The Smart Board is an interactive classroom technology that has been around for approximately ten years. It is becoming increasingly popular in classroom today, but many people do not understand exactly what makes it different and more efficient than the standard white board or chalk board. By knowing its many creative features, the teacher can then decide for his or herself if it is the right technology to have in his or her classroom.

The Smart Board contains several intriguing features that can be efficiently and effectively used in the classroom. For pre-learning exercises, teachers can allow students to brainstorm ideas. These ideas can then be recorded on to the Smart Board, where they can then be dragged and dropped to other areas on the screen for grouping. To review concepts that students have learned, the teacher can use click and drag activities that are sometimes called electronic worksheets. Interactive worksheets can also be created and recorded on to the Smart Board. It can also be used as a touch screen, so fun games such as Jeopardy can be played. Students simply touch the screen to choose the topic and dollar amount. The Smart Notebook software used for Smart Board includes templates of graphic organizers such as Venn Diagrams that are great for comparing and contrasting topics (Price 2006). In addition, the Smart Board includes interactive features such as the electronic word wall and digital storytelling, where students can use the highlighter tool to highlight nouns, verbs adjectives, etc. Teachers can create lesson plans with the Smart Board, as well as e-folios to store samples of students’ work, and project calendars to keep track of lessons and assignments. The Smart Board even contains built in maps to teach continents, oceans, countries, or states and capitals (Interactive Whiteboards in the Classroom 2009).

Many students have had a very positive reaction to the use of the Smart Board in his or her classroom. Research shows that the use of the Smart Board has increased students’ motivation and participation, and has improved their social skills, reduced their need for note-taking and ultimately increased their self-confidence. Other than the effect on the social aspects of students, the use of the Smart Board has also positively affected the way students learn. Select students who have had experience with the use of the new technology have commented on their increasing ability to learn by using the Smart Board, noting that it is much more interesting and intriguing than that of a lecturing teacher (Melago 2007).

Although there are many advantages to the use of smartboards in the classroom, there also many disadvantages that are not as well publicized. For instance, there are very high costs involved in making all the smartboads well suited for the classroom. Not only must the smartboard be purchased, but separate software must be also be bought for all the capabilities to work correctly (Ouwehand, 2010). Also, the smartboard is not ideal for large class sizes. The smartboard display is not very big and is often difficult for all the students in a large class to see (Ouwehand, 2010). Before considering a smartboard, the teacher must remember that a great deal of research should be done before hand to see if a smartboard is right for their class.

Although there are many advantages to the use of smartboards in the classroom, there also many disadvantages that are not as well publicized. For instance, there are very high costs involved in making all the smartboads well suited for the classroom. Not only must the smartboard be purchased, but separate software must be also be bought for all the capabilities to work correctly (Ouwehand, 2010). Also, the smartboard is not ideal for large class sizes. The smartboard display is not very big and is often difficult for all the students in a large class to see (Ouwehand, 2010). Before considering a smartboard, the teacher must remember that a great deal of research should be done before hand to see if a smartboard is right for their class.