SMART Adds New Features to its Market-Leading Collaborative Learning Software

• SMART Notebook® version 15.1 to include gamification and integration of student devices – strengthening natural collaboration in the classroom
• New features for Notebook come as SMART amp™ software continues to gain traction with teachers and students

ISTE, PHILADELPHIA, June 29, 2015 /CNW/ - SMART Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: SMT) (TSX: SMA), a consistent innovator, continues to enhance its award-winning collaboration software solutions designed for educators and students. For more than twenty years SMART has maintained close contact with SMART Notebook users and regularly enhances the software based on educator's feedback. That feedback has helped make SMART Notebook the world's most popular collaborative learning software, used by millions of teachers and students around the world each school day.

SMART Notebook software enables educators to create engaging interactive learning experiences while providing the flexibility to respond to the needs of learners in real-time. It is the most widely used education solution of its kind, having been downloaded more than 6.5 million times over the past three years. Today, SMART announces the addition of four new features to the Lesson Activity Builder (LAB) section of SMART Notebook collaborative learning software.

Available for download August 6, 2015 version 15.1 of Notebook offers fun, interactive features that enable students to learn and problem-solve the way they naturally and intuitively do outside of the classroom:

• Shout it out – a brainstorming activity that lets students contribute words and images from any device with an internet connection to a front-of-the room lesson. For example: a teacher asks students to read a short paragraph of text and describe what they think will happen next and why they think that. An attribution option lets teachers see who contributed what.
• Matching – gives teachers the ability to create an activity with their own customized content that enables students using a large interactive display to match one object with another. For example: matching a word to the correct definition. The teacher can use gamification elements, such as a spinning wheel that picks a student, to make the activity fun and engaging.
• Fill in the blank – provides a tool for a teacher to conduct learning exercises tied to student reading comprehension, math problem-solving, answering word problems in math activities, and foreign languages, For example: fill in the blank with the missing word in a sentence.
• Rank order – provides teachers the ability to practice and reinforce concepts around order of items in their activities. For example: students could be asked to rank items in order of importance, in alphabetical order, or in math, asking students to rank a set of ratios from largest to smallest.

"I've been using SMART Notebook software for more than ten years and version 15 with the new Lesson Activity Builder was a significant improvement," says Brad Nikunen, a teacher in Montana. "The new features coming in version 15.1 add several great lesson activities. I'm excited about the reaction I'll get from my students; in fact I expect they will create their own engaging lesson activities."

To learn more about SMART Notebook software, visit smarttech.com/notebook.

The other pillar in SMART's education software suite, SMART amp, continues to gain acceptance among teachers. SMART amp is a cloud-based software that lets students co-create content on a digital canvas to enable anywhere, anytime contribution and collaboration on student devices. It provides teachers with real-time insight into student learning and contribution and gives them a consistent platform for integrating technology in the classroom with any student device or interactive display. SMART amp helps students learn by interacting in more natural, authentic ways inside and outside the classroom.

"I've been able to easily integrate SMART amp into my lessons," says Jeff Moffo, a high school teacher near Philadelphia. "My students love it because it gives them creative and innovative ways to do their assignments. They share ideas, collaborate in real-time and work anywhere and anytime without having to be in the classroom. I'm convinced SMART amp is a learning platform students need if they want to develop skills for the real world."

To learn more about SMART amp, visit smartamp.com.

Pricing and AvailabilitySMART Notebook version 15.1 will be available for download on August 6, 2015 for customers with an active SMART Notebook Advantage subscription. The suggested price for a single, annual renewal for SMART Notebook Advantage is $54 in the United States. Volume and duration discounts are available. Prices outside the United States will vary.

SMART Notebook perpetual licenses are included with the purchase of all SMART interactive displays. Regular updates and add-ons are available with an active Notebook Advantage subscription. Notebook licenses are also available for all other brands of interactive hardware, with licensing for individual classrooms, as well as options for school and district standardization. The suggested price for individual SMART Notebook licenses starts at $299 in the United States. Volume discounts are available. Prices outside the United States will vary.

SMART amp is available with a suggested price of $8 per student annually in the United States. Volume and duration discounts are available. Pricing will vary outside the United States. For more pricing information on SMART Notebook and SMART amp, please contact your SMART authorized reseller.

About SMART Solutions for Education Nearly 70 million teachers and students around the world use SMART solutions for education to make learning more interactive, engaging, effective and fun. A consistent innovator and the inventor of the SMART Board®, SMART's education software includes the revolutionary SMART amp™ and the world's most popular collaborative learning software, SMART Notebook®. With a full range of interactive displays, including flat panels, projectors, whiteboards, the SMART kapp™ digital capture board and SMART kapp iQ, SMART helps educators achieve better learning outcomes. To learn more, visit smarttech.com/education.     

About SMARTSMART Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: SMT, TSX: SMA) is a world leader in simple and intuitive solutions that enable more natural collaboration. We are an innovator in interactive touch technologies and software that inspire collaboration in both education and businesses around the globe. To learn more, visit smarttech.com.

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Reader's advisoryCertain information contained in this press release may constitute forward-looking information or statements. By their very nature, forward-looking information and statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, and risks that predictions, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking information and statements will not be achieved. We caution readers not to place undue reliance on these statements as a number of important factors could cause the actual results to vary materially from the forward-looking information or statements. We do not assume responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of the forward-looking information or statements. Any forward-looking information and statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

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SOURCE SMART Technologies Inc.