SMART Board interactive whiteboard voted top product by educators
More than 75 percent of respondents in eSchool News Readers' Choice Awards choose SMART product as the best interactive whiteboard
CALGARY, Alberta --- March 15, 2005 --- SMART Technologies Inc. announces that the SMART Board™ interactive whiteboard has recently been ranked the best interactive whiteboard in the eSchool News Readers’ Choice Awards. This independent customer satisfaction survey from the United States identified the SMART Board interactive whiteboard as the overwhelming winner, securing 75.8 percent of respondent votes. The nearest competitor collected only 8.0 percent of votes. Respondents chose the SMART Board interactive whiteboard for the product’s easy-to-use touch capability, its compatibility with numerous interactive software programs that enhance student participation and the wide range of grant funding available.
Products were nominated by K–12 technology decision makers and eSchool News readers, which include superintendents, curriculum administrators, principals, technology directors and instructional media directors.
This award for SMART follows major contract wins with the New York City Board of Education (U.S.), The Business Academy, Bexley (UK), Higher Colleges of Technology (United Arab Emirates), Ngunnawal Primary School (Australia), Colégio Santo Américo (Brazil), Colegios La Salle (Mexico), Logos Academy (Hong Kong), Tianjin School District (China) and Landkreis Gießen (Germany), rounding out installations in more than 150,000 classrooms worldwide. SMART pioneered this product category, shipping the world’s first interactive whiteboard in 1991, and continues to maintain a strong leadership position in all major markets, with an installed base larger than any other interactive whiteboard manufacturer in the world.
“We shipped the very first SMART Board interactive whiteboard to a university nearly fourteen years ago. Today, the product has become the classroom standard,” says Nancy Knowlton, SMART’s president and co-CEO. “Educators are our biggest champions and we thank them for supporting SMART’s efforts in building world-class products that make a difference in the classroom. Educators are a big reason why we are where we are today.”
To read the survey summary, visit www.eschoolnews.com/resources/surveys/editorial/rca/pps/pdf/2005ppsrca.pdf.
About SMART Board interactive whiteboards
The SMART Board interactive whiteboard is a large, touch-sensitive display. Connected to a computer and projector, the interactive whiteboard is like a giant computer screen that students and teachers simply touch to operate. Using their finger or a pen as a mouse, teachers and students can access and control any computer application, file or multimedia platform, including the Internet, CD-ROMs and DVDs. They can also write over applications in digital ink, then save their work for future study and review. The SMART Board interactive whiteboard engages students with diverse learning styles by providing both immediate access to a wide range of digital materials and a common focus for the entire class – not something easily achieved with other technologies. It is the number one choice among primary and secondary school educators in more than 75 countries worldwide because the pioneering software interface captures the imagination of students of all backgrounds and abilities in order to help them learn together, understand better and achieve more. For more information, visit www.smarttech.com/smartboard.
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For more information, contact:
Public Relations
SMART Technologies Inc.
1207 - 11th Avenue SW, Suite 300
Calgary, AB T3C 0M5
CANADA
Phone +1.403.802.2595
pr@smarttech.com
Please note that SMART is written in all capital letters.