SMART products boost student participation at the British International School, Shanghai
SMART Board interactive whiteboards used to teach primary and secondary students
CALGARY, Alberta --- June 17, 2005 --- SMART Technologies Inc. and EP-Tec, one of SMART’s distributors in China, announce the installation of SMART Board™ interactive whiteboards at the British International School, Shanghai (BISS). The school has installed 33 SMART Board interactive whiteboards throughout the secondary school, including some primary classrooms and one in every department. While most are installed permanently, the school has placed some on mobile floor stands to enable sharing between classrooms.
With this installation, teachers at BISS now have a wealth of interactive digital learning resources at their fingertips. They access relevant websites in their classrooms to supplement lesson activities, save their notes in digital ink, and easily add and review content. They encourage students to come up to the SMART Board interactive whiteboard and move content around simply by touching the display with their finger. They also use SMART Ideas™ concept-mapping software, shipped with the interactive whiteboards, to explain complex concepts and ideas.
“SMART is the leader in interactive whiteboards, and that’s the reason we decided to buy its products,” says Alistair Baldwin, principal of BISS. “With SMART Board interactive whiteboards, our students are more engaged and involved, and our teachers can present the best digital learning materials while maintaining eye contact with the class and cater even more effectively to various learning styles.”
“Given the successful and wide use of our products in classrooms globally and the UK in particular, British and international schools are increasingly choosing SMART Board interactive whiteboards to deliver high-quality education materials to their students,” says Nancy Knowlton, SMART’s president and co-CEO. “The improvement in student engagement from the use of our products at the British International School, Shanghai, once again reinforces the benefits digital teaching tools bring to teaching and learning.”
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.
About the British International School, Shanghai
The British International School was founded in 2002 by the Nord Anglia Education Group, the UK's leading provider of education in the independent sector, to offer a high-quality education based on the British National Curriculum for expatriate children in Shanghai. The school currently accepts pupils from ages 18 months to 15 (pre-nursery to year 10). Next year it will run two year 11 classes and year 12 (following the International Baccalaureate program) will be introduced in August 2006. All children above the statutory age of five at the school are taught using a curriculum based on the National Curriculum of England and Wales. This means they follow nationally agreed programmes of study in English, mathematics, science, design and technology, information and communication technology, history, geography, modern foreign languages (including Mandarin), art, music, physical education and personal, social and health education. For more information, visit www.bisshanghai.com.
About EP-TEC
SMART products in China are distributed by EP-TEC Solutions. Founded in 2000, EP-TEC Solutions is a private company with offices in Singapore, Malaysia, Shanghai, the People’s Republic of China and Indonesia. EP-TEC Solutions specializes as a solutions provider of educational, training and productivity technologies for schools, contact centres and corporations. Established by IT industry veterans, EP-TEC Solutions has brought together the world’s best multimedia based products designed to reduce expenses, improve communication and enhance its customers’ competitive advantage. EP-TEC’s education customers in China include PuDong New Area School District, LuWan School District and FasTracKids.
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For more information, contact:
Public Relations
SMART Technologies Inc.
1207 – 11 Avenue SW, Suite 300
Calgary, AB T3C 0M5
CANADA
Phone +1.403.802.2552
Fax +1.403.228.2500
pr@smarttech.com
Please note that SMART is written in all capital letters.