Classrooms without Boundaries - SMART Technologies

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHTiPad on Your Mind?Stephan Doyle, a manager of education product marketing, shares why it’s importantto create a balance of different interactive products in the classroom to facilitate active,engaging learning experiences.Why has SMART created solutionsspecifically for mobile devices, such as anapplication for iPad?People traditionally associate us with wholeclasslearning – SMART Board interactivewhiteboards at the front of the room – butthere can also be small-group collaborationusing SMART Table or four-touch interactivityon the SMART Board interactive whiteboard.SMART believes that technology enablesall parts of the blended learning model.So, specifically for individual learning, wethink mobile devices are amazing tools forenhancing that type of learning. We’ve beensupporting the use of mobile devices for along time, and with our apps and our othermobile device solutions, we are helpingto bring all aspects of interactive, blendedlearning together.What are the additional benefits orfunctionality of iPad in the SMARTenabledclassroom?I think one benefit that iPad adds is that itcan connect students to the classroom nomatter where they are. With the iPad appfor Bridgit, information that’s on a computeris broadcast up at the front of a room ona SMART Board interactive whiteboard,where the teacher can interact with it at theinteractive whiteboard and the students caninteract with it on their iPad.What are teachers who are usingSMART products and iPad saying aboutthe impact on teaching and learning?With blended learning, I think the teacher’srole becomes more important. It’s importantfor the teachers to guide students, to helpthem understand how to take advantageof that tool, to recognize students can’tjust learn on their own – they must learnfrom others, their peers, in addition to theirteacher.Blended learning also better connectsstudents outside of the classroom to what’sgoing on inside the classroom. If studentsare connected outside, it usually means thatparents can be better connected, too.How will the release of the SMARTNotebook app for iPad enhanceclassrooms?The app is going to enable students toparticipate more in the creative dimensionof learning. Students will go on digitalfield trips with these devices in their hands– they’ll take photographs, they’ll drawpictures, they’ll insert their thoughts. Andteachers and students are going to beable to connect that individual learning towhat happens in class. It’ll enhance thetwo-directional dynamic that I think manyteachers are looking for.26 | June 2012