Your office is meant to be a place of growth, productivity, and focus. For many, that means not only coming to work each day, whether it be in a traditional office, remotely, or in a home office environment, and being ready to get things done. In many ways, technology has emerged so heavily in the workplace because of its ability to assist us in everyday business related activities and task completion. That means that every piece of hardware that is in the office should, in some form or fashion, make life easier.
Popular Uses for Smart Tech in the Office
For many, those items of technological significance are no brainer items like a computer, a smartphone, a tablet, or even some older tech like projectors and television monitors. We often think of technology being something that makes our overall life better, but that fails to recognize that there are some real pieces of smart office technology that are going underused in the workplace. No smart object goes underutilized more than the SmartBoard. A SmartBoard is any sort of hardware that operates as a projection that you can interact with thanks to the sensors and programming of a programmed board.
Often resembling a white board, of which there are still plenty of uses, a SmartBoard allows for, most commonly writing directly onto projected images and even making notes on blank surfaces with the ability to trigger programs to function with the things in which you are writing or drawing. For example, you could draw on a presentation, allowing the drawings to perform graphics like emphasizing a particular section.
How Are SmartBoards Used Today?
Many SmartBoards are implemented in classrooms across the world. More often than not, SmartBoards are found in many primary and secondary schools, ranging from Kindergarten to 12th Grade. These boards are found mostly in STEM classrooms, or courses that focus primarily on science, technology, engineering, and math. These courses utilize a lot of formulas that can interact with SmartBoard technology to assist students and teachers in visualizing the problems on the board in a more intriguing manner.
You also see them used in music classrooms for assistance in writing music. With actual staff lines for written music that you can add notes to, you can actually hear what you are writing, as it is played back for you through the SmartBoard and its software. A number of teaching methods are benefiting from SmartBoard technology, but it is not just educators and kids that get to have all the fun.
In office spaces, SmartBoards are on the rise. In this setting, professionals can use them in a few different ways. Most commonly, presentations can be enhanced using a SmartBoard. During a set of slides for a presentation, professionals can write on their slides to make new bullet points that are saved directly to the original file. This is great for feedback, notes, on the fly fixes, and other various ways that a presentation can be altered while it is being delivered.
Another common use for a SmartBoard in the office is during brainstorming sessions. In this environment, a team leader or boss can write down ideas on the SmartBoard and have their ideas translated in real time to a document that can be distributed later. Rather than the old manner, in which someone would take notes than type them out or write them to send to the team, this keeps everything in one place, stored safely on one device. If these are features you would like to see in your office, it is not difficult to set up this technology for your workspace.
How to Set Up a SmartBoard for Your Office
The steps you need to take to get a SmartBoard working in your office are actually quite simple.
Choose and Purchase a SmartBoard
The amount of SmartBoards on the market now is a little overwhelming. You can search any number of smart tech and SmartBoard specific online markets that have reviews and descriptions so you can pick which one works best for you and your office’s needs. Things to consider will be what operating systems and computers you use in the office, and whether or not the SmartBoard is compatible, as well as accessories required to complete the tasks you wish to take on with your new office tech.
Install SmartBoard (Physically and In Terms of Software)
An important step in setting up your SmartBoard would be to actually hook it up. The board itself can go just about anywhere, although a board room is ideal. The projector works best when installed on the ceiling in a casing or other protective area. If these are things you and your coworkers do not know how to do, reach out to someone who installs tech in offices or classrooms. It will be worth the cost to avoid any mistakes and damage to your expensive new equipment.
Install Drivers
Your PC or Mac will need to be able to interact with your SmartBoard. Back in the day, new software was installed through a CD, but now you can download the data in drivers online. This saves you the hassle of physical installation disks and allows you to quickly get things set up on your computer.
Find Software and Apps for your SmartBoard
There are an insane amount of apps and software options for your SmartBoard. Most often, the things you will want to download will be in specific sections for offices and businesses, but feel free to explore all of the software at your disposal now that you have installed your SmartBoard.
A Game Changer for the Office
Now that you have a SmartBoard in your office, you can have access to a seemingly unlimited amount of ways to enhance your office. The board itself is expensive, but becoming more affordable each year. In the end, there is no price you can put on being able to enhance aspects of your job that require precision and detail. With a SmartBoard, your office, employees, and yourself are all better equipped to wow and impress.
Taylor is a freelance SEO copywriter and blogger. His areas of expertise include technology, pop culture, and marketing.
