What is an Interactive White-board?

Interactive Whiteboards (IWB), aka SMARTboards, Activ boards, etc. are similar to a large touch screen. When you project your laptop’s screen on to the whiteboard you can touch the interactive whiteboard and interact with the screen. This means kids can, using special pens, write on the screen with no mess. It can recognize this writing and turn it into text. Kids can take their finger and visually pull item across the screen for a quick matching game. The interactive whiteboard comes with tons of these activities built into the software. If

you know how to use a pen and mouse then you know how to use an interactive whiteboard. With the fun the whiteboard brings to your classroom you will always have kids that want to come to work at the board.

What can an Interactive Whiteboard do for me?

While the whiteboards are fun and provide a great interactive opportunity, the real gems of these devices are their soft-ware. The software comes with images, tools, and inter-active games that can simu-

late dissections and other processes.

Where can I get one?

Several schools are getting retrofitted for interactive whiteboards, but the best way is to write a grant. Describe why you think you will use a interactive whiteboard to it’s fullest potential. You can also check out one from you local Education Technology Center which is connected to your closest college.

Keep up with the New Technology! Introducing Interactive White Boards

Technology Tribune

Projectors in our classrooms...now that they are here, how do we use them?

Starting in December projec-tors will be in every class-room. They are an exciting first step towards an interac-tive classroom. They will be removing all of the televisions and the projectors will take their place. So to begin with the projectors will be provid-ing the same capabilities as your T.V. This means morn-

ing announcements and bus call along with any use of your VCR will be done through the projector and screen. Your laptop will also be able to run through the projector. This allows you to present interactive multimedia activities to enrich the stu-dents’ learning. Some future tech possibilities for projec-

tors include:

ELMOs—these lightweight devices replace your overhead projectors.

Student Response Devices—these devices commonly know as clickers allow for more whole class interaction

Interactive Whiteboards—see the Emerging Tech article.

W R I T T E N B Y : B I L L F R A M E July 31, 2008 A Technology in the Modern Media Center Report

Volume 1, Issue 1

Special points of interest:

• Your TV will be taken down and your projector and screen will take the place of the TV so morn-ing announcements and bus call will be on the big screen!

• You can easily use your laptop to show interac-tive websites to your class through your pro-jectors

• Remote control will turn your projector on and off

Emerging Technology: Interactive White Boards

1

Current Technology: Projectors

1

Open-source technology: Google

2

Advertising: Professional Development

2

Techie Tip: Google calendars

2

In this issue:

Technology Tuesdays through the year so feel free to submit ideas on how we can help your classroom instruction with technology!

GoogleDocs With GoogleDocs you can make word documents, spreadsheets and presenta-tions. This free application allows you to share docu-ments with coworkers and students without ever printing a page. You can access these documents from any com-puter that has access to the internet. These shared docu-ments can be worked on by all the sharers.

Google Earth

Google Earth allows you to show any place on earth and examine the features. Great for the new Social Studies curriculum. Also con-nected is GoogleLitTrips. This application uses Google Earth to show the journey that characters make through the novel.

Free Web Pages

Limited customization, but easy use, makes these Google sponsored web pages perfect for classroom uses, including students’ individual web pages.

August 19: using Google online calendars to share meet-ing schedules for conferences or grade level meetings

August 26: using your projec-tors to benefit and enhance your classroom instruction by integrating interactive websites

The media and technology de-partment will continue these

Feel free to join us for Technol-ogy Tuesdays in the Media Center every Tuesday from 3:15 to 4:00. We will start our school year with the following topics for your professional development:

August 12: using the shared drive to sign up for media times and entering and accessing benchmark data scores

Technology Professional Development is available to you!

schedule your day, share up-coming events with parents, students, fellow teachers, and administration. You can inte-grate calendars from others into your personal calendar. Add the school’s calendar, the department’s calendar, and maybe your graduate school’s calendar into yours, with each

event having different colors associated with them. Since this calendar is online it can be accessed everywhere. At-tach this to your iGoogle homepage and have it at your fingertips at all times. Never be out of touch with your schedule again, with Google Calendars.

One of my favorite applica-tions available from Google is Google Calendars. This ap-plication allows you to add events to an online calendar. You can share these calendars with others. For the media center, I can put up the times and teachers can sign up for slots. For teachers, you can

Tips from the editor: Using Google calendars

Free technology on Google!

Technology Tribune Volume 1, Issue 1

“ The Google calendar has

greatly helped me organize my

personal schedule with my

teaching and meeting schedule.

I love that I can access it

anywhere!”

-Jennifer Frame, Kindergarten

teacher

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