jmak Posted January 30, 2017 Posted January 30, 2017 Hi All I'm looking at options for replacing our ageing SmartBoards. Obviously there's the option of moving away from Smart Notebook, but I think there might be a mutiny! Various products (current contenders Smart 4055 and Epson interactive projectors) come with a one year subscription to the latest version of Smart Notebook. Do any of you let the subscription lapse, but continue to use the software? From what I can see, it's permitted, but you lose access to some of the premium features. I don't that would be an issue for our users. I was also wondering how that fits with their per user licensing. If the license comes with the hardware, are all employees using it allowed to install the software on their PC? Or is the intention that it is installed on a single PC permanently connected to that board? If all of the employees who might work in the room with the new board have it installed, will there be a licensing issue when they work in other classrooms? Is that enough questions for one post?! The Smart website claims that the new licensing model is what educators asked for to make their life simpler. Yeah, right
FN-GM Posted January 30, 2017 Posted January 30, 2017 We don't use SMART products anymore. But I understand it as after the 1 year you will loose the ability to upgrade the software but can continue to use it. The licence that comes with a board should only be used with the board. If you want to use it on other machines you need a subscription. I can't see that either! I think its down to people using non SMART LCD screens and a way to make up for lost sales. Its also a way to stop you using their software on someone else screen without them taking a cut. 1
jmak Posted January 30, 2017 Author Posted January 30, 2017 We don't use SMART products anymore. But I understand it as after the 1 year you will loose the ability to upgrade the software but can continue to use it. The licence that comes with a board should only be used with the board. If you want to use it on other machines you need a subscription. I can't see that either! I think its down to people using non SMART LCD screens and a way to make up for lost sales. Its also a way to stop you using their software on someone else screen without them taking a cut. I think the complexity of managing it might be enough to put me off, never mind the price... We're almost certain not to replace all of the boards at one time, so at the minute all of the teachers have a version of Smart which wouldn't be licensed on the new board, but if I install the new version, they wouldn't be licensed when using the old smart boards.... So the only option to ensure we're licensed is to buy a subscription for all of the teachers (and somehow we have 24 for 9 classes, due to job shares). That makes one board look stupidly expensive....
FN-GM Posted January 30, 2017 Posted January 30, 2017 Its a nightmare You can use this express version. It can open notebook files and gives you some basic features - http://express.smarttech.com/ You could also use this. Not sure how good it is - http://open-sankore.org/ 1
LeMarchand Posted January 30, 2017 Posted January 30, 2017 I thought a lot of places just stayed on an earlier version that had more reasonable license terms when SMART decided to help out by making it an annual sub. If you are on a suitable version, can you not just keep using it? If your lot are anything like mine they're not using m/any of the interactive features anyway.
jmak Posted January 30, 2017 Author Posted January 30, 2017 I thought a lot of places just stayed on an earlier version that had more reasonable license terms when SMART decided to help out by making it an annual sub. If you are on a suitable version, can you not just keep using it? If your lot are anything like mine they're not using m/any of the interactive features anyway. That's why we're still on 11.4. Won't work on the new boards though - you get a watermark and even if you could come up with technical measures, you wouldn't have a valid licence, so not an option. 1
jmak Posted January 30, 2017 Author Posted January 30, 2017 Its a nightmare You can use this express version. It can open notebook files and gives you some basic features - http://express.smarttech.com/ You could also use this. Not sure how good it is - http://open-sankore.org/ I think my proposal will be to use Smart Notebook Express to open existing resources and move onto something else for new resources. I'd want to avoid something proprietary as I want a consistent experience for all classrooms and for resources created by one teacher to be accessible by any other teacher on any other board through the school. Just need to sell the plan now.... We've looked at open sankore before and I thought it was fine, but the teachers preferred what they were familiar with - which is fair enough. The decision might be different if I ask them to choose between MS or Smart licensing as there's only money for one or the other.....
LeMarchand Posted January 30, 2017 Posted January 30, 2017 That's why we're still on 11.4. Won't work on the new boards though - you get a watermark and even if you could come up with technical measures, you wouldn't have a valid licence, so not an option. Hmmm... will have to bear this in mind when it's board replacement time!
mikeprice Posted January 30, 2017 Posted January 30, 2017 we have the ancient version (as advised by Smart some time ago) as it never needs updating as far as the licensing goes - if we have a Smartboard then we have a license - does it matter it the board is in a garage not the classroom?? just wondering as I feel the need to persuade the Head so start installing panels (post BETT effect possibly) (I desperately want the DH to NOT be the first to get one - it will kill him!!)
free780 Posted January 30, 2017 Posted January 30, 2017 I found 11.4 caused issues on windows 10 like PCs not starting up. 1
jmak Posted January 30, 2017 Author Posted January 30, 2017 we have the ancient version (as advised by Smart some time ago) as it never needs updating as far as the licensing goes - if we have a Smartboard then we have a license - does it matter it the board is in a garage not the classroom?? just wondering as I feel the need to persuade the Head so start installing panels (post BETT effect possibly) (I desperately want the DH to NOT be the first to get one - it will kill him!!) AFAIK, the old style perpetual licensing runs along the lines of: if your organisation owns a Smart Board, you get a licence to install Smart Notebook on devices owned by said organisation, but the only interactive device you can connect it to is a Smart Board. The latest version that approach spoiled to is 11.4. At that point you couldn't buy a licence through a UK distributor separately from the board. I actually think they were heading in the right direction separating the hardware from the software - it will get harder and harder for them to differentiate their hardware, but they've got something that people really want in the software. It's just the licensing model they chose is almost impossible to work with - and the pricing is very difficult to justify compared to what we pay for other products.
jmak Posted January 30, 2017 Author Posted January 30, 2017 I found 11.4 caused issues on windows 10 like PCs not starting up. Fortunately I haven't found that..... yet We're running Windows 10 edu x64 1511 release at the minute for all teachers. Testing 1607, but not released yet. I'll watch out for this.
DJ-1701 Posted January 30, 2017 Posted January 30, 2017 Fortunately I haven't found that..... yet We're running Windows 10 edu x64 1511 release at the minute for all teachers. Testing 1607, but not released yet. I'll watch out for this. No problem here with 1607. 2
free780 Posted January 31, 2017 Posted January 31, 2017 It may have been the lack of drivers for that particular model. Quite hard to trace with a freeze. It was Windows 10 x64 1511 on viglens.
Sagima Posted January 31, 2017 Posted January 31, 2017 When we spoke to Smart about licensing they said the notebook the board comes with will always work (not just for the subscription) but you will miss out on the extended features and updates of the rest of the suite. We run about half of our 6065s and 4065s on the notebook version they came with (also true for the Smart licences bought with the Epson interactive projectors) - in six months we'll only have about 6 or 7 that have a current subscription 1
jmak Posted January 31, 2017 Author Posted January 31, 2017 When we spoke to Smart about licensing they said the notebook the board comes with will always work (not just for the subscription) but you will miss out on the extended features and updates of the rest of the suite. We run about half of our 6065s and 4065s on the notebook version they came with (also true for the Smart licences bought with the Epson interactive projectors) - in six months we'll only have about 6 or 7 that have a current subscription That's what I'd understood from their website, so sounds like I interpreted it correctly. I was keen to hear from someone who was running it that way to find out whether it caused problems technically or for teaching. Thanks for the input - reassuring to get a report on real life use. 😃
Sagima Posted January 31, 2017 Posted January 31, 2017 They can do anything they currently do in notebook 11 which is all our staff wanted. They get to play with the extra features while it's in the first year's subscription but although they like to use smart response they don't think it's worth actually paying for the rest of the suite to use it.
EEknight Posted February 15, 2017 Posted February 15, 2017 Is it at all possible to transfer content from Smart NoteBook to OneDrive? Really struggling and no longer have a IT guy to ask.
jmak Posted February 15, 2017 Author Posted February 15, 2017 Welcome to the forum 😃 If you have Onedrive enabled, you should be able to use "Save As" from the Smart Notebook application. If you have lots of files, you should be able to simply copy them. Or did you mean transfer to OneNote? You can export from Smart Notebook to PDF, which you should be able to open in OneNote. Hope that helps.
EEknight Posted February 15, 2017 Posted February 15, 2017 Q: Thank you so much - can you copy just the file with all docs enclosed or do you have to copy each document? If you have Onedrive enabled, you should be able to use "Save As" from the Smart Notebook application. If you have lots of files, you should be able to simply copy them. Or did you mean transfer to OneNote? You can export from Smart Notebook to PDF, which you should be able to open in OneNote. Hope that helps.
jmak Posted February 16, 2017 Author Posted February 16, 2017 Q: Thank you so much - can you copy just the file with all docs enclosed or do you have to copy each document? If you have Onedrive enabled, you should be able to use "Save As" from the Smart Notebook application. If you have lots of files, you should be able to simply copy them. Or did you mean transfer to OneNote? You can export from Smart Notebook to PDF, which you should be able to open in OneNote. Hope that helps. Sorry I didn't get back to you - I'm not at work this week. You should be able to move whole folders of Smart Notebook files. This doesn't seem like a Smart Notebook issue - you might need some help with Onedrive. You should be able to synchronise whole folders or move files, but exactly what options you have will be dependent on how your Onedrive had been set up.
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now