Does SoftLINK Work With Interactive Whiteboards?
Download PDF: KB0203
Summary
I have an interactive whiteboard in my classroom. Will SoftLINK allow me to continue to use my whiteboard as I have in the past?
Details
Equipping your classrooms and IT labs with the latest technology is one thing; ensuring teachers have the tools to effectively support and manage students in today’s multi-platform and multi-device learning environments can be quite another. With SoftLINK classroom management software, a host of monitoring, instructional and assessment tools can be combined with the capabilities of an interactive whiteboard. SoftLINK is optimized to work with your interactive whiteboard. When the Tutor console is minimized, a convenient toolbar provides quick access to many of the key features contained within SoftLINK.
- Present and discuss work – SoftLINK offers a number of flexible options to view screens on the interactive whiteboard. As an example, teachers can select a student’s screen to display on the whiteboard as well as the remainder of the classroom monitors. A teacher may also choose two or more student’s work to display side by side on the interactive whiteboard to allow for a classroom comparison and discussion. The teacher can even Show the display of the interactive whiteboard to each student’s screen – giving each student a perfect view!
- Focus attention/eliminate distractions – SoftLINK provides a quick and easy way for teachers to gain the attention of the class by locking the students’ keyboards and mice at any given time. Likewise, the teacher can simply blank the student screens to direct the class focus to the interactive whiteboard at the front of the class, or even momentarily while providing instructions to the class.
- Access to applications and websites – SoftLINK provides teachers with the means to easily block selected applications or internet access. Using the Tutor Tool Bar, all internet access can be blocked, with a single touch on the Block All icon.
- Launch applications and web – Teachers can save valuable class time by using the Quick Launch icon on the SoftLINK Tutor Tool Bar to launch applications or webpages on all of the student desktops simultaneously. Why wait on your students to get prepared when SoftLINK can get the class started immediately? Now that the application and website are launched, continue the class by explaining the procedure via the interactive whiteboard.
- Send and collect work – Giving out and collecting work used to be an arduous task, but SoftLINK can do the job almost instantly using its enhanced file transfer delivery. After explaining and demonstrating the task objectives on the interactive whiteboard, the teacher can send the task digitally to the students. The teacher can collect the files back at their leisure. Each file is automatically appended for easy identification with the student’s name, further helping the teacher when they want to share a student’s good work with the rest of the class.
- Request help – SoftLINK enables students to discreetly request for help from the teacher, which the teacher can see either from their own screen or the interactive whiteboard.
- Random student selection – Teachers can randomly select a student to answer a question or complete a task, with the result displayed on the interactive whiteboard for the class to see.
- Notes – SoftLINK allows teachers to create a Notes Journal for each student. Interactive whiteboard content can be added to the Notes Journal at any time and it allows students to refer to these notes at a later time. Additionally, students can add their own individual notes to the journal, giving them a fully personalized PDF containing all of the notes from the class.
- Mute sound – SoftLINK gives teachers the ability to mute the sound at the student workstations and to reinstate the sound when required.