SMART Notebook Update for Mac - Floating Toolbar

Your SMART Notebook software for Mac has a new update if you have not noticed so far - 11.3.  Most of us should be at 11.2 currently.  Though this update is not much, it does have a couple of nice features.  The SMART Technologies package that comes with the update includes SMART System Menu, which, when launched, provides an icon in your system menu bar.  This icon acts as a hub for all of your SMART products, including Notebook, Screen Shade, and more; as well as the ability to show or hide the Board Tools.

If you are a frequent, or even minimal, Floating Toolbar user, you are familiar with the Board Tools icon that appears in the dock on your laptop.

From this application you are able to utilize the Floating Toolbar of SMART Tools to integrate with any application on your MacBook.  This is great when you want to annotate or interactively feature something on your projector from your computer for the classroom.

With the 11.3 update to Notebook, you can access the Floating Toolbar from the SMART System Menu - Show or Hide.  No longer will you see the Board Tools icon in your dock; so, don't be alarmed. It's nice having the one, integrated center to access Notebook and the Notebook features and tools.  And, the SMART System Menu icon will remain in your system toolbar when you log in to your laptop.

Student Access to Pages Documents At Home

The great thing about iCloud and the Apple apps that are associated with iCloud, is that you can access and continue to edit the content (documents, spreadsheets, notes, etc) at home without having to bring the iPad home.  Since we have not allowed the students to bring their iPads home yet, this may be a valuable resource.

Let's use the Pages app for demonstration.  Any editing or new update to a Pages document is automatically saved, and saved to iCloud as long as the student has set this feature.

(We went over backing up to iCloud with all of the students at Deployment Day and had them all back up their iPad using iCloud.  I mentioned this part because there is always one or two that may have not listened and did not choose to back up their device in iCloud)

With this auto-save feature of Pages in iCloud, students can access their documents at any network-connected computer.

Simply log in with Apple ID at

icloud.com

From there any Apple user with their Apple ID can access the iCloud features, like Pages.

Users can select an already created document for viewing or editing, or they can create a new document right from their web browser.

Users can also right-click (Mac: option-click) on the thumbnail of the document and download it either as a Pages document, a PDF or as a Word document.

Retrieving a Print From the Color Copier

Just in case there were some who may have forgotten how to retreive a print from the office color copier, this tutorial should be of some help.

If you do not have this color copier set up on your laptop or do not have the "locked" printer setting, please contact me and I will stop by as soon as I can to assist with this.

New Year Started

Here at our high school we are underway with our new school year with many new products, terms, procedures and more.  Enough to make your brain explode for some, I'm sure.

Throughout the year, especially during this first part, I am planing on posting plenty of information and help regarding all of these changes and new products.

I hope to at least make clear and make some sense as to what is what and why.  Please stay tuned and I will do my best to keep fresh, new content coming on a regular basis.

Automatic Zoom

I am here attending Apple Startup workshop for OS X on our new MacBook Air laptops.

Here is one feature that I think is absolutely great for teachers.  Show small details or specific text to students that may be too small on your classroom display or for students in the back of the classroom with out having to hit specific key strokes.

One you set this up, it will stay in the function, allowing you to simply hold your Control key and drag two fingers across your trackpad.

Google Nutrition Search

About a week ago Google announced they were going to feature nutritional information on foods as part of your search results, so that you can instantly access this nutritional information any time.  You can pretty much find the nutritional value from almost any food - from apples to ramen noodles.  The nutrition stats are brought to you by the USDA.  Also, Wikipedia contributes a piece about the searched product.

This video I put together demonstrates how to use the new Google nutritional search.  You will notice that the nutrition results allow for other options - i.e. size, type and preparation of the searched products; and results populate when you make adjustments to these.

More Resources and Content

As I have mentioned in the right-hand column on this blog, I may not post as frequent on this blog as, perhaps, most bloggers, however, I want to encourage you to check my Google+ and Twitter profiles for much more content, resources, techy things, and just plain cool stuff for your classroom.  You do not have to have an account for either of these social networks.  Just go to my profile link for either network and view my tweets/posts for content and web links to content that you may find useful for your curriculum.

In being connected with my Personal Learning Networks on Twitter and Google+, I can find and share much more great stuff that is out there, new and old, that work very well for others in their curriculum plans.  I, also, share new things that I learn that are specific to our school district - Moodle, MLTI applications, Macbook, etc.

My Google+ Profile

My Twitter Profile

Tweets by @Ratkacher

Stay Tuned
I, also, have a Google+ Page, Ratkacher Station (separate from my Profile page), which I opened a while back, which I may begin next school year to direct viewers to for all Edu material.  Because I have more interests than EdTech (Edu Technology) content - i.e. coffee, formula 1 racing, leadership, etc - I like to share what I find in these areas as well.  So, to keep a strictly Edu-devoted stream, I would like to start directing viewers to this Google+ page of mine what will be solely for EdTech material.  That will not officially start until the beginning of the next school year.  However, you are more than welcome to view it, bookmark it, or whatever - Ratkacher Station.

The same will be done for my Twitter profile starting next school year.  My current Twitter profile has a collection of various interests other than EdTech.  I have opened a new Twitter account that will solely be devoted to EdTech - @benjaminnason.  Again, this will not officially start until the beginning of next school year, but you are welcome to save it.


Tweets by @benjaminnason