Smartboards in the Classroom

For my first ever session on using a Smartboard in the classroom, I collaborated with a co-worker from CMC's Office of Innovations in Teaching & Learning, Michelle LeFebvre. Michelle moonlights as a CMC instructor when she is not pursuing her calling as a Professional & Personal Empowerment Energy Coach.

We have found that instructors do not use the fabulous equipment such as the Smartboard, in their teaching because they don't really know how it works, they don't have time to learn, and they are afraid to look silly in front of students. I explained to them that the Smartboard is very much like their Smartphone or their touch screen tablet and you could see the lightbulb go on! So we showed them a few tricks and explained few tips, and then we let them come up to try out the tools themselves. Here is a good video if you want to see a few of the activities you can create with the Smartboard Notebook software - very powerful stuff! The session went pretty well for a first time event. Faculty really enjoyed coming up to try it out and we sent them away with handouts in the hopes that they would try out some of the other tools themselves. Baby steps!