SMARTBoards: How Smart is Smart?

               SMARTBoard interactive whiteboards are a technology that is quickly gaining popularity due to the interactive power they possess.  Some questions that are arising about this form of technology are- “How do SMARTBoards change the classroom?”  “What do teachers and students think about SMARTBoards?” and “Does SMARTBoard use in the classroom impact students?”  In the educational world, there are differences of opinion.  However, one thing that everyone can agree on is that technology is only as effective as the teacher using it.

            Recently, SMARTBoards have become an essential component of many classrooms, but up until their implementation, most teachers were still using the traditional white board.  Some reasons for this trend follow:

• ·         SMARTBoards can accommodate different learning styles in order to meet the needs of the students in the class.  Tactical or kinesthetic learners can use the screen and learn by touching and marking on the board.  Auditory learners can learn through the discussions that can easily include auditory clips, and visual learners can observe the teaching on the board as well as view visual pictures, videos, graphs, or other visual aids included in the lesson (Professional Learning Board, 2103).
• ·         SMARTBoards are neater, do not have the cleanliness hassle, and are easier to maintain than traditional white boards (Professional Learning Board, 2013).

            SMARTBoards allow images from the teacher’s computer to be displayed on the board for the students to see.  These images can then be modified on the screen, using a pen or a highlighting tool.  The touch screen feature allows teachers to run programs directly from the screen simply by tapping the application with their finger and this touch screen feature even makes scrolling with the finger easy as well (Professional Learning Board, 2013).

            While most teachers understand the “why” of SMARTBoards, many still struggle with the “how.”  Listed below are just a few ideas on how SMARTBoards can be used in the classroom setting.

• ·         SMARTBoards can be used as a note-taking tool.  Students can take turns coming up and writing important points on the board.  In higher grade levels, teachers can appoint students to type out notes on the computer as they talk, allowing the other students to view and take them down in their notebooks (Professional Learning Board, 2103).
• ·         SMARTBoards can be used to enhance brainstorming in the classroom.  They can be used to put together text ideas as well as images, diagrams, and videos (Professional Learning Board, 2013).
• ·         Review games can be played with ease on the SMARTBoards in order to prepare students for upcoming tests or simply to check student comprehension (Professional Learning Board, 2013).
• ·         SMARTBoards are incredibly dynamic in nature due to the fact that all forms of media such as videos, photographs, graphs, maps, illustrations and more can be displayed on the board (Professional Learning Board, 2103).

            SMARTBoards are a part of the future of education in one school system in Minnesota.  In the Cloquet Public Schools, teachers were surveyed to see what they thought about this tool after a year of implementation in their classrooms.  Some of the results of the survey follow:

• ·         While all teachers reported that the SMARTBoards were used daily, 67% of these teachers used the technology at least 50% of the day (Cloquet Public Schools, 2012).
• ·         Of these same teachers, 100% felt that creative presentation models that meet multiple learning styles have the potential to be either as effective or more effective as small group instruction (Cloquet Public Schools, 2012).
• ·         When this group of teachers was asked about movement in the classroom, 75% agreed that the use of the interactive SMARTBoard increased their use of movement in instruction, not only for themselves, but for the students as well (Cloquet Public Schools, 2012).
• ·         Ninety-four percent of the teachers polled felt that SMARTBoards allowed students to become intensely engaged in the instruction (Cloquet Public Schools, 2012).

           

            Some comments made by the surveyed teachers in support of this technology are listed below.  They are as follows:

• ·         SMARTBoards allow teachers to teach to “all” their students’ learning styles daily (Cloquet Public Schools, 2012).
• ·         Teachers are able to actively engage students by designing a myriad of lessons with endless variations (Cloquet Public Schools, 2012).
• ·         SMARTBoards allow teachers to engage every learning style and allows for many opportunities to use their strengths and work on areas that need improvement as well (Cloquet Public Schools, 2012).
• ·         Previously, with whole group instruction, the rest of the class would get restless and lose focus, but with the SMARTBoard, students stay engaged and patiently wait their turn to go up to the board (Cloquet Public Schools, 2012). 
• ·         SMARTBoards not only allow teachers to reach many students at once, but they also allow for cooperative learning among students (Cloquet Public Schools, 2012) .
• ·         Lower achieving students and students with emotional and behavioral disorders were very in-tuned while using the SMARTBoard and were also able to complete their individual work (Cloquet Public Schools, 2012).
• ·         Students that normally have difficulty paying attention in class were much more engaged with the use of the SMARTBoard (Cloquet Public Schools, 2012).

These comments are just a few of the many that the teachers of the Cloquet Public Schools provided when surveyed about SMARTBoard use in their classrooms and the impact on their students.

            Some of the tools and features of SMARTBoard that can help teachers use their boards more effectively in their classrooms are:

• ·         Question/Answer in the gallery
• ·         Erase to reveal (hides answers)
• ·         Link to an animation
• ·         Grab a picture from a website
• ·         Grab a web address
• ·         Link games and interactive websites to teachers’ webpages
• ·         Scanning tools
• ·         Export to PowerPoint
• ·         Freeform tools (camera tools)
• ·         Dual page display
• ·         Rotation/Locking tools
• ·         SMART video
• ·         Format background color

            While SMARTBoards were said to help teachers and students focus on teaching and learning, they were also found to be a great sharing tool.  The SMART Notebook software allows teachers to e-mail saved files to students and/or colleagues at any time during or after the lesson.  Teachers can even upload their favorite lessons to the SMART Exchange website, so their colleagues can find them quickly and easily to use in their own classrooms.  This allows for sharing and collaboration among teachers for the benefit of their students.

            On the flip side of the coin, some call SMARTBoards a “Dumb” initiative.  These opponents of SMARTBoards feel that SMARTBoards are not a cost-effective way of improving learning.  These same people made the following arguments against SMARTBoards:

• ·         SMARTBoards do enable teachers to efficiently save content on the white board, but that this can be done in various other ways such as screenshot, screencast, Microsoft OneNote, scanners, and cameras at a much smaller budget (Staton, 2010).
• ·        "SMARTBoards do not change the model that is broken.  They just make that model way more expensive because teachers usually still control the content, stand in front of the classroom, and manage the students through a lesson they would rather not be managed through" (Staton, 2010, para. 5).  SMARTBoards do not give students an adaptive learning environment, do not differentiate instruction although they do make it a little more media savvy, do not enable social feedback, do not reduce teacher workload, and do not make lesson planning more efficient.  SMARTBoards are just an attractive white board (Staton, 2010).
• ·         SMARTBoards are an administrative cop out.  Instead of re-imaging what schools and classrooms look like, administrators just spend money on technology and buy things to say they are trying to help their teachers and students be more successful.  "It is less risky to buy objects you can see and count than spend money on more ambitious initiatives, such as reading and math remediation for students" (Staton, 2010, para. 6).

These are just a few of the arguments that the opponents of SMARTBoards provided as to why they felt SMARTBoards were not the best way to improve student learning in a cost-effective manner.

            Another article, by Keith Fowlkes (2013), even discussed why tablets were the better option for classrooms, instead of SMARTBoards, especially for higher education.  He contends that Tablets open a whole new world for students and faculty and it is a world that is within financial reach.  "He asserts that tablets can connect to a video projector, digital monitor/TV, or Internet broadcast stream to draw, highlight, and interact with whatever is on the screen without the aid of a SMARTBoard" (Fowlkes, 2013, para. 8).  Tablet users, with the right conferencing services and wireless video systems, can share their screens with the instructor and the entire class in real time.  Students can access electronic textbooks, Internet resources, library systems, other literature, and much, much more right from the classroom and use them in real time discussions (Fowlkes, 2013).

            Considering all of the arguments from both points of view, these interactive boards can either be “SMARTBoards” or “DUMBBoards” depending on who you ask.  Both sides have been presented here, so now it is time for you to decide…. Are they “SMART” or are they “DUMB”?  The decision is yours.

References

Cloquet Public Schools.  (2012, October).  How do SmartBoards change the classroom?   Retrieved from http://www.cloquet.k12.mn.us/curriculum.cfm?subpage=511729

Fowlkes, K.  (2013, January 9).  Why tablets will kill Smart Boards in classrooms.  Retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/mobile/why-tablets-will-kill-smart-boards-in-classrooms/d/d-id/1108091?

Professional Learning Board.  (2013).  Using Smart Boards in the classrooms.  Retrieved from             https://k12teacherstaffdevelopment.com/tlb/using-smart-boards-in-the-classroom/

Staton, M.  (2010, May 12).  Why Smartboards are a dumb initiative [Web log post].  Retrieved from http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/2010/05/why-smartboards-are-dumb-initiative.html