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

One of the most requested features that teachers want in SMART Notebook is the ability to play sound automatically when a page is entered.

Only MP3 sounds can play within Notebook when embedded onto an object.  MP3′s can only play/pause and restart when you leave and re-enter a page. If  a teacher wanted the sound to play again, he or she would have to either wait for the sound to end or leave the page and return, then click on the object again.

Flash files (either FLV or SWF) are the only type of files that play when a page is entered.  So, if you want sound to play automatically when entering page, what kind of audio file would you like?

You guessed it, an FLV or SWF file.  The subtle difference between the two is that the FLV version has a controller bar to stop/play/rewind/fast-forward, and to drag the timer to any part of the file and the SWF does not have the controller bar. Another bonus to using Flash here is that MP3 sounds cannot be controlled, only paused.

But there are free audio converters out there that will allow you to create FLV and SWF files,  such as  Sofonica, and Format Factory.

In the two videos below, we use Format Factory to convert a sound into an FLV file and a SWF file.

Converting to an FLV

Converting to an SWF

How long do you spend looking for the perfect image for your Notebook file? How long is too long? The answer depends on the person, but one way to reduce the amount of time you spend looking for that “perfect” image is to use Google Image Swirl! (http://image-swirl.googlelabs.com/)

This site can help minimize the amount of time you spend searching for pictures online. Just type in your search term, and the site organizes the pictures they have located into categories. Click on the image that you fancy and watch the “picture map” unfold to help you choose the ideal picture.

Once you have placed an image onto your Notebook page, don’t forget to add these images to your “My Content” folder so you have access to them whenever you’d like. To add a picture:

• Open your Gallery tab
• Select your “My Content” folder
• Drag the picture from the Notebook page to the folder
• Click on the “Pictures” bar and your image should be there

One of my favorite tools from the Lesson Activity Toolkit, is the Checker Tool. It is a great way to create an interactive SMART Notebook page quickly. I also like it because it’s an easy way to provide immediate feedback to students. It is great for labeling diagrams or for fill-in-the-blank activities. I am sure you can find many more uses.

To set up a Checker Tool activity:

1. Bring the checker tool from the LAT.

2. Click on the double arrows in the top left corner of the tool.

3. Type exactly what you want as the correct answer.

4. Decide if you want capitalization to be checked.

5. Click “OK.”

6. On the same page, type possible answers that student can choose to drag to the Checker Tool (I like to make these possible answers “infinite cloner” so that the they don’t get used up).

7. When students drag possible answers to the Checker Tool, they immediately know if they are correct or incorrect. You can drag new answers right on top of existing answers and it will replace them.

“Check” it out!

Two programs which make advanced interactions between applications possible.

Nail it is a very small program (33 KB) which will have a big impact on how you think of the Digital Ink Layer.  Nail it is free, and it enables you to make any application window “sticky” (so that it will stay on top of all other programs), simply by clicking on it.  When you use Nail it, the application you click on is on top of every- thing, even the Digital Ink Layer.  For an example of how this can work with SMART Notebook, watch the video below.

Ghost It allows you make any window into a Ghost Window. A Ghost Window is translucent, and will always appear on top of other windows, but when a Ghost Window is not in focus, all clicks will pass right through it until it becomes the active window again. Watch the video below for more details.

Creating fractions has never been easier than with the new Notebook Math Tools feature, shape division. Now when a teacher puts a square or circle on a page and goes to the drop down menu they will see an option for shape division. When they click on this they select how many equal portions they want the shape divided into. Then vwala, an easy way to teach student’s fractions!

So if you are reading this blog, look up to the top section of this page.  You may see a little button that says “Forum.”  Believe it or not, Teq has had a forum for educators to check out for quite a long time.  This forum is an area for folks to share questions, comments, ideas and advice with other educators.

There are four sections of the Forum.  In the “Learning Objects” sections, teachers can share ideas and comments regarding the Teq learning objects offered in the Teq Online Store.  The “Bragging Rights” section is a great place to share success stories with others.  We love to hear about all the great things teachers are doing with their SMART Boards!

If you find that you have some general questions or comments about SMART Board or Notebook Software use, check out the “Classroom Use” section.  In the “Tech Support” section, you will find questions, comments and ideas regarding hardware.

Check out the forum! It’s really a great resource to find and share ideas!

OE-CAKE acts as a physics-based paint program. Users can insert objects and see them interact under the laws of physics. It has an advanced fluid simulator with support for things such as gases, rigid objects, and even elastic materials. With the escape-codes, users can also mix the properties of elements together. You can even add your own pictures to the simulation!!!

Download OE-CAKE for the Mac here and download it for the PC here.

Designing engaging, dynamic, and interactive lessons is the key to using SMART Notebook to its full potential. One way to spice-up your page is using image fill as a fill effect.

The trick to remember about image fill, whether you are using this to fill a background or to fill a shape, is that you have to save a picture as a file on your computer. Images from the gallery cannot be used in this way. Here is what I recommend:

1. First, visit a website that you like to use to find images. For example, images.google.com or bing.com/images will allow you to search for any image you’d like. Whichever site you end up using is fine. Remember, after you type in your search term, click on the thumbnail view of the image so you can access the full size image.
2. After the page has loaded with the full size image, you will want to right click and then select “Save Picture As…” or “Save Target As…” Choose where on your computer you want to save this picture, name the file, and then press “Save.”
3. Now, when you are creating a page for your lesson and you want to add an image to fill the background, all you have to do is open up the Properties tab in Notebook, select “Fill effects” from the menu, select “Image fill” and click “Browse” (just below the blue square).
4. After you select browse, you have to find the picture on your computer. Once it is located, select it, click “Open,” and the image should be placed on the background or within the shape you have chosen to fill.

A tip to remember is that if you have a small image and are using it for the background, the image will begin to tile. To avoid the tile effect, search for images that are 800×600. For example, if I wanted to search Google images for a picture of the ocean that is 800×600 my search term will look like this “ocean picture 800×600.”

Using a small image to fill the background is possible. All you have to do is place the picture as an object on your notebook page. Position it into the top left hand corner of your screen. Using the resizing circle you are going to pull the picture all the way over to the right and then down so that the image will fill the page. Don’t forget to lock the picture in place so that it cannot be moved.

The video below shows how to create an activity where students can “tear” the corners off a triangle and rearrange them along a protractor to demonstrate the Triangle Sum Theorem.

For those early adopters out there who have updated to Windows 7, the good news is that Notebook 10.6 has full support for the new operating system. The bad news is that in order to get the SMART Board working perfectly, you need to make one small change to how Windows 7 deals with touch devices.

If you have a computer running Windows 7 and have been experiencing a problem clicking and dragging objects on the SMART Board, the following instructions will provide an answer:

1. Click Start > Control Panel > Pen and Touch

2. Click the “Panning” tab.

3. Uncheck “Turn on Single Finger Panning.”

Hope this helps! You can now enjoy your SMART Board with all the Windows 7 goodness!