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

The “Tiles” activity can be found in the Lesson Activity Toolkit, within the Notebook Gallery.  When clicked, the tiles in this activity will become transparent.  What if the background of Notebook was also transparent?  This video explores how  the new “Transparent Background” tool can be used with “Tiles,” and applications like Google Earth, to create fun activities for your students.

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.

Hola everyone and welcome back!

I wanted to pick-up where we left off last Monday. The following videos will further demonstrate how we can blur the lines between content and the tools we use to access that content. In this first example I created a supportive research environment using the Transparent Background option in Notebook 10.6, a web browser, and Diigo.

In this next example I revisit the use of the Transparent Background and an old NY state exam found on Regents prep. It’s funny really, because I went back and examined my original video and saw that I was still allowing older tools to define my use (change is a slow process). So, here is another attempt that should make things much easier.

Thanks for watching everyone!

If the world were at your fingertips what would you do? The latest version of the Notebook, 10.6, literally becomes invisible and steps aside, empowering teachers and students to engage with the world more easily and intuitively.

I know, I know, you are scratching your head and asking yourself, “What is he talking about?” Stay with me for a few minutes, and I’ll show you what I mean.

The new transparency layer in the Notebook software makes it easier than ever for teachers and STUDENTS to access the rich set of web-based tools and educational software that have become so pervasive in today’s classroom.

What if we had the flexibility to access content without the constraints of the tool interface? That seamless integration has become much more of a reality with Notebook 10.6. Come with me as we take a little tour of what is possible with the new transparency layer in the Notebook software. You will quickly see that we no longer have to work around the tools we love so much but instead we can now simply work through them.

In this first example we will use the Notebook to launch Google Earth (nothing new) and then use a few of the new measurement tools that come with 10.6.

So, you see that now it is possible to access the information we demand without the interference of the tools we are using. Here is another example.

Is this making sense yet? So, here is one more example for today. After looking at this one, start submitting your own . . . because this really does change everything.

BrainPOP has created a biographical movie of Martin Luther King, Jr. in honor of Martin Luther King Day. View it here. The video is complimented with a quiz and activity.

Animated Gifs work within the pages of SMART Notebook!  The video below shows how you can add color and motion to your Notebook pages using a variety gifs illustrating concepts in Math, Science, and just about every other subject you can imagine.  You can even add the Star Wars Trilogy in gif form!  Mac users may also enjoy creating their own custom animated gifs from still images, using the application Giffun.  The video explains how.

To download Giffun for free visit:

http://www.stone.com/NewDownload.html. (Third row from the top, right column)

Does anyone know of other ways to create animated gifs?  Ways to create animated gifs on a PC?  Please let us know what you’re using!

This video demonstrates how the tools found in SMART Notebook Math can be used to teach students to write the equation of a line given the coordinates of two points on the line. The new software allows students and teachers to create problems on-the-fly, make connections between their algebraic and geometrical representations, and to check their answers. Topics covered in the video include:

• How to insert a graph into SMART Notebook Math.
• How to plot points and show their coordinates.
• How to generate a table of values from plotted points on a graph.
• How to “recognize math ink” and connect a function to a graph.