Desmos Interactive Graphing Calculator

Posted on Jan 27, 2012 in Games and interactives, Interactive Whiteboards, Numeracy Resources, Subject Resources, Web Tools | 0 comments

I’ve written about Desmos before – they are developing some very interesting online whiteboard software which is still currently  in beta.

But while we’re waiting for the full release, Desmos have released something else they’ve been working on as a side project, and thats their Desmos Calculator, available at www.abettercalculator.com

You can very quickly enter equations using a combination of the keyboard and the pop up equation builder. The lines immediately appear on the graph. Change the equation and see the change in the line straight away. Or layer multiple lines on the same graph.

Here’s what Desmos had to say about it:

We set out to reimagine the graphing calculator from the ground up, building on the best technologies available. This is beautiful, powerful, intuitive math that lives in your browser. Graph multiple functions in vivid color and watch them update as you type. Save your work to the cloud or share it with friends. Transform your computer or tablet into a math engine. This is just the beginning—and it’s all completely free.

Maths teachers should definitely bookmark this. It’s a totally free resource running in HTML5 so it will even run on your iPad via mobile Safari.

Go take a look at Desmos Graphing Calculator here, and let me know what you think in the comments below!

Circus Physics – videos and teaching resources

Posted on Jan 25, 2012 in Digital Media, Interactive Whiteboards, Science Resources | 0 comments

Here’s a really fun website for science teachers from PBS. The Circus Physics website uses jugglers, clowns and high-flying acrobats provide an entertaining and engaging way to introduce basic physics concepts to high school students.

Eight videos feature footage from the PBS television series about the circus and interviews with the performers to illustrate the laws of physics at work. For deeper exploration, each video has  a corresponding Study Guide for students and an Activity Guide for teachers, as well as raw video clips of performances which can be used for analysis in the classroom.

It’s handy resource – go check it out at http://www.pbs.org/opb/circus/classroom/circus-physics/

Using interactive whiteboards without whiteboard software

Posted on Jan 24, 2012 in Hardware, Interactive Whiteboards | 2 comments

This is my contribution to an Ed Tech Blog Carnival, you can find out more by going here.

While I wandering around the BETT show the other week, there were many interactive whiteboards on show that did not come with what I’d recognise as Notebook/Flipchart software. This was especially true of some of the cheap chinese boards who seemed to purely be demonstrating that you could use their board to to use Google Earth.

Some brands of board came bundled with third party software such as Easiteach or Wizteach, while some had very cut down software that was not fit for purpose. Others came with no software at all, apart from a hardware driver, in which case they’re just selling a giant mouse/tablet and leaving it up to the teacher to find the content.

This got me thinking. I’m primarily a SMART and Promethean user. For me the Notebook and ActivInspire software is the heart of your interactive whiteboard – allowing teachers to pre-prepare lesson resources which they can display in class, and to capture and record any notes written on the whiteboard for use later on.

But I guess the question is, do you need software like smart notebook/activinspire/easiteach to get the most use of your board? Can you get by with a mixture of PowerPoint and interactive resources found online?

There are certainly a lot of good quality, free resources that can be used by teachers in their lessons. I’ve shared links to enough of them over the years on this blog. There are even more available if your school subscribes to a managed resource such as Espresso or BrainPop. And the benefit of these resources is that they don’t need any investment in teacher time to create them. You can also access resources such as Triptico for free which provides a bank of free resources and templates.

So what are the options if you have a cheap interactive whiteboard, an interactive projector, or just a projector/interactive slate combo without any useful notebook software bundled with it?

1. Buy a licence for IWB software

You can buy standalone licences for software such as ActivInspire/Easiteach/Wizteach. Prices vary from about £80 to £200 per licence, which needs to be factored in to the savings your school is making by buying the cheaper boards in the first place.  Currently it’s not possible to buy SMART software at present, but I’ve heard rumours that may change in the future.

Buying into this software does give you access to additional resources as well, in particular Promethean Planet’s large library of ready-made flipcharts.

2. Use Powerpoint

It’s often seen as the work of the devil, but used correctly you can still make good use of PowerPoint. Don’t load the slides with too much text, use plenty of images. You can even draw and write on slides using the pen tool (look to the bottom corner of the slides when in slideshow mode). Maybe one day PowerPoint will add a whiteboard mode as a half-way mode between full slideshow and design mode. But not yet.

It is possible to buy into ready-made resources such as those by BoardWorks which do have some level of interactivity with embedded Flash files. But this can be expensive.

3. Open source alternatives

I don’t know of many open source alternatives to the IWB software apart from  Open Sankore but features-wise it is nowhere near ready to be used in a classroom. If you know of any others, post them in the comments.

4. Online alternatives

One of the best tools I’ve seen recently is a collaborative whiteboard tool called Desmos, but sadle it’s not yet out of bet. You might also be able to use online pages such as Dabbleboard or similar. You could possibly use some of the various online noticeboard tools, but these are limited and most do not allow for handwritten notes..

So what do you use?

If you are a teacher who doesn’t have access to what I would class as “proper” notebook software (ActivInspire/Easiteach/Smart Notebook) – what do you use on your interactive whiteboard? Have you moved away from a whiteboard completely and just use a wireless slate to control third party resources on your computer? Can you get by on just online resources? Is it essential to be able to write and annotate in a dedicated piece of flipchart software?

As an extra thought – I know some teachers are looking at a combination of an iPad 2 and Apple TV hooked up to a projector, allowing you to project the iPad screen onto the wall. I only have an iPad 1 so haven’t been able to try this yet. While you can show any iPad app, you do limit yourself from being able to use all the Flash resources that are on the internet. Only a fraction use HTML5 right now.

Please share your solutions in the comments below. I’d be interested to hear what you do.

Photo Credit : Evaluation Scale by BillsoPHOTO

ICT Reviews for Schools – Whiteboard Guide

Posted on Jan 24, 2012 in Interactive Whiteboards, Promethean, SMARTboards, Useful Links | 0 comments

You may not know this but PC Pro magazine produces an occasional supplement for education called ICT Reviews for Schools. The free guide is packed with buyer’s guides, reviews and features to help schools spend their IT budgets wisely.

Issue 4 is just out, and this time features a very interesting article written by Terry Freedman entitled “Getting the most from your interactive whiteboard”.

The guide also includes head to head reviews of a Promethean and Smart whiteboard as well as a great guide to 10 free online tools.

It’s well worth a look. It’s a free download, and you can get hold of a copy here.

Adobe Education Exchange – resources for teachers

Posted on Jan 23, 2012 in Resources, Software, Tutorials and Guides, Useful Links | 0 comments

The Adobe Education Exchange hosts a range of free, peer-reviewed teaching and learning resources, developed by Adobe Education Leaders,  educators who are already integrating technology in to classes with great success who also use the Exchange themselves to find inspiration for creative teaching activities.

For example the site contains guidance on teaching code for games design and app development which supports collaborative learning, or lesson plans for effectively teaching photography students panoramic techniques.

For more information or to sign up to the Adobe Education Exchange visit: http://edexchange.adobe.com.

QuadBlogging and Blogging the Leap Year projects

Posted on Jan 20, 2012 in Activity Ideas, Digital Media, Literacy Resources | 0 comments

A quick post to make my readers aware of an excellent project set up by Deputy Headteacher David Mitchell. He’s developed an excellent model for school collaboration called Quadblogging which sets up groups of schools to talk, share ideas, information and comment on each others’ work. At present there are more than 1000 classes in 27 countries working together creating some incredible moments of learning as well as fellowship. It’s an excellent idea, and the project is open to any school around the world, so get in touch with David if you want your class to get involved.

An exciting extension of this is the Feb29th.net project. Feb29th.net is a global blogging project that will cross all age groups and continents. As soon as Feb 29th 2012 begins in Tonga, the Feb29th.net website will open up to collect posts for a single day.

The Feb29th blog will capture posts from all over the world on this rare day until midnight in the Western Pacific. The result will not only be a celebration of technology, but a celebration of audience and purpose, who will be the youngest author? Who will be the oldest? Which country will top the most posts?

The aim is to allow any visitor on 29th Feb to post; these will be moderated on the day, as this will also be open to pupils in educational establishments across the globe.

To find out how your school can take part in the Feb 29 project visit : http://feb29th.net/

For more information about QuadBlogging, visit: http://quadblogging.net/

Dumpr – fun with your photos

Posted on Jan 19, 2012 in Activity Ideas, Interactive Whiteboards, Useful Links, Web Tools | 1 comment

Dumpr is a great little website that has lots of tools for doing creative things with your images. Simply choose an effect from the 21 on offer, upload your photograph and Dumpr will do the rest. You can then save your image to use elsewhere.

For example, turn an image into a Rubiks Cube:

This is a great way to create avatars images for social media, or present your images in creative ways in blog posts or student presentations. The site is free to use. Take a look at : http://www.dumpr.net/

And if you like Dumpr. also check out Big Huge Labs which has some other fun tools.

Thanks to Jan Webb (@janwebb21) for the link.

Got any other sites like this you can recommend? Share them in the comments!