New SMART Notebook™ 10.7 Features Enhance Collaboration

SMART Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: SMT) (TSX: SMA) announces SMART Notebook 10.7 collaborative learning software. The latest version of the award-winning software supports multiuser writing and common multitouch gestures, including one- and two-finger gestures like pinching, zooming and tossing. Version 10.7 also supports freestyle interaction and object awareness. Freestyle interaction enables two students to work together on the same interactive lesson and perform different tasks simultaneously, such as writing with digital ink and manipulating digital objects, anywhere on the surface of the SMART Board 800 series interactive whiteboard. Object awareness enables users to interact with digital content using their fingers, pens, fists or erasers interchangeably. Version 10.7 is available for download at no additional cost to licensed SMART Notebook software users.

The addition of multiuser, multitouch gestures and object awareness in version 10.7 provides the most natural and intuitive user experience yet on a SMART Board interactive whiteboard. Multiuser support offered by this new version gives more students hands-on time at the interactive whiteboard. New tutorials – available through the Help menu – give educators easy access to quick and simple overviews of common SMART Notebook features and tools. Educators also have access to more than 50,000 learning resources and lessons available from 43 country-specific sites via the SMART Exchange^™ website (exchange.smarttech.com), including a variety of new multiuser, multitouch SMART Notebook lessons specifically designed for use on the SMART Board 800 series interactive whiteboard. Educators using the SMART Board 600 series interactive whiteboard can also take advantage of single-finger touch gestures, such as object flicking. Version 10.7 includes a new calligraphic pen feature, which is fully compatible with both the 600 and 800 series interactive whiteboards. New SMART Ink^™ uses ink-smoothing algorithms to stylize handwriting, making it appear more refined. When the calligraphic pen button is selected, writing is automatically stylized into regular, sleek lines.

“Cultivating effective teamwork and interpersonal skills is crucial to learner development, both inside and outside the classroom,” says Nancy Knowlton, SMART’s CEO. “When using the SMART Board 800 series interactive whiteboard, the multiuser, multitouch experience offered by SMART Notebook 10.7 software will enable more learners to interact with digital resources and engage in meaningful collaboration.”

New SMART Notebook 10.7 software features

Multitouch experience* – Enables two users to interact with digital content simultaneously, with no special tools or multitouch mode selection required

Freestyle interaction* – Enables two users to work together, performing different tasks, while working in the same SMART Notebook lesson, anywhere on the interactive whiteboard surface

Touch gestures* – Accepts common multitouch gestures, including one- and two-finger gestures, such as pinching, zooming and tossing

Object awareness* – Distinguishes between a finger, pen, fist, eraser or other object to recognize what action the user is performing and responds accordingly, requiring fewer clicks to perform various tasks

Calligraphic pen – Selecting the calligraphic pen button in SMART Notebook 10.7 software will automatically stylize writing into regular, sleek lines

SMART Ink – Uses ink-smoothing algorithms to make handwriting look smoother and more refined

SMART Notebook software tutorials – Provide an overview of common features and tools that are available through the Help page

SMART product integration – Integrates seamlessly with most SMART hardware and software products, including the SMART Board 600 series interactive whiteboard and SMART Board 800 series interactive whiteboard

* SMART Board 800 series interactive whiteboard only.

About SMART
SMART Technologies is a leading provider of collaboration solutions that transform the way the world works and learns. We believe that collaboration and interaction should be easy. As the global leader in interactive whiteboards, we bring more than two decades of collaboration research and development to a broad range of easy-to-use, integrated solutions that free people from their desks and computer screens, so collaborating and learning with digital resources are more natural.

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