Smart Notebook on non Smart screens

[thimon]

Hi all. I have been told by Smart that their Basic version of Smart Notebook has limited functionality on third party touch screens. We’ve moved to using Clevertouch screens. This is their response:

 

As of June 1st 2022, should this complimentary software be used on 3rd party hardware, interactivity will be restricted as well as limited access to the features on SMART Notebook Plus (games based activities, formative assessment etc).

 

Does anyone use Smart Notebook basic on non Smart touchscreens? Does it work okay?

[Rob_D]

I found the following table a while back showing what you can and can't do on Smart Basic. By the sound of it, this would still track.

 

[TABLE=class: x_MsoNormalTable, width: 693]

[TR]

[TD]Feature

[/TD]

[TD]With a subscription to SMART Learning Suite

[/TD]

[TD]With the basic version of SMART Notebook

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Activities

[/TD]

[TD]Use game-based activity templates to create interactive activities. Type of activities include matching, fill-in-the-blanks, label reveal, sorting, and more. Learn more about activities.

These activities help students memorize concepts and facts, identify objects, learn vocabulary definitions, and more. Activites can be played as a class or students can connect to the activities using their devices and play them in small groups or individually.

[/TD]

[TD]If the file has existing activities, the content is maintained but cannot be edited. New activities cannot be created.

Existing activities can be played as a class at the SMART Board.

Only activities which require student devices (such as Monster Quiz) can be played individually on student devices.

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Formative assessments

[/TD]

[TD]Use the response 2 wizard to create actionable question sets. Focusing on formative assessments, this feature supports the need for educators to effectively assess students in order to guide learning. Students can complete assessments using their own devices. Learn more about assessments.

[/TD]

[TD]If the file has existing assessments, the content is maintained but cannot be edited. New assessments cannot be created.

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Video Search add-on

[/TD]

[TD]Use the Video search add-on in SMART Notebook to search for YouTube and other online videos or paste a link and add videos into pages.

[/TD]

[TD]If the file has existing videos, you can play them but you cannot search for or add new videos.

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Image Web Search add-on

[/TD]

[TD]Search and add images directly from Bing into your lesson. Only royalty-free, age-appropriate image results will turn up.

[/TD]

[TD]If the file has existing images, they still appear, but you cannot search for and add new images using this add-on.

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Concept Mapping add-on

[/TD]

[TD]Use Concept Mapping to quickly create concept maps that encourage dynamic participation from students. You can use ink gestures along with traditional interactions to build concept maps. Learn more about concept mapping.

[/TD]

[TD]If the file has existing concept maps, these are maintained. New concept maps cannot be created.

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Lesson Recorder add-on

[/TD]

[TD]Using SMART Recorder, you can record your actions on your interactive product. If you connect a microphone to your computer, you can record your voice as well.

After you create a recording, you can play the recording on any computer using Windows Media Player (Windows operating systems) or QuickTime software (macOS operating system software).

Learn more about recording lessons.

[/TD]

[TD]Any existing recordings will play, but you cannot create new recordings.

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]SMART Blocks add-on

[/TD]

[TD]SMART Blocks is an add-on that enables you to perform math activities with your class by writing numbers on the page, and then connecting them to a SMART Block. You can choose from seven different equation types to work with.

Learn more about using SMART Blocks.

[/TD]

[TD]If the file has existing SMART Blocks, you can run them.

You cannot add new SMART Blocks.

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]kapp add-on

[/TD]

[TD]Save notes taken on a SMART kapp whiteboard directly into the SMART Notebook page. You can take your kapp notes and and erase, resize, convert-to-text or graph them within your Notebook lesson.

Use the timeline feature to replay the work students have done and observe their decision-making and how their ideas evolved.

[/TD]

[TD]Won’t open.

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Maestro

[/TD]

[TD]The Maestro add-on connects SMART Notebook software and the SMART Notebook app for iPad enabling you to remotely control and interact with lessons from the SMART Notebook app on your iPad.

Learn more from the SMART Notebook Maestro quick start guide.

[/TD]

[TD]Won’t open.

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Screen View

[/TD]

[TD]When presenting lessons you can use the following views:

 

• Full Screen view expands the page area to fill the interactive screen by hiding the title bar, toolbar, taskbar and sidebar.
  
• Transparent Background view enables you to see the desktop and windows behind the SMART Notebook software window and continue to interact with the open, transparent page.
  
• Dual Page view displays two pages side-by-side.
  

[/TD]

[TD]Dual page and transparent background options are not available.

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Share files to their SMART Account

[/TD]

[TD]Share files to your SMART Account so you can open them in Lumio by SMART and deliver them on any device to your students. You can also sign in to a SMART Board interactive display with iQ and use the embedded Player app to deliver the lesson at the board.

[/TD]

[TD]These features are not available.

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]No watermark

[/TD]

[TD]When you subscribe to SMART Learning Suite, this watermark is removed even if you are not connected to a SMART Board.

[/TD]

[TD]A SMART watermark appears on each page when the computer is not connected to a SMART Board.

[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

[Rockpile99]

We deploy the basic (free) version of SMART notebook on all our teacher laptops. Those that use SMART notebook seem to manage quite well on a mix of SMART boards, dumb TVs, and BenQ Android smart panels. The only real gripe I've had back is the watermark that appears in notebook when not conencted to actual SMART board.

[DrBeaker]

Ours is 11.4 on classrooms - I know, I know

 

We were planning on 20 Basic but now our AV strategy is TVs instead.

 

So once we've done all TVs and got rid of the last smartboard, we'll pull it from the network and warn staff ahead of time to convert, or die

[LukeMoss]

Have a look at Lynx 7, I've installed it here with it being able to convert old notebook files if signed in... Works well and enough for most teachers here depending on what you're using it for, ours was just a 'notepad'.

 

Lynx 7 is a free download. https://www.lynxcloud.app

[Rockpile99]

"Convert or die"? We have staff who's attitude is "you can take SMART notebook from my cold dead hands" (but thankfully they're in the minority)

[LukeMoss]

LOL! Me too, I just never gave them a choice.. I'm lucky in the fact I get most of my decisions backed by the powers that be.

[DrBeaker]

"Convert or die"? We have staff who's attitude is "you can take SMART notebook from my cold dead hands" (but thankfully they're in the minority)

 

LOL! Me too, I just never gave them a choice.. I'm lucky in the fact I get most of my decisions backed by the powers that be.

 

We'll give them some notice, usually 12x months as the upgrade cycle for AV simply works that way - after that they've been told. Same as wanting to access a subscription service after you've stopped paying. That's gonna be a no.

[whartomt01]

Deployed the latest 22 version recently to be used on clevertouch boards (also Lynx). Touch features no longer work. Had to roll back to version 21. These are both the basic version

[BenQ_Chris]

Hi,

 

If you're looking for an alternative solution you may be interested in BenQ EZWrite 6. It's free to download, install and use. Available as an .msi or .exe, no registration unless you want to use the cloud whiteboard feature; where you can either request a free license code (via email address) or sign in with a BenQ AMS account if you have one. You can open .iwb & .notebook files. It comes pre-installed on our latest RMxx03 panels but can be installed on a PC too. If you'd like to know more, let me know.

 

BenQ EZWrite Software - YouTube

 

EZWrite 6 Download (benq.eu)

 

Thanks, Chris.

[LegacyPulsar]

Yeah, I just invested in some ViewSonic boards, rolled out SMART Notebook 20, and discovered that the pen features wouldn't work. Bummer. I'm going to try rolling back to V.12 and see what happens.

 

Teachers etc. can install Microsoft Whiteboard on their account or use ViewBoard OS's built-in drawing tool app if they want without issue, but SMART itself recognises a non-SMART screen and blocks a lot of features