The Smart Table has Landed!

Finally, after much anticipation and a little annoyance that I did not have the very first Smart Table in a UK primary school, the table landed at St James the Great in East Malling. We are third in the UK I think, and certainly first in Kent...

I have not got as much to offer as Iain Hallahan or Tom Barrett with regards the use of this tool in the primary classroom, yet I am sure as our joint experiences grow as will my rambling on here.

So:

Problems -

• It appeared at first that turning the table on was not the simplicity one would expect from a Smart product. Wrong, it is just a case (against my better judgement) of following the instructions.



• Then it just stopped working!! No apparent reason, complete lack of touch functionality. I remodelled the table (more instruction following) USB Mouse and Keyboard plugged straight in and I was working with a desktop. Went through the simple remodelling process and it all returned to normal. The upside of this sojourn into the inner workings of the Smart Table was the chance to play with the sensitivity parameters, not needed them yet but could do.

Unproblems:

• Ease of use, once up and running, so was I and all the staff who played (even the Luddites) could find there way round the simple interface.



• The activities are simple to use yet there is a huge potential for the expansion and diversification of the content (limited by imagination I think!!!)



• Target audience - I ordered it into school with the idea that it would be an ideal tool to ensure our Early years ICT provision is increased. Now I can see fights occuring across the Key stages for use of the table.



• Creating content is simple and quick. After playing for only a few minutes was able to create content for the table that was age and subject appropriate.

So it has landed, the new school is not finished so the Table has not got its state of the art surroundings to live in but so far the Wow! factor has been great. Only positive feedback from all age of pupils and staff.

More to follow......