Everything Old Is (well no quite as good as) New Again

We have just taken delivery of three brand spanking new SMART Boards and wow isn't it making me feel a bit jealous. The boards themselves are a bit larger and their are some nice changes to the pen tray, especially where the eraser fits in. (One of my children snapped a pin off of our room's board the other day so the changes here are very practical). The pens are also slightly easier in the hand. The big changes are in the peripherals that are bundled with it. The lucky rooms now have wireless slates as well as keyboards and mice and the children are already getting into it with them. The modular speakers that come with the board are also great looking. Pity that the instructions that come with the speakers are diagramatic without text and that I am not as practical in reading them as might be hoped. Maybe tomorrow I will get the time to figure it out :). Another big plus are the projectors that are super crisp and clear.

Speaking of the projectors it seems that, especially in schools where dust is a pretty endemic, that there is a need to regularly service the projectors to maintian the display something mine is desperately in need of.

Venn Did "i" Miss The Point

Isn't interesting how some holidays make you forget what you used to be able to deal without more than a passing thought. Today we were using the board for a small reading group activity. I had found two versions of the Hare and The Tortoise and had gotten the Venn Diagram template from Smart Ideas. The object was for the children in the group to find the differences and similarities between the two stories. Things were going well until we had the need to write in the letter "i". Naturally the children wanted to "dot their i's", however each time they did so the words were straight away turned into text and the component of the template that they had clicked on became active. This was altogether very frustrating for all and even more so for me as in the hurly burly of the class I couldn't think clearly enough about how to remedy the situation.

Later in the cool of the evening when the class had long gone home I remembered what I should have done. When I had opened the Venn Diagram Template, I should have modified it to suit the task, (eg added clipart and special text) and then sent all of the diagram to the background. You do this quite easily by first dragging over the items that you want to send to the back and then go to "Tools" and select "Make Background". This will make certain that the diagram and text and pictures that make up the template will not move or be changed. (N.B. you can get your background back to modify it again if you wish by once again going to "Tools" and then selecting "Retrieve Background".

'i" see the light :)

A "Time"ly Warning

The Times Online report that

"Tests carried out by the UK National Radiological Protection Board have shown that the peripheral vision of users may be harmed even when they are not looking directly into the beam of the projector. Damage to the retina, causing tunnel vision, can result."

The whole article can be viewed at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1451266,00.html