A Great Invention in Classrooms: The Smartboard

When I was an elementary school student, the Smartboard didn't exist. My teachers wrote notes on the blackboard and barely incorporated technology into lessons. The overhead projector was the most exciting way to make concepts more visual. As I've observed various classrooms over the past year and a half, I've seen the Smartboard used in so many ways that really aid student learning. It is such a great webtool because it is so visual and interactive. There are numerous lesson activities in multiple content areas available with this technology that could really engage students. My favorite activities are those that require students to come up to the Smartboard and label words to pictures. It is fun for students and is a great way to assess their understanding of the content. For example, here is a labeling activity that is appropriate for younger grades and goes along with a community helpers lesson. Students will look at a map of a community that includes several types of community helpers. They must label the buildings found on the map by dragging the words from the word box. Here is what it looks like:

I think this activity would be very interactive for students. They would enjoy coming up to the Smarboard and labeling the correct words to the pictures. I am now more confident using the Smartboard after gaining practice experiences in my graduate technology course. It really is an effective tool and I can see myself using the Smartboard in my future classroom. It could be incorporated with any content area and has the ability to keep students engaged. For reading lessons, students could practice their sequencing skills by matching pictures with the appropriate sentences and then placing them in order of when they occurred in a book. Students could label shapes or work on basic math facts by coming up to the Smartboard and answering mathematical questions. In science, they could label and order life cycle processes of various animals or label the parts of the body. Even in social studies, they could label continents on a world map or the states on a map of the United States. There are so many interactive and visual activities teachers could do with students to integrate this technological webtool into the classroom. I think students will be more motivated to learn when having the opportunity to become active participants in their learning. You should consider using the Smartboard in your classroom! Children love technology and if we don't use it, they will run circles around us!