New Smartboards FAQ
Below please find answers to commonly asked questions regarding our new Smartboards (MX Series). This page will grow and change as we learn more and refine our practice.
- How can I use the USB ports on the bottom left side of the board?
A. There are 2 USB ports (among other ports like HMDI and USB-C) that are on the front left of the board. They have 2 different pictures under them. There is one that has a picture of a computer and the other has a picture of the board.
If you insert your thumb (flash) drive into the one with the computer, you are just allowing the computer itself to access your thumb drive. This works exactly as if you are putting the thumb drive into your PC.
If you use the port that has the picture of the board, you can open any files on the thumb drive on the board by clicking the FILES folder on the home screen of the board.
2. Smart Mirror - This isn't working the way I want it to. I can only input 6 digits instead of the full 10 that they are giving my students to input.
A. This is a complicated one. First, Smart Mirror is for your STUDENTS to mirror to the board. You have to allow them access to do it and only 4 students can be in the 'waiting room' until you grant them access to mirror their device to the board. You cannot mirror your board to the class as a whole this way. You need to use Lumio for that (see Lumio question below). There are a few things that need to be adjusted on your board to make this all work properly. Go into the settings of Smart Mirror and change the following.:
Always require permission
disable Airplay receiver
moderator mode on
allow only local or require local
The Krista or the Tech TAs in your building can help with these adjustments.
3. Can we hide the floating ID for Smart Mirror?
A. Yes. If you go into the settings, choose Session Management > Floating ID > Off.
4. We were told these boards are multi-touch. How can I have several students writing at the same time?
A. If you are using the built in whiteboard, all writers need a pen. You will have to borrow from a neighbor or use the pens from the old board if you have them. On the standalone whiteboard, all the ink will be the same color. There is no way to have each pen be a different color.
If you are in SmartNotebook, you can have the pens be one color and someone writing with their finger use another color. To do this, tap the color you want the pen to use with the pen and the color for the finger with your finger. The board recognizes the difference and will write accordingly.
5. If I'm annotating a document with my students, how can I have the ink stay where I write it on the page as I scroll the document or Powerpoint?
A. You CANNOT do this on a website you may want to annotate.
There are a few settings you can adjust to make this happen on PDFs and Microsoft products.
For PDFs: Go to Any PDF on your desktop or file folder. Right click it and choose Open with Smart Document Viewer. You have to do this every time you open something. If you want it to happen automatically for all PDFs you open: Right click on any PDF on your desktop or file folder. Click 'Choose Another App'. Pick Smart Ink Document Viewer, Check off the box at the bottom to do this for all files of this type automatically.
For Powerpoints and other Microsoft documents: At the bottom of your screen next to the weather and near the speaker icon, there is an up arrow. In there, look for the Smart icon (blue square with a white circle). Click Smart Settings, then Smart Ink Settings. Next choose Microsoft Office Settings on the left side menu. Make sure the second radial is chosen (Use Microsoft Ink so that my ink is written and saved directly in my content). This will allow you to write on your documents and the ink will stay on the document even if you move or change pages.