Your iQ module on your SMART board just got updated! It brings with it some cool new features — but because there have been changes, a little bit of confusion, too. Luckily, we’ve got a quick resource to sort out the changes for you, so you can use the latest and greatest features to your advantage in the classroom.

Your iQ apps have been reorganized

To start, at the bottom of your board when you are on the iQ (hint: you are on it when your input is switched to OPS), you will see a new layout. On the left side, you’ll see all your recently accessed items: whiteboards, browser tabs, and even screenshots of items you wrote over. On the right side, you’ll see all of your favorite apps: perhaps the kapp iQ Whiteboard, browser, and Notebook Player. At the bottom of your iQ, you will see three icons:

1. Files
2. Apps
3. Devices

For now, we will focus on Files, which is where your whiteboards will live. However, in Apps, you will see the old “kapp Whiteboard,” which will be important later.

Where did my kapp Whiteboard go?

There are now two types of whiteboards on the iQ. Previously, on the old iQ software, you only had one whiteboard (the kapp Whiteboard) which would allow you to pick up the pens and write immediately. If you needed more space, you could scroll along the banner by using your finger to move it forward and get more blank space on which to write. In the bottom right corner, you would see the QR code to connect the whiteboard to your SMART kapp app on your phone or tablet to write from there as well.

Basically, it looked like this:

Good news: It still exists, it’s just in your Apps menu now. So, if you ever need to find it, look for it there.

What is this new Player Whiteboard?

The second whiteboard – and the one that appears in the Player App in your Favorites – is the Player Whiteboard (titled “New Whiteboard”). As expected, it has a bunch of cool new features.

1. The ability to pick a few different types of boards:

• Graph paper
• Lined paper
• Dotted paper
• Gray paper

*Heads up: Once you pick a type, you cannot go back and change it.

2. You can zoom in or out to get more writing space:
There is a 9×9 grid that pops up when you try to move to a new section to get more writing space, but it does not scroll like on the kapp Whiteboard. Don’t be shocked if it bounces when you try to scroll to space it does not have – instead, zoom in or out.

3. You can make a file of whiteboards:
On the bottom left, you now have the option to add more pages to your file. This means you can make your whiteboard more of a SMART Notebook page than a simple whiteboard. When you have finished with one whiteboard, click on the plus sign on the left to make a new whiteboard page. Also, with that plus sign you can add an activity like “Shout it Out!” to your file, which is great for student exit tickets.

Even though the SMART Board whiteboard features have changed slightly, you can always get back to the kapp Whiteboard – or better yet, try the new whiteboard! With all these new features you have so many opportunities to expand what you can do, and how you can utilize this technology in the classroom.