SMART 11

In case you haven't heard the news, SMART Technologies has released the new version of their Notebook Software, SMART 11. Our district plans to push this out to our teachers this summer so it will be ready for use as soon as they return from summer vacation. In preparation for this and to recertify for SMART, I have been playing around with the new version. I wanted to share what I have learned with you.

First, you will notice a redesigned toolbar. In Notebook 10, things could get a bit cluttered as you added things to customize the toolbar for your students' use in just a single row.

The redesigned toolbar has two rows so you can add more tools without becoming cluttered. It is also organized into groups, if you will. On the left hand side of the tool bar, all of the actions reside such as the navigation arrows, adding new page, saving, etc. In the middle, you have your plug ins and tools section. The plug ins will show SMART Response or SMART Math tools if you have those installed on your machine. The tools section, located to the right, has the pens (which have now all been grouped together), eraser, shape tool, line tool, etc. The cool thing about this new toolbar is that when you click on a tool, the properties for that tool open on the right eliminating the need to go to the Properties tab as often.

The second thing you will notice is a new tab located below the Properties tab called the Add-ons tab (the icon looks like a puzzle piece). Currently, the only thing in the Add-ons tab is the Activity Builder. If you are familiar with Promethean's ActivInspire software and its ability to make containers, then you already know what Activity Builder will do. This feature allows you to create interactive drag and drop activities that respond to student choices for immediate feedback. If the answer is correct, the container will accept the answer, if not, the answer is rejected and returned to its original location on the page. SMART has made the ability to create these containers very easy, in my opinion, must easier than Promethean.

I can't tell you how many times students and teachers have asked how to reset a page once they completed the activity without closing the file and not saving changes. SMART heard and answered with Reset Page. By clicking the drop-down arrow on the page itself in the Page sorter tab, and selecting Reset page, the page is returned to its last saved state without saving and reopening the lesson. How cool is that?  

If you want to get really creative, you now can customize your own creative pen by using objects on the page or picture files saved on your computer. Instead of the daisy pen, perhaps students would want to write with their school mascot or even their smiling face!


Another cool feature is the ability to record sounds right onto the object with SMART. No longer do we have to create a MP3 sound file and then insert that file into our lesson. This will make is so easy for primary grade teachers to record instructions for their students at the point of need.

This is super easy to do as well by simply clicking the object, clicking the drop-down arrow, and selecting Sound. You will then see the record button along with the options to add as a corner icon or to the entire object.



You still have the ability to link to websites that you use to enhance your instruction, but with SMART 11, you have the option to actually embed the web page right into SMART. This allows you to still interact with the website plus use the pens to annotate on the page and drag and drop images onto that page. The one thing I wasn't too wild about is you are totally dependent on the web page resolution. So it may be better to use the Transparency Mode to interact with the web.

You will notice you have a new pen tool that allows crayon style drawings as well as a regular polygon tool that allows you to draw polygons with 3 sides to 15 sides that has been added to the toolbar. SMART also allows you to fill irregular shaped objects you have drawn with pens as long as they are completely enclosed. You will have to group your fill color and the object together though.

All in all, I like the changes SMART has made and honestly think this will not be a huge learning curve to learn to use. Check it out when you can and tell me what you think and wish me luck on certification!