Reflection on Smart Board

SMART Board interactive whiteboard is used to help improve learning outcomes. Combining the simplicity of a whiteboard with the power of a computer, the SMART Board interactive whiteboard lets us to deliver dynamic lessons, write notes in digital ink, and save our work – all with the simple touch of a finger. I really like to use this smart board because it is an interactive whiteboard that uses touch detection for user input. Since this is the first time I use it, I am very excited to try every buttons on the Smart Board. It’s function in the same way normal PC use when scrolling or using virtual right mouse-click. A projector is used to display a computer’s video output on the interactive whiteboard, which then acts as a large touch screen. I do not sure the smart board used in UPSI one touch, dual touch or multitouch at a time.

            During calibration, just click on two button at the below of the board simultaneously and touch the screen by following the mouse pointer. This make me felt like I am playing video games on the large touch screen. The Smart Board use in the lab comes with four pens, which use digital ink and replace traditional whiteboard markers. The Smart Board interactive whiteboard operates as part of a system that includes the interactive whiteboard, a computer, a projector and white boarding software called Smart Notebook collaborative learning software. The components are connected wirelessly or via USB or serial cables. A projector connected to the computer displays the computer's desktop image on the interactive whiteboard. The interactive whiteboard accepts touch input from a finger, pen or other solid object. Each contact with the Smart Board interactive whiteboard is interpreted as a left-click from the mouse.

            Once a pen tool is removed from its slot, we can write in the selected color with that pen tool, a finger or any other object. Similarly, when the eraser is removed from its position in the pen tray, the software processes the next contact with the screen as an erasing action, whether the contact is from the eraser, our finger or another object. As such, the potential exists that using a particular pen, such as the blue pen, may not result in blue digital ink if all objects – colored pens and eraser tool – have not been replaced in their corresponding locations on the pen tray. The Smart Board also registers the last pen tray tool picked up as the active tool. This means that when a user picks up the black pen and then picks up the red pen before putting the black pen down, the interactive whiteboard will register red ink, rather than black. In order to write in black digital ink, a pen needs to be put back in the red slot.

            Below the pen tray are two buttons that, when pressed, allow the us to do right click functions such as copy, cut, paste, select all, etc., or bring-up a traditional on-screen QWERTY keyboard, which allows us to type in letters, words or numbers. These keys also, when pressed, allow calibrating the touch screen. Other models, such as the Smart Board interactive display, include a black pencil tool which incorporates a digital ink eraser. Unlike the Smart Board, the interactive display models use active pen technology.