SMART Board Resource Center: Home

Here are a couple of Library Resources that can get you started with the SMART Board.

• Creating SMART Board Lessons: Yes, You Can! Easy Step-by-Step Directions for using SMART Notebook Software to Develop Powerful, Interactive Lessons that Motivate All Students by Marcia Jeans

• World Journal on Educational Technology

Need more information about the Learning Studios? Get answers to frequent questions.

This guide is intended as a resource to assist faculty in using SMART Boards in the classroom.

Please use the tabs above to locate the different resources.

If you have any questions or need additional assistance, please contact us!

We hope that this guide will help you come up with better ways to use the "mega-pixel, giant touch map" than this guy did.

For more tips like these, refer to the SMART Board Manual.

Orient your Board
Before you begin any class, make sure to orient the SMART Board to ensure precision. There are multiple ways to do this, but the quickest is to press the two buttons (keyboard and right mouse-click) on the marker tray at the same time and release them. You can also right click the SMART Board icon in the system tray and select Control Panel - Orient, or find the SMART Board control panel in the Start - All Programs menu.

Quick Erasing of Large Areas
To clear a large area of electronic ink, use the physical eraser to encircle the area, and then tap once inside. All freehand annotations inside that circle disappear.
This technique is called the “circle and tap” method of erasing.

Magnifier
If there’s a detail on the screen that you want everyone to see, use the Magnifier to enlarge it. Press the SMART Board icon in the system tray, and then select Other SMART Tools > Magnifier. Drag the smaller window over the screen area, and view the magnified results in the larger window. Press the Close button in the larger window to close the Magnifier.

Screen Shade
Use the Screen Shade to hide content on the screen until you’re ready to reveal it.
Press the SMART Board icon in the system tray, and select Other SMART Tools > Screen Shade. The entire screen is then covered by a shade. Handles at the top, bottom and both sides of the shade allow you to drag it to selectively reveal the screen contents from any direction. To remove the Screen Shade, press the Close button in its upper-right corner.

Spotlight
Use the Spotlight to illuminate a portion of the screen. Press the SMART Board icon in the system tray, and then select Other SMART Tools > Spotlight.

PowerPoint
To advance your presentation by one slide, press twice on the screen, making the second press to the right of the first.
To reverse your presentation by one slide, press twice on the screen, making the second press to the left of the first.

Capturing Your Work as a Video
If you want a record of your actions at the interactive screen, use SMART Recorder. This tool creates a video file, and if you have a microphone connected, it automatically saves the audio as well, so you can narrate your actions at the computer. You can also e-mail a SMART Recorder file to others. Anyone with Windows Media® player can view your file.

Notes
You can write a note on the screen over any application and convert your note to typed text by pressing and holding the note until you see a menu. Select one of the choices and the typed version of your note appears at the cursor location of your active file or dialog box.

Sending Your Notes by E-Mail
If you capture your notes in Notebook software, you can send the file with an e-mail message. From the File menu, select Send To > Mail Recipient. Notebook software launches your default e-mail program and creates a new message with the file attached. 

Using the Gallery
The Gallery consists of several thousand templates, clip art images and Flash files, organized into categories. To access the Gallery, press the Gallery tab at the side of the Notebook software window.
The Gallery is organized into two panes: a list of categories and a contents pane. When you browse through the categories, watch the thumbnail previews in the contents pane. Then drag any thumbnail from the contents pane directly onto your page. The Education category is loaded with clip art, templates and Flash files that you can use as visual aids for teaching a wide variety of topics to classes at all grade levels.