A Very SMART Board
Hannah suggested that I attend the SMART Board demonstration that she had scheduled today in the upcoming Media Commons space for EMS in Hosler. A vendor from SMART drove all the way out from Indianapolis so that we could see the technology and explore the possibilities for how it might fit into the new media editing lab. Two misconceptions of mine that were smashed:
- The SMART Board is just for in class presentations.
- The SMART Board is difficult to configure and cumbersome to work with.
At a previous employer, SMART Boards were relatively plentiful but (I learned today) very underused. Despite having them in a multitude of learning spaces, I really only interacted with them a few times over a three year period and then, only when a faculty member wanted to write on a PowerPoint presentation. They were hardwired into the room and the amount of futzing with our set up certainly didn’t do the idea of the Board being effortless any favors.
However, our vendor did a fantastic job today showing us exactly what SMART technology can do. Ideas are now flowing for globe-trotting with Google Earth, collaboratively editing rough “dailies” in iMovie, recording entire presentations including video, web browsing and more for later review, practicing weather forecasting and meteorological analysis, etc, etc, etc. It was also PAINFULLY easy to set the SMART Board up: since he was running a bit late, three of us acted as roadies and had the entire system up and running rather quickly without any real directions.
With the upcoming addition of dual and multitouch enabled models, I have to say that I’m all aboard the SMART Board!