based presentations. Prezi also offers an educational license for students and educators. Instantly, the site shows you how to use functions to create a professional and eye-catching presentation that makes my PowerPoint slides look rather bland. The site helps you create your presentation easily, and this is the link to view it:http://bit.ly/1gdiEJG

The tool palette allows users to pan and zoom, rotate, and edit an object. The user has a blank canvas to work on and can navigate between text, videos and other presentation objects. I found some really good examples of Prezi Presentation in the following link: http://blog.crazyegg.com/2012/10/29/example-presentations-using-prezi/

However, there is a lack of colour and font option with this device. Also, there is a drawback that it is more time-consuming to create a presentation as opposed to the Microsoft PowerPoint software. This could be a case of practice makes perfect, with more time a really exciting and personal presentation could be created. Therefore, I would have to have more practice to feel confident to use this device to teach and introduce to students.

References:

https://ballaratcrtnetwork.wikispaces.com/Web+2.0+tools+and+researchers [Accessed 14 November 2014].

http://blog.crazyegg.com/2012/10/29/example-presentations-using-prezi/ [Accessed 14 November 2014].

The power of PowerPoint

PowerPoint presentations were one of the first software devices that I was taught to use when I was a secondary school student. When interactive whiteboard's were installed in classrooms, one of the first features I noticed was how the teacher no longer needed to cram information all onto one board, or keep rubbing-out words in order to have space to write more. Through PowerPoint, multiple slides can be created and presented to pupils. Furthermore, these slides of information can be saved to use again and again in other lessons infinitely and can also be printed on paper for handouts. It is an easy tool to use and whilst presenting, you are able to forward features or slides by just touching the board. I was confident in using PowerPoint prior to the PGCE programme; therefore, it came as no surprise to me that I created a PowerPoint presentation when faced with my first class teaching students. This worked well and it was effective having slides up on the board for students to write notes from and also it allowed me to teach at the pace I wanted. PowerPoint offers sound, animation and many more features that can be effective to use when teaching. However, a frustrating part of using PowerPoint is the inability to write on the board whilst doing the presentation. I could not use the whiteboard pens to add notes or ideas from pupils, which would have made the presentation even more interactive.

After addressing the use of Socrative, I thought of trying a quiz that used ICT whilst also using traditional methods. I wrote questions on each slide, with multiple choice if needed, and encouraged students to write down their answers on paper. This saved me printing paper for the whole class and it was also an easier way to teach as I could go read-out each question as it was presented and to talk a little about what I wanted them to think about and remember. The students then did a peer assessment on one another and marked work by viewing the final slide, which contained numbered answers on it. Therefore, I would use PowerPoint again to conduct quizzes in class.