Tequipment: Blogging About SMART Boards, Resources, Lessons, Training, Games

Many of you woke this morning to several inches of snow and school closings.  We hope everyone is having a productive day.

For those of you with SMART AirLiner Wireless Slates, perhaps today is the day you customize your underlay. That’s right, the AirLiner’s icons and buttons can be changed. Simply:

1. Click onthe SMART Board icon in your bottom right navigation tray (Windows) or dock (Mac).
2. Select Control Panel.
3. Select SMART Hardware Settings
4. Select Your AirLiner (if you are connected to multiple SMART products).
5. Choose Set Up Underlay and Icon Strips.

You can change the functions of your AirLiner and change its appearance. Changing the underlay might be done to help students and teachers. For instance, you can print out a grid background. One teacher, however, asked how to do this so she could put a leopard print background.

For whatever reason you might want to customize your AirLiner, feel free to do so now, because for many of you, there’s not good reason for going outside.

If you can’t see the video, click here.

There were a number of entries that easily could have won are first or second prize. Sadly, we could only choose a winner and a runner-up. To everyone who did not win, we want to thank you again for entering and encourage you to check back with us for the next contest.

The WINNER of the SMART Notebook lesson contest is Linda Treilman from the Pennington School in Pennington, New Jersey. Ms. Treilman wins a SMART AirLiner, and we congratulate her for her excellent lesson on transformations.

The runner-up is Matthew Wentworth from the Enlarged City School District of Middletown, New York. Mr. Wentworth wins a neoprene SMART Board cover for his lesson on money.

Their lessons and those of the other entrants will be available for download on our Educator Resource Center in the next few days. We would also encourage anyone who creates a SMART Notebook lesson to please submit it to the ERC, as it is a free resource for teachers to share materials for the SMART Board.

Every Friday as we write the Wrap Up, we resist the urge to call it the Rap Up and compose it like old school Kurtis Blow or Grandmaster Flash song. This week we held back again, but we make no promises about next week.

This week, we brought you an AirLiner activity that has gotten excellent feedback. If you create anything that you think will help others using any of the technology we talk about, please feel free to send it to us. We run our Educator Resource Center as a free resource, and we are always trying to help it grow. In that spirit, we posted this week to remind everyone that the deadline for the Lesson Plan Contest is creeping up on us. We also reminded everyone that Notebook Version 10 is being birthed onto the world very soon.

Comments of the Week:

• Keith posted some useful tips for the Airliner.

• Darnel let us know how well the AirLiner activity worked for him.

• Chad stayed classy, San Diego.

• Scott voiced his excitement over Notebook Version 10.

Next week, we are going to post some new Senteo materials and highlight some more tips and updates for the SMART Board. It’s going to be awesome.

We would like to thank the schools we visited this week: PS 39R, PS 9K, Legacy School for International Studies, PS 326K, PS 152X, PS 63M, PS 29Q, PS 86X, Saint Saviour High School, Sea Cliff, Pleasantville High School, MS 244X, N.S.S.A, MS 343X, Millennium High School, Aviation High School, Barry Tech, Howitt Middle School, Compound Elementary School, PS 101K, School 30, Paul Robeson High School, PS 141K at MS 35, Ps 152M, JHS 78K, 51st Avenue Academy, PS 48X, Epiphany School, PS 175Q, Collegiate School, Young Scholars Academy, Marlboro High School, Saint Margaret Mary School, Holy Name of Jesus, Saint Charles Borromeo School, Saint Rose of Lima.

All of you were great, thanks. See you next week.

Another product that we often use is SMART’s AirLiner. The AirLiner is a wireless slate that allows you to control your computer from anywhere in the classroom using Bluetooth technology. We are obviously big fans of the AirLiner, but we have heard concerns from teachers about bringing an AirLiner into the room. Today, we thought we would bring you some tips as well as a training file that we think AirLiner users will find useful.

Tip #1: Hold the tethered pen like you would a normal pen. It should be comfortable in your hand.

Tip #2: Place your hand against the AirLiner when you write. You do not have to hover your hand against it. Your hand will not affect the AirLiner, only the pen will determine where you write, move the cursor, etc.

Tip #3: Remember the space of the AirLiner represents the space of your computer screen/SMART Board.

Tip #4: Look at the board, not at the AirLiner when you write or select an item.

Tip #5: Trust your handwriting. If you write a word using the AirLiner, it will show up. Don’t stop and start writing.

The biggest thing is practice. The first time one uses an AirLiner, it can seem very strange, but it’s a very quick learning process. We have added a new file to our Educator Resource Center called AirLiner practice. This provides six activities to practice using the AirLiner alone or with other AirLiner users (multiple slates can be connected at the same time). Click here to view the download. Don’t forget to sign-in so you can download from the ERC.

Let us know what you think. We also suggest checking out the rest of the tutorials in the ERC. Is there something you would like to see there? Please feel free to post in the Comments section.

On a final note, hurray for opening day baseball. Although, is it really an opening day if the Mets are already a half game up on the Braves and the Yankees have one fewer loss than the Red Sox? Maybe not, but no one around New York seems to be complaining (except the lone Braves fan in the training department).

You wanted another contest! You got another contest! Yeah! So many exclamation points.

This time, it will not be just one picture, however, but a whole lesson. We like to increase the difficulty as we progress to the next level. Like a video game. Like Guitar Hero. Man, do we love Guitar Hero.

The rules:
(1) You must submit a complete lesson following the Lesson Submission Guidelines, which you can download at the bottom of this post.
(2) You must submit your entry between Thursday, February 14 and midnight Monday, April 14, 2008.
(3) The winner will be chosen based on creativity, flow, use of SMART Notebook advanced features, and overall academic quality.

I know, I know. BORRRRING. What are the prizes?
First Place: AirLiner Wireless Slate
Second Place: SMART Board Neoprene Cover

All lessons submitted that fulfill the Lesson Submission Guidelines will be added to our Educator Resource Center so all may marvel at your mad skillz. Good luck and maybe you are the next SMART Board Hero.

Lesson Submission Guidelines
Teachers Guide Form

A: Yes, yes it is.

Our contest is still running which will award an AirLiner wireless slate to the winner. What is the contest? What is an AirLiner? Have a seat and let me spit some knowledge at you.

1. The Contest: Your challenge is to create a Notebook file using only the pen tools. No imported images or shape tools. Just pen. THE NOTEBOOK FILE MUST BE EMAILED BY 8:30 AM on MONDAY, JANUARY 28TH. Send your entry to training@tequipment.com. If you have questions about this contest, email or post in the comments below.

2. The AirLiner is a wireless slate that allows you to control your SMART Board from up to 52 feet (9 meters, 8 2/3 fathoms, 4.755 zhang) away. A teacher, such as yourself, could move about the classroom and continue to use all of the features and functions of the SMART Board.

What are you waiting for?