SMART educational software gains integrated web features

 

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By Stuart Andrews at BETT 2012

Posted on 12 Jan 2012 at 12:39

SMART has unveiled the next generation of its Notebook software at BETT 2012.

Used with SMART’s interactive whiteboards, SMART Notebook 11’s key feature is an integrated WebKit-based web browser, allowing teachers to insert a browser window directly onto the whiteboard page, open live pages within a lesson and use tools to annotate them. Demonstrations at BETT showed how live pages could be dragged and resized fluidly.

Other new features enable teachers to create more interactive and engaging content. Illustrations can be enhanced with a new crayon pen and powerful freeform shape creation and intelligent fill tools. Enhanced table and text formatting features should make it easier to produce more professional, consistent-looking pages.

Usability enhancements include an improved context-sensitive toolbar and revamped gesture controls, with a new shake gesture to group and ungroup objects.

SMART Notebook 11 isn’t the first interactive whiteboard application to integrate a browser – Promethean’s ActivInspire already supports HTML content. But SMART's latest version also supports an array of local HTML5, CSS and JavaScript widgets, which users can design using the new SMART Notebook SDK and share over the SMART Exchange website.

SMART Notebook 11 will be available as a free download for existing licence holders in the spring.