Here at Teq, we don’t know what we would do without our SMART Notebook Software, and we are VERY excited to announce some of the new updates to the platform released this week. With the subscription­-based versions of the software, SMART has promised multiple releases per year with new, engaging instructional tools. They certainly did not disappoint with the most recent release of Notebook 15.2.

New LAB Features
At the beginning of 2015, we were introduced to SMART Notebook’s Lesson Activity Builder which was chockfull of interactive lesson templates to enhance instruction and save educators time. With the release of 15.2, SMART has added two new layouts to create more interactive content. The LAB activity, Speedup, is a game­-based activity where students can race against one another answering multiple choice questions to assess their knowledge of a given topic. Students can choose their own character and interact in the game board, speeding around the question track. Users will try to beat their opponents by answering questions quickly and correctly on the SMART Board.

The Label Reveal activity in LAB allows the teacher to set up an interactive, informative page which can include the use of game components like a spinning wheel to select random students to interact with lesson content. Teachers can also have students create this interactive lesson content on a topic of their choice. This could assist in assessing students’ knowledge of the instructional material. See our example of a labeled water cycle diagram below.

When it was first released, the LAB was limited with the number of themes available.Some content­-specific educators struggled to find a layout that was applicable to their subject area and grade level. This is no longer a concern as SMART has released some fun, new themes, and even added a blank theme which can easily be applied to content for the upper grades. Visit the LAB icon in your Notebook software to sample the new layouts that are available for interactive lesson pages.

YouTube Integration

The newest version of SMART Notebook allows users to search and embed YouTube videos directly within their lesson. The new YouTube search can be found in the Add-on tab (blue puzzle piece) and provides a quick search and sample feature. This gives the teacher options to add educational material without ever leaving the Notebook software. Once the video has been integrated into lesson content, teachers can extend the material to reflect upon the material students have just viewed. All instructional content can exist in one space, rather than leaving the software to locate and demonstrate valuable instructional videos. Embedding the video into the lesson will also limit the amount of advertisements that distract from important material.

SMART Ink plug­in for Adobe Reader

With previous versions of Notebook software, if you ever opened up a PDF file in Adobe Reader, you were probably met with a level of frustration when interacting with the content. You may have tried to write and scroll, realizing that this was not feasible and you would need to erase all of your work. With Notebook 15.2, this is no longer a concern! The new SMART Ink plug­in allows you to write on a PDF document in Adobe Reader. You will then be able to scroll on the page, and your annotations will stay in place. You can even save a copy of your file with ink annotations for a quick and easy way to pick up where you left off during future lessons. If you are familiar with the way SMART Ink Document Viewer works with PDF documents, you will be happy to learn that these features are now available in Adobe Reader.

There are additional features that you don’t want to miss, and we are even more excited to see what SMART has in store for 2016! Be sure to check the SMART Release notes for additional features and information about technical requirements for both Windows and Mac with the newest version of the software. Here at Teq, we will be hosting a free, live Online PD session which demonstrates the use of the new Notebook 15.2 tools in a variety of instructional contexts. If you are interested in attending our free course which will take place on Thursday, January 7, 2015 at 4PM EST, please e­mail us at OnlinePD@teq.com. We hope you enjoy the new SMART Notebook software, and encourage you to share your experiences and success

stories with us. Enjoy!