Make your classroom conducive to learning
SMART Notebook is a handy teaching and training software that enables you to easily prepare and organize lesson plans for your students. Developed by SMART Technologies, this educational program features easy-to-use tools to help you design interactive lessons.
Doubling as a productivity software, SMART Notebook is a full-on suite for educators who want to go beyond what the classroom can offer. It mainly has two versions: a basic version that’s free and a premium version with a SMART Learning Suite subscription. Take note that this program requires a SMART Board interactive display to work and that it’s still a demo version.
What is the SMART Notebook software?
At its core, SMART Notebook is a powerful desktop lesson creation and delivery tool that lets you access a wide range of subject-specific interactive lesson content. With it, you can create and prepare interactive lessons via your PC and then upload them to your class’ SMART Board interactive displays so that your student’s learning progress isn’t hampered by just plain discussions and lectures.
The interactive content you can create includes—but is not limited to—presentations with text, images, and multimedia files; embedded videos, HTML 5 widgets, and web pages; imported PDF and Microsoft PowerPoint files; a gallery of images; and activity templates for either invigorating individual or team gameplay. The level of customization is nearly the same as graphic design software, wherein you can draw digitally, add shapes and tables, and type text—even while the lesson is going on.
Interactivity is the main draw when it comes to this program. Thus, while the software works with any display technology—like digital projectors and LED screens—you’ll still need SMART Board devices in order to actually be able to deliver your lesson plans properly. You can still open your files on a computer normally but they will just become presentation files at that point without any interactive display panel connected to your PC. Fortunately, this software usually comes with every SMART Board.
Lesson delivery and presentation
When it comes to opening a lesson, SMART Notebook lets you connect your PC directly to the Board and begin a new session right away. Alternatively, you can plug in a USB flash drive or connect your Google Drive or One Drive cloud storage to access your file. If you have a subscription, you can take advantage of the File Sync feature to synchronize to your display for a more seamless operation.
In addition to the lesson creation tools you have at the beginning, there are also multiple on-screen teaching aids for measurements and annotations, as well as a Magnifier and Spotlight tool you can enable to make instructions clearer. You can even do a screen capture and recording for the entire session, so you can share it with your students later for reference and further review.
Some alternatives worth considering
Now, there are other teaching and collaboration tools you can consider like OpenBoard or Microsoft Whiteboard. However, compared to them, SMART Notebook takes on a more grounded approach, with face-to-face lessons and interactions that are ideal for student-teacher dynamics, wherein methods can be adapted on the spot as needed.
If you work in a professional setting that needs a method of communication and collaboration that can be done from anywhere, then the aforementioned alternatives will be more suited to your needs since they facilitate virtual interactions better. Otherwise, there is value and merit to how SMART Notebook presents itself.
Is SMART Notebook free?
There are main two versions available for SMART Notebook: SMART Notebook® basic version and SMART Learning Suite. The first one is completely free and offers almost all the tools you’ll need. It also lets you acquire free classroom resources and interactive lessons via the SMART Exchange® website. These can be free games, activities, and the like. However, these usually can’t be edited—and you can’t create new activities either.
The SMART Learning Suite paid subscription, on the other hand, gives you additional features and functionality alongside the basic tools. You have free reign over your content plan and can customize it to your liking. You can easily create your own activities to personalize them according to what your students need. It also makes the software compatible with Lumio, another product of SMART Technologies. This digital tool can connect all the devices in the classroom to the SMART Notebook lesson you’re delivering.
Comes with a powerful set of tools
All in all, SMART Notebook is a powerful and highly versatile educational software. While it won’t work without the proper hardware, these two are usually bundled together so you won’t miss anything out. The wide range of features available makes it quite appealing to instructors when it comes to fine-tuning their lesson plans for the benefit of their students. This is a highly recommended program for schools to try. Moreover, it is also Windows 11 compatible.
