SMART's Greg Estell, President, Education kicked off the Summit at SMART Headquarters. We began by recognizing the 78 educators and the countries they represent.
Greg shared that today,
“A brand is no longer what a company tells the consumer it is. It’s what consumers tell each other it is.” and that is one reason SMART is so interested in what we as educators have to say.
In the education division at SMART there are three themes that help guide their work--Education Comes First, Freedom to Learn, Device Independence. Any device going into the classroom needs to enable students the freedom to learn.
In the Executive Briefing Center I visited the SMART Collaborative Classroom and had the opportunity to try out a variety of SMART products. I fell in love with the new SMART Table. It blows the previous version out of the water. I also had the opportunity to try out the interactive projector. I was amazed how well it worked. In the Collaborative Classroom it was being projected on to a piece of counter-top that was mounted on the wall.
From the Collaborative Classroom I traveled to the large board room, where I attended a demonstration of SMART AMP. This cloud-based software truly will allow device independence while allowing groups of students to collaborate. The software works on the Google Apps for Education platform and is extremely easy to set up and to begin sharing with students. I like the fact that I can share with each individual student or that I can share with groups of students. The fact that it automatically saves in my Google Drive (and doesn't take up any of my Google Drive space), is an added advantage. Anxious to try SMART AMP in my classroom this coming year and looking forward to seeing SMART AMP grow.
After lunch Heather Lamb, dug into some of the features in SMART Notebook 14. She began by sharing the impact of SMART Notebook in the classroom. When a child can touch it, feel it, own it...they can learn it. That is the heart of SMART Notebook interactive software. She also shared this video to remind us about not interfering with a student's creativity. Does there always need to be a right answer? As Heather showed us the SMART Response VE Concept Mapping and Word Cloud Widgets from the SMART Exchange, I immediately began to think about how I could use these in my first grade computer class, as well as my high school business classes.
SMART Exemplary Educator Sherri Desseau from Tacoma, Washington, shared how she worked with her school district's special education population to effectively use SMART Tables. The stories she shared were very inspiring. I know a special student back home that I would like to see using one of our SMART Tables.
Our long day concluded with SMART Program Manager Eric Harper who facilitated a discussion about SMART Notebook 2014 and what the future holds. Sorry folks, but that is confidential information and I can't share it with you, but I know you will be as happy as I am about the future of SMART Notebook.
The first day at SMART Headquarters was action packed and full of lots of great information. I'm already planning on how to implement some of the features I learned about today. Looking forward to another great day of learning and sharing tomorrow.
From the Collaborative Classroom I traveled to the large board room, where I attended a demonstration of SMART AMP. This cloud-based software truly will allow device independence while allowing groups of students to collaborate. The software works on the Google Apps for Education platform and is extremely easy to set up and to begin sharing with students. I like the fact that I can share with each individual student or that I can share with groups of students. The fact that it automatically saves in my Google Drive (and doesn't take up any of my Google Drive space), is an added advantage. Anxious to try SMART AMP in my classroom this coming year and looking forward to seeing SMART AMP grow.
After lunch Heather Lamb, dug into some of the features in SMART Notebook 14. She began by sharing the impact of SMART Notebook in the classroom. When a child can touch it, feel it, own it...they can learn it. That is the heart of SMART Notebook interactive software. She also shared this video to remind us about not interfering with a student's creativity. Does there always need to be a right answer? As Heather showed us the SMART Response VE Concept Mapping and Word Cloud Widgets from the SMART Exchange, I immediately began to think about how I could use these in my first grade computer class, as well as my high school business classes.
SMART Exemplary Educator Sherri Desseau from Tacoma, Washington, shared how she worked with her school district's special education population to effectively use SMART Tables. The stories she shared were very inspiring. I know a special student back home that I would like to see using one of our SMART Tables.
Our long day concluded with SMART Program Manager Eric Harper who facilitated a discussion about SMART Notebook 2014 and what the future holds. Sorry folks, but that is confidential information and I can't share it with you, but I know you will be as happy as I am about the future of SMART Notebook.
The first day at SMART Headquarters was action packed and full of lots of great information. I'm already planning on how to implement some of the features I learned about today. Looking forward to another great day of learning and sharing tomorrow.
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