Site adds new features to help teachers create library of digital learning materials
CALGARY, Alberta --- June 24, 2008 --- SMART Technologies announces that teacher-submitted lesson activities are now available on the SMART Exchange, SMART’s recently launched online community for educators who want to share information, connect with colleagues and collaborate on various topics. The SMART Exchange now allows members to upload lesson activities and learning resources. The new feature was added in response to teacher requests. To keep content organized and easy to find, community members can tag their lesson activities by subject, grade level and keyword. They can also add comments and ratings.
Launched in December 2007, the SMART Exchange has become a popular online community attracting, on average, more than 1,200 new members a month, with approximately 25 percent of them posting. Such participation is substantial for an online community of this kind and reflects the site’s value to its users. In addition to the forum, members have access to an events calendar, dedicated photo galleries and a separate area to upload and download files. The site also brings existing SMART communities together, connecting educators, SMART product users and in-house subject matter experts. Currently, the SMART Exchange caters to English-speaking educators. Forums and resources in multiple languages are scheduled to be added in the fall of 2008. SMART encourages ongoing input and feedback from members. Educators can join the online community for free by visiting the SMART Exchange at exchange.smarttech.com. They can also visit www.education.smarttech.com to download thousands of free, standards-correlated lesson activities that SMART has created.
“Sometimes it is difficult for us to think outside ourselves,” says Sandy Armstrong, instructional technology coach at the Auburn Early Education Center in Alabama and a long-time user of SMART products. “By sharing ideas via the SMART Exchange, many of us will find completely different avenues to teach the same thing, and we will open our perspectives to new and innovative ideas.”
“As more and more teachers begin incorporating digital materials into their lessons, the need for resources grows,” says Nancy Knowlton, SMART’s CEO. “Adding teacher-submitted lesson activities to the SMART Exchange means educators around the world can collectively address that need by creating a rich library of shared learning materials.”