By Kylie on Sep 16, 2007 | Reply

Hi Ben and Joan
If I realised that I’d be a feature I would have pumped up the blog love a bit more!
As you will probably soon see you have given me a freaky experience! I am still learning about the blogosphere and it’s intricacies, I learn something new every day. And thanks for giving me the hot tip on Senteo, I had never heard of it before.
BTW I’m a chick from South Australia, and a final year early childhood education student. I hope to be teaching next year, and I hope to have a smartboard in my classroom. That’s right, I’m such a geek I’m listening to a pod cast about a tool I don’t even have yet.

By Kyle Stevens on Sep 17, 2007 | Reply

Hi Ben and Joan

Long time listener, first time commenter.

Our school recently received our Senteo units. While I did run into a similar question when registering the units, I have found them to be quite useful. I am not a big fan of multiple choice exams, but I find these units a great means of conducting such an assessment. I enjoy the question by question results and the instant grading. My technology director supplied me with an Excel file with all of the school id numbers for the students, which makes it easy to know who is using which unit. The kids enjoy taking this type of assessment versus a paper multiple choice exam. I have found that quizzes over fifteen questions start to lose the attention of students. Otherwise I am enjoying the units.

Love the podcast. While I teach high school, I am able to apply the ideas and feedback from your podcast to my lessons. Keep up the good work.

Kyle Stevens
Bishop Dunne Catholic
Dallas, TX

By Nick on Sep 18, 2007 | Reply

Hi Ben & Joan,

I come from a school district who just recently built a new elementary school with SMART Boards in every classroom and more being installed across the district (9 new 600i series boards were installed at the middle and high schools this summer). With all this equipment around, the discovery of your podcast couldn’t not have been timed better.

I have had the interesting, and at times frustrating, opportunity to test Senteo on the Windows and Mac OS systems and have discovered that there are some differences between the two. For example, the Mac version does not appear to allow for import or export of the class lists into Excel. On the plus side, the Senteo manager program is identical in look and basic usage between the two operating systems. Because I have staff working with both operating systems, I can’t assume that SMART products are the same for each.

As far as Senteo-based lessons are concerned, I have already had teachers use it create lessons in math, language arts and social studies. The math teacher integrated her Senteo’s with quizzes provided online by her math textbook company. The language arts teacher loves how she can use the setup for class discussions and branching off into related topics. The social studies teacher has integrated maps of Africa and played identification games with his Senteo system as a way of assessment.

My staff are actively pushing the SMART Board products to their limits and finding new ways to use them. I regularly refer them to your podcast for new ideas and perspectives on how it all can be integrated into the classroom. Keep up the good work, and look forward to hearing you at your next episode.

Nick Shuman
Technology Integrator
MSAD71 Kennebunk/Kennebunkport
Kennebunk, ME

By Jodi on Oct 27, 2007 | Reply

Hey Ben and Joan,
Love the podcasts, loved the tips and tricks podcast especially - the exporting to powerpoint for full page printing - how many times can i thank you Joan…! Anyway, our board recently purchased a Senteo unit and I am piloting it for our board in my Grade 3 classroom here in Ontario. I totally agree with you Ben, that another tab in Notebook containing the Senteo manager would be better…I do love the exporting results to Excel… My 10 minute Senteo lesson on rounding yesterday showed me within minutes exactly who was still not grasping the concept…what more do you need to focus your instruction? I do agree with the pedagodgy thing though…which I don’t think makes it an every-day tool, but still - a pretty cool and useful tool, and the students of course love it…!