SMART Boards

Connecting a SMART Board on the Windows side of an Intel Macintosh

The following post is for SMART Board users who cannot get their Macintosh running Parallels software to recognize the SMART Board in Windows OS. In my situation, I was able to get the SMART Board recognized while running Mac OS. However, when I switched to Windows XP using Parallels software on my MacBook Pro, Windows would not see that I had a SMART Board connected. I would go to the SMART Control Panel and the SMART Board Settings link would not see that I had connected it using the USB cable. If you have suffered through the same situation, try the following steps which I found successful on my Mac.

Launch Windows OS.

Next you need to remove Parallels Tools if present. To do this, go to the Control Panels in Windows and select Add/Remove programs. Select Parallel Tools and click on Remove.

After it finishes the removal, go to the Start menu in Windows and Turn Off Computer (it will only quit Windows.) Next quit Parallels software.

After you return to Mac OS, start up Windows again. From the Parallels menus, click on the Actions menu and select Install Parallels Tools.

After Parallels completes the installation, Turn Off Computer from within Windows and quit Parallels.

After you return to Mac OS, start up Parallels (not Windows) from the Applications menu.

Go to the Edit Menu and select Virtual Machine. On the left side of the new window, select the USB controller from the list of resources. On the right side of the window, under device status make sure Enabled is checked.  Also under Connection Options, select Connect to Guest OS.

From the Action menu, start up Windows OS. After Windows is running, connect the USB cable from the SMART Board to the Mac. If the device doesn't appear automatically, you should go to Devices menu and select USB and choose it from the list.

872 free Notebook files

  Download SMART Technologies 22 new FREE Notebook files, bringing this curriculum collection total to 872.  New titles released for the National Educational Computing Convention include several different titles in English, earth science, mathematics and social studies.  Because many teachers are constantly seeking new ways to present information in Notebook, these files are always worth studying.  In VowelsUS, you can zoom the page to show both the Notebook file AND the Gallery, to search through the Science/Animals gallery to find, then drag/drop and resize animals beginning in different vowels.
  Several math Notebook files could be easily customized to create expanded review sessions.  Here you can use the Pointer tool to click on a measurement to unlock and modify the value.  The next step that I would take is to only put one volumetric shape on a page, and then link the page to the Senteo response system, so all the students in the class could better interact with this lesson (the lesson didn't do that... I'd try to modify it to meet my needs).  The MeanMedianModeUS Notebook file could also be adapted in the same way.
   NetsUS demonstrated an interesting answer reveal technique, with the use of drag tabs that are placed along the edge of the Notebook page and then dragged outward to reveal an answer.  VolcanosUS showed use of a magnifying glass that demonstrated using text matching background colors and layering to reveal answers.  InsulationUS showed an interesting labeling technique, where a house was shown on the screen, with a pull tab of a labeled house with a transparent center.
  Most of these new Notebook files also incorporate Flash animations, which we haven't yet figured out how to modify to suit our needs.  The English files incorporate hyperlinks, allowing you to access poetry or other learning content from the Internet.

More video and audio capabilities

  Add more video and audio playback capabilities with SMART Notebook 9.5 or higher, by adding codecs to your system.  Why?  Maybe you downloaded or created a video or audio file that you can't play back in Notebook or the SMART Video Player and want to use it for a classroom presentation.  Maybe you have a sound file that you have been unsuccessful in linking to a Notebook object.

  Windows users may like Soundforge's freeware program MediaCoder 0.3.9, which supports audio formats .aif, .aiff, .wav and video foramts .asf, .avi, .mov, .mpeg, .mpg and .wmv.  Macintosh users might like ffmpegX, which supports all of those formats, plus audio .wma and video .mp4.

More on SMART Board SW 9.7

   Here's the new title splash screen for SMART Notebook 9.7.  The Windows version can be downloaded from a high speed (500kBs) cable connection in less than four minutes.  Uninstall SMART Notebook 9.5 (or earlier) and install the new 9.7 software.  You don't need to uninstall Essentials Educators (Gallery), if you installed it as part of SMART Board software 9.5 service pack 5.  The InstallShield install makes you think you are installing over the gallery, but the Gallery does remain intact.  You can update your Gallery to add some Egyptian history images.

   More powerful print formatting is my favorite new 9.7 software feature, including adding header and footer information.  There's also a preview window at the right, so you know exactly what your page looks like.  This print feature is also used in the Senteo software, so my guess is that is was designed for better response system reporting.  Senteo also has printouts for showing all test questions and for a study guide, showing all test questions plus correct answers.

   Vertical type is the nicest enhancement to SMART Notebook that I could see.  A new Vertical Typing Button has been added to the vertical text.  The vertical text flows from the right to the left of the screen (for certain foreign languages).  There is NOW Ink Aware support for Adobe Acrobat and the new 2007 releases of Microsoft Office Suite products (Word, Excel and PowerPoint).  The Floating Toolbar snaps to the edge of your screen and can be rotated horizontally or vertically to maximize your workspace.  Other features include improved third-party sound and video integration and greater team content accessibility for the Gallery in a network configuration.  SMART Board software 9.7 also automatically installs support for a host of foreign languages (accessible from SMART Board Tools / Start Center / Control Panel / SMART Board Software Language Settings).

  For further reading... New Features in SMART Board Software 9.7, SMART Board Software for Windows - Quick Reference of Features and Functions, Version 9.7, What's New in SMART Notebook 9.7.

Version 9.7 available NOW

  Thank goodness the Memorial Holiday weekend is here, so there's some extra free time to play with the NEW Windows and Macintosh version of SMART Board software 9.7.  So, check back in on Tuesday to learn about the new features of 9.7.  If you are going to install it this weekend, my advice is to remove the old software from your computer, restart and reinstall.  "You're going to play with 9.7 over the Memorial Holiday weekend?"  My wife says "get a life!!!"  Trust me, we have other things planned, but I have nothing better to do at 4:30 AM.

Notebook Viewer

SMART Technologies' Notebook Viewer has quietly arrived.  You can download it from SMART's website for Windows, Mac and Linux.  You can legally give Notebook Viewer to anyone (e.g. students) and now everyone can read and manipulate SMART Notebook files, just like Adobe Acrobat Reader works with PDF files.  Notebook Viewer (for XP) takes 16MB hard drive space and installs a shortcut on your desktop.

For fun, I put the Installshield file on a USB thumb drive and installed the application right on the USB drive (instead of installing it on a computer hard drive).  Then I took the thumb drive to a computer WITHOUT SMART Notebook or the Viewer installed on it, double clicked on the NBViewer icon in the Notebook Viewer folder I created.  Viola !!!  Notebook Viewer started right up and I opened an existing SMART Notebook file.

  Notebook Viewer does not have all the features which SMART Notebook has.  There is no Gallery tab.  Attachments and links which someone previously created in SMART Notebook can be used in Notebook Viewer, but you can't add your own if you are using Viewer.  You do have pen tools, and you can create new pages to jot notes down on.  You cannot save your work.  Because it is a VIEWER, this makes sense.

Reveal Answers Tip

  Barb Delaney at Racine's S.C. Johnson school showed me some of the very creative Notebook files she created.  Here's a great technique Barb uses to reveal answers.  First, create your Notebook file with an odd background (right click on the background to select the color).  Create your answers in the text color you eventually want the background to be.  Then create a contrasting color rectangle.

   Highlight the answers and using the Properties pull-down triangle, select Order and bring the answers to the front.  This will allow the "reveal answer rectangle" you created to float behind the answers.  You might wish to also order the questions to the front, too, so the "reveal answer rectangle" never hides the questions.                                                    .

  Then change the background to the same color as the answers.  Right click on the background and "Change Background Color," selecting the correct color from the color palette.

  In the completed Notebook file, students can use the pointer to reveal answers.  Barb says "the students think it's magic... and really grabs their attention."

Add To Your Gallery

  Your own content is saved in the "My Content" folders in the Gallery.  Bring in a picture by going to the pull down menu, choosing Insert/Picture File.  Resize the image if desired, then drag it into "My Content" (or a subfolder you created in "My Content").  If you want to create a page as a Gallery Item (like Grid-Small), create the page, pull down to File/Save Page as Gallery Item.

  In the Gallery View Window, scroll down to find the image you added.  Click on the Properties Drop Down triangle to open the "Gallery Items Properties" entry box.  Type in a title and keywords, so when you do a Gallery search, your clip art is easy to find.  If you want to place the Gallery YOU created on another computer, click on the "My Content" Properties Triangle, and pull down to "Export as Collection File."  That's also where you create subfolders in the "My Content" Gallery folder.

Gallery tricks

  SMART Notebook's Essentials for Educators Gallery now has 5395 items, including 218 Flash animations.   Click on the Gallery tab and in the top navigation window, scroll down to "Essentials for Educators" to access this great collection of clipart for use in SMART Notebook.  If you don't have "Essentials for Educators," you need to install it, and can download the PC or Mac version from SMART's website.  You can click on the plus (+) in front of each folder to open it up, to view all available Gallery objects.  In the lower Viewing box, there are blue bars "Related Folders" "Pictures and Backgrounds" "Interactive and Multimedia" "Lesson Activities" and "Notebook Files and Pages."  Click on the white triangle (as shown here) to collapse any one of these areas.

  To find the highly interactive Flash Gallery items, type "Flash" in the Gallery Search box and press Return/Enter on your keyboard or click on the Magnifying Glass search button to the right onf the Gallery Search box.  If you have repositioned the SMART Notebook toolsbars at the bottom of the page, the search box will be below the Gallery windows.  My favorite Gallery Flash items are Question and Answer and Timer, but they are all worth exploring.

Current Version Number

  If you have to call SMART Technical Support for software assistance, one of the first questions you will be asked is "What version of SMART software are you running?"  Check this by running SMART Notebook, going to the Help menu and pulling down to choose "About SMART Notebook..."

  In the "About SMART Notebook" pop-up window, click on the "Technical Support" tab to see which version you are running.  In this example, we are running 9.5.xx.5, showing that it's version 9.5, service pack 5.  If you are using an earlier version of 9.5, you must uninstall SMART Board Software (exit out of all SMART software, including the SMART Board Tools in the System Tray, then go to the XP Control Panel to "Add or Remove Software").  Then reinstall the new service pack 5 AND the NEW version of the Essential Educators gallery.  It's technically possible to do the upgrade WITHOUT removing the old software, but your SMART Board software install may be unreliable.

Download the current version of SMART Board software for PC (Service Pack 5) or Mac (Service Pack 4)from SMART's website.  For multiple installs, copy the PC InstallShield files to a CD (both the Gallery and Essential Educators will fit on one CD).  For the quickest multiple install, copy these files to a 1.0 GB USB thumb drive.  A computer reads the thumb drive much faster and the install takes less than 5 minutes from a USB thumb drive, vs. more than 10 from a CD.