British school in Dubai chooses SMART products for every classroom
Kings' Dubai equips cutting-edge campus with SMART Board interactive whiteboards
CALGARY, Alberta --- January 12, 2005 --- SMART Technologies Inc. announces the installation of SMART Board™ interactive whiteboards in every classroom at Kings' Dubai school by Visionaire FZE, SMART's distributor in the United Arab Emirates. An independent, selective British curriculum school for children aged three to eleven, Kings' Dubai chose SMART Board interactive whiteboards based on the preference of its British faculty, who had used the product extensively in the UK. These SMART products, along with laptops and Tablet PCs, create an interactive learning environment for the school's 160 students.
Teachers at Kings' Dubai use SMART Board interactive whiteboards to teach every lesson and have found them both easy to use and intuitive. Digital learning resources can be accessed simply by touching the large interactive display. Using their finger or pens from the SMART Pen Tray, teachers write notes in digital ink and highlight relevant learning material. The school has closely monitored the impact of the use of technology in classrooms since it opened in September 2004 and has already found positive effects on the pace of learning and student achievement. Based on these results, the school plans to further develop its technology infrastructure by equipping its classrooms with videoconferencing facilities to be used with SMART Board interactive whiteboards, enabling its students to connect with classrooms in other parts of the world.
"The use of SMART Board interactive whiteboards means that Kings' is able to provide exceptional education in a range of learning styles, particularly kinesthetic and visual," says Kevin Stedman, head teacher at Kings' Dubai. "Powerful visual images and interactive capability increase the resource stimuli for all areas of the curriculum. SMART Board interactive whiteboards were chosen by Kings' Dubai because they are robust, child friendly and compatible with the Microsoft® Windows® platform we use at the school."
"SMART Board interactive whiteboards are improving teaching and learning in more than 150,000 classrooms around the world," says SMART's president and co-CEO Nancy Knowlton. "The school-wide use of our products by Kings' Dubai demonstrates that interactive technology is improving education practices in every part of the world and at every stage of student learning."
"Our focus has always been to provide technology for every walk of human life and create the leading edge in the information, communication and entertainment domain," says Aseem Gupta, president of the Visionaire Technology Group. "By introducing state-of-the-art technology into educational organizations like Kings' Dubai, we are assured that we are creating a valued technology base that will benefit the students and encourage them to take greater pride in their achievements."
About SMART Board interactive whiteboards
The SMART Board interactive whiteboard is the world's leading interactive whiteboard. Simply by touching the large display, users can access and control any computer application or multimedia platform, including the Internet, CD-ROMs and DVDs. With SMART Board software, users can write over applications in digital ink and then edit, save, print or post their notes to a website for future reference. SMART Board interactive whiteboards are used in classrooms, briefing rooms and boardrooms around the world, helping people to collaborate effectively whether they are in the same room or in another location. Feature-rich software and intuitive functionality make the SMART Board interactive whiteboard the number one choice of educators, presenters and trainers in more than 75 countries. For more information, visit www.smarttech.com/smartboard.
About Kings' Dubai
Kings' Dubai is a purpose-built primary school that opened in September 2004, in the Umm Suqueim district of Dubai. Kings' is an independent, selective British curriculum school for children aged three to eleven. There are currently 160 students enrolled, rising to a capacity of 340 within two years. There are currently two classes in each year group, with a maximum of 20 students in each class. Designed by British architects, Kings' has been built to the highest specifications to create a learning environment that is unique in the Emirate and has been described as leading edge on the world stage in terms of facilities, the quality of teaching and the innovative use of ICT to support and enhance learning at all levels. For more information, visit http://www.kingsdubai.com/.
About Visionaire
Visionaire, the authorized distributor for SMART products is a transnational business enterprise with operations in more than 30 countries. A complement of more than 250 engineering staff and 1,200 people bring more than 80 years of award-winning experience in systems integration of audio visual environments and convergence technologies. Visionaire offers technology to the meeting, learning, living and hospitality markets by providing positive impact, productivity and communication solutions for individual, team and groupware interaction.
Together with the collective strength of the world's leading companies and strong expertise in many niche markets, the organization's prime strengths are in convergence technologies for voice, data, video and audio providing easy-to-use human interface tools for today's presenting, connecting, communicating and display needs. Its solutions are sold by wholly owned subsidiaries, joint venture companies, technical partners and certified channel partners, which are extensively promoted in North America with application markets in Asia, the Middle-East and Africa. For more information, visit http://www.visionaire.ca/.
###
For more information, contact:
Public Relations
SMART Technologies Inc.
300, 1207 - 11th Avenue SW
Calgary, AB CANADA T3C 0M5
Phone +1.403.802.2552 Fax +1.403.228.2500
pr@smarttech.com
Please note that SMART is written in all capital letters.