While on my first teaching placement, I had my first encounter with a SMARTboard and I have to say, I was pretty overwhelmed. I had no idea how to use it and what it could be used for, but it learned pretty quickly that I don't need to be wary of using them. I had my PowerPoint presentations on there, and I used SMARTnotebook for brainstorming and taking notes, but I knew I was only scratching the surface.
Today we took a look at some mind mapping tools that can be used online, and can be interactive if used on a SMARTboard, one of them being Inspiration.
I almost laughed out loud when I saw we were looking at Inspiration; I used it in my grade 5 keyboarding class way back when I was in school! It has thankfully been updated though, and really it does work pretty well for mind mapping. I started one on Cluster 3 in the grade 8 Social Studies curriculum, which I'll be teaching in a couple of weeks:
I created this on my iPad using the free app, but it can be done right on the SMARTboard using the online Inspiration program.
I have yet to download the SMARTnotebook program for my computer, but I have the app for my iPad which will come in handy I'm sure. I'm looking forward to playing around with SMARTboards more and hopefully to become more competent!
Very neat that you were able to use this idea right away, and pretty funny that you used it as a grade 5! Just shows, good software can have a long useful shelf life!
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