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Getting SMART in the Health Education Classroom

Among the most compelling aspects of the Internet is the ability of the user to interact with the content on the screen. Today's students take that interactivity for granted. Increasingly, teachers are discovering new tools that allow them to engage their students' interest and enhance their learning experiences by taking advantage of interactivity and the rich digital teaching resources that reside on the Internet.

One of these new tools is the SMART Board interactive whiteboard. A large touch-sensitive display connected to a computer and projector, the SMART Board is like a giant computer screen. Using either their finger or a special pen as a mouse, teachers and students can access and control any computer application or multimedia platform, including the Internet, CD-ROMs and DVDs, for the entire class to experience.

Developed by SMART Technologies, a Canadian company, the SMART Board operates on Notebook software that also converts users' handwritten notes on the screen to print and allows the user to save material they have worked on for future use. Thus, it can be a valuable tool for the development of interactive lesson plans. SMART Ideas concept-mapping software, for example, allows students to create concept maps by hand on the whiteboard; they can then be converted to printed text.

Other SMART technology products include SynchronEyes™ classroom management software that allows the teacher in a computer lab to view the screen of each child to monitor his or her performance, and its Senteo interactive response system in which each student participates via a handheld Clicker device that allows the teacher to poll every student during a lesson and immediately assess his or her comprehension.

SMART technology is becoming increasingly widespread. The Wichita (KS) Public Schools, for example, has created a SMART Board Master Teacher initiative to create a cadre of master teachers who can teach their colleagues about how to use the SMART Board and Senteo Clickers in the classroom.

SMART Technologies has promoted the development of interactive teaching and learning materials by accrediting over 50 companies to develop multimedia content for use with SMART Boards. Many of these are available online at no cost. Teachers can participate in a learning community about the whiteboard technology at the SMART Exchange section of its web site.