I’m been trying to organise one of these for over a year, and I am now really proud to be able to announce that TeachMeet Essex will be taking place on the evening of Tuesday 19th October.

It will be taking place at the Pioneer School, Basildon. The event is open to anyone interested in education in the Essex area, as well as the unitary authorities of Southend and Thurrock. Plus anyone outside the area who is interested is also more than welcome.

I’m very nervous about getting this off the ground, and having seen some excellent Teachmeets elsewhere I know there’s a lot to live up to. But with the help of everyone we could make this an excellent unconference.

You can find out more information at the TMEssex Wiki here: http://teachmeet.pbworks.com/TeachMeetEssex

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If you are looking for training materials for Promethean ActivInspire then your most definitely do not want to miss Tim Cooper’s wiki. You can find it here: http://promethean.york.wikispaces.net/su10training.

There are 13 flipcharts, each covering a different aspect of ActiveInspire, plus a transition flipchart for those moving across from older versions, an advanced flipchart and finally a homework task! It’s well worth a look.

All materials are covered under a creative commons license, so again – if you use, pay it forward and pass on the materials with a link to Tims wiki.

It’s a great resource, and thanks again to Tim for sharing them.

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Easiteach Next Generation is the latest version of the whiteboard software from RM/Lightbox. Now I’ll nail my colours to the mast early. I am a Smart and Promethean person. I have also loved their software equally above anything else I’ve used out there. Mimio, Ebeam and Starboard software just didn’t have the features and ease-of-use that the big two have had since their very early days. One piece of software that I had mixed feeling about was RM Easiteach. In some places it was very nice, but in others it still lacked the tools of Smart & Promethean. I remember writing a (sadly defunct) training package that featured all three, and there were many things Smart and Promethean software could do that Easiteach couldn’t.

I was interested then to hear of a new version of Easiteach that is on its way. And even luckier to be sent an early trial version to take a look at. It looks a little slicker than the older version I last looked at a few years ago now. The trial version I had is still under development, so didn’t have every feature in place.

Menus are reasonably clear, with coloured icons placed at the bottom of the screen for younger students (or shorter teachers!) to reach. Object manipulation on the page is simple, with large clear anchor points around each object.

Tools such as handwriting and shape recognition are still there. A feature that the others don’t do yet is Text to Speech, which is nice. Although not sure how useful most schools will find it.

A new feature is the Widget Bank. Flash items that run on the page such as calculator, clock, periodic table, protractor, picture reveal, dice, random item generator, navigator and more. There are currently 20+ widgets available in the bank with more to be added with each new release. Moving and resizing these on the page is simpler than Smart Notebook.

The localised and searchable media bank within Easiteach will comprise over 4,500 curriculum-based resources including over 70 videos.

Users are able to record sound and video directly on to a page. Using the media bank you can also capture images, record sounds and record videos using external hardware, such as microphones or digital cameras, and add them to your page and then also add them to your personal media bank.

Tools that I couldnt find include Desktop Capture – which I still think is a massive omission, as well as desktop annotation.  Desktop capture should be there though. I found I couldn’t even copy and paste an image from the web and paste it in, or even drag it in. There’s no reason for such a fundamental omission. I could save images to a folder, then import or import from scanner or camera into my image bank then putting onto the page, but thats not the same and is a little too cumbersome.

Screenshade and Spotlight tool are also things that any self-respecting IWB software should have. No idea why these are missing. Hopefully they’ll be in the final version. There’s a whole “special effects” icon that as yet does nothing, but says coming soon.. so hope they’re on there.

Easiteach works on all brands of interactive whiteboards – as long as you buy a licence. The ability to import and export Easiteach documents as the common IWB file format  “.iwb files” should also mean that in theory you can share and use resources created on other software packages – should Smart and Promethean adopt the .iwb format too.

On the whole I like it, but for now I’ll be sticking with Smart and Promethean. If I was stuck in a school with Hitachi boards, and wanted to buy something that I could legally use on the board then I’d consider Easiteach. I’m not happy about some of the basics that are still missing, but hopefully they’ll be there in the finished version. It’s always hard getting an opinion from a not-quite-complete version. Once the finished product is done I’ll take another look.

You can download a 30 day trial of the software here: http://www.easiteach.com/eng/trial/ so go and take a look and see what you think!

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Tagged with: , easiteach, lightbox, RM

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A few years ago I was on a Train the Trainers day. The chap delivering the training showed us all quite a few nice examples of things to do on Smartboards, one or two I hadn’t seen before, and one or two that were nice variations on a theme. At the end of the training we asked him for a copy of his file so we could incorporate it into our own days. He said no. He’d spent ages making them and didn’t feel happy giving them away. It would be best if we made our own versions… I was gobsmacked. We were working for same company, it wasn’t like we were rival trainers or anything.

I was reminded of this recently when I saw a page I had written appear in someone elses demonstration. It was using a photograph I had taken so was pretty distinctive. More than happy to see that, not a problem. Was quite pleased that they’d liked it so much they wanted to use it. What did surprise me was that when one of the other people in the room asked for a copy, the trainer said no. They’d rather not share something they were using in a current course.

This got me thinking about the way that I share stuff, and expect it to be shared. I’ve always shared the materials I’ve written, ever since I started teaching. One of my earliest web sites back in 1996/1997 contained zip files of worksheets I had written (which – scarily – is still online and gathering dust). Sometimes I’d share stuff with the world whether the world wanted it or not! When I moved out of teaching into teacher training I still produced materials and put them on my site to download. That’s just what I do.

Anyone coming to any of my training courses will get a CD of resources – often far more stuff than I really should be passing on. You will also find a lot of it on this blog too. But if I can help teachers to get started with using whiteboards and other tech then I’m happy to do that.

But I have an expectation. And maybe I haven’t stressed that enough on here, and on my download pages. I’ve mentioned before that I am a big fan of Creative Commons. I love the idea behind share and share alike. And there’s a fantastic community of educators who all share their resources readily with everyone who wants it. It’s great to see.

So here’s the deal. All of my material is distributed under a Creative Commons license. Attribution/Share Alike. It’s always been that way, take a look at the very bottom of the blog, it says so down there, next to the stuff about guinness and chocolate, that’s true too

I really want you to take what I’ve done and mash it up. Adapt it for your subject. Rework, adapt and adopt. You get the idea. Or even just use it as-is. Any of that is fine with me. I’m not protective of it – please use it. It’s why I share it – for you to use. I want you to have it, and I’m thrilled when I see it used. In no way am I saying – don’t use my stuff.

But….

If you use my stuff in your lesson materials, or your training materials, then the deal is that you make it freely available to everyone else who wants a copy. Put in on your school network. Pass it to your colleagues on a USB stick. Put it on a site for download. Use DropBox. Email it to them. Tell them where you got it and give them the link. Whatever. But don’t hoard it.

Even better – I’d love to see the stuff you make with it. I want to see some of the ways you adapt them for your own subject. Email me, contact me via twitter or just comment on this blog. I hope, through sharing the stuff on this site, that I can inpsire you to make things for yourself. I’ve been chuffed with the response to posts like my Lesson Starter ideas. If you don’t have any webspace and / or don’t want the hassle, email it to me and I can host it here.

Become a sharer yourself. Pay it forward.

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So yeah I am still here, but been a little too busy to blog. Getting everything sorted for the end of term. Been hidden away for a while writing an update to resources for Serif software to teach the OCR Nationals ICT course. Which I am glad to say is pretty much complete. Now it’s almost the holidays!

So, by way of a rather unstructured blog post, are a few things that have caught my eye over the last week or so, grabbed from my delicious feed..

Fried Technology lists how to build a Document Camera for Under $100, using a good quality webcam plus a few bits and pieces to hold it in place. Nice idea. Check the rest of their blog too.

Hold the Front Pages is a novel way of displaying every front page of UK newspapers on one screen. You can zoom in on any one. Interesting to discuss coverage of a national news story in tutor time or PSHE.

Sue Waters has written an excellent blog post about Everything you wanted to know about getting students blogging. Very comprehensive.

A great article about Reasons for Digital Photography in education, by Flixelpix for Futurelab.

Shedd Aquarium have some great resources for teaching about the sea and coral reefs.

Having been a hardcore Everquest2 player for several years, and having been cold turkey for about 2 years, I have been dipping my toe into World of Warcraft. But I’m handling it The trick is to not join a guild… I’ve soloed to 73 so far. Anyway, if you like WoW or know kids who do – then check out the WoW in School project. This is a collaborative workspace for the development of instructional items for the use of the MMORPG, World of Warcraft, in a school setting.

And finally, for now:

Explore old pictures on a map with HistoryPin. Historypin is a like a digital time machine that allows people to view and share their personal history in a totally new way. It uses Google Maps and Street View technology and hopes to become the largest user-generated archive of the world’s historical images and stories.Historypin asks the public to dig out, upload and pin their own old photos, as well as the stories behind them, onto the Historypin map. Uniquely, Historypin lets you layer old images onto modern Street View scenes, giving a series of peeks into the past.

Have a great summer break!

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Here are a few ideas taken from some of the talks I have given this academic year for ideas on using your Interactive Whiteboard during lesson starters. They could also be used as plenary tasks. Some of the ideas you may have seen before in various places (such as the Canada, Germany talks), but I’m bundling them up into one file for you to download.

Here are some of the activities that are in the file:

Organ Reveal : A student comes to the board and pulls out an organ. They then have one minute to talk about the organ and its role in the body without repetition or pauses…. I’ve also included the fishing rod and balloon activities from previous presentations.

Put it in the box : This activity makes use of the layer feature. One group of objects will go into the box, the other group will not go into the box. In this example drag the insects into the box…. Easily adaptable for any two groups of objects.

To customise. Add all the items to the page. Unlock the front of the box and “send to front”. Relock. Then select all the objects that do not go into the box and “send to front”. They will stay outside, while the other objects will now go inside the box again.

Keyword Bingo : Pupils use a selection of words to create a bingo grid on a piece of paper. Teacher can then reveal definitions at random. Cross it off the grid and see who can get three in a row and a full house.

Plenary Circle : Simple idea, but can be used at all key stages. Pull in pairs of words to make “I know that…. ” sentences. If you have a more able group, you could leave one word in for the next pupil to use in their sentence – this means you have to think more carefully about the range of words you put around the edge of the circle.

Word Builder : How many words can you make that relate to science. Give everyone time to make as many words as they can. Students can come to the board to show examples of the words they have made.

Use the links below to download a version of the file for your whiteboard:

Promethean ActivInspireVersion : Download here

Smart Notebook 10 Version : Download here

If you use the files, I’d love to hear how they went. If you do adapt them for your own subject, please let me know what you did – I’d be interested in having a copy. It’s always good to get ideas from other subjects. All my resources are covered by a Creative Commons Share-Alike license. I am more than happy for you to pass on, rework and modify any of the files that I produce. BUT…. share alike. You got it for free, pass it on for free

And a subtle plug – if you ever want training sessions on how to make these kind of resources – please get in touch. I’m happy to travel around the UK and can go further afield if dates allow. Email me for more information.

Filed under: Activity Ideas, Games and interactives, Interactive Whiteboards, Promethean IWB's, Science Resources, Smartboards

Tagged with: , activinspire, Activity Ideas, download, plenary, Promethean IWB's, Smart IWB's, Smartboards, starter

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Here’s a rather cute use of Augmented Reality technology. Produced by London Zoo it gives you the chance to have your very own Augmented reality lemur, Loris, sitting in the palm of your hand.

Loris doesn’t do a lot, and you can’t really interact with her. But she’s very cute.

You’ll need a webcam to get this to work, and you’ll need to print out a special marker on a page for the camera to detect. Find out more here.

Filed under: Activity Ideas, Interactive Whiteboards, Science Resources, Useful Links

Tagged with: , augmented, lemur, reality, zoo

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I’ve written about the fabulous Aviary before. If you haven’t seen it, Aviary provides a suite of online tools that allows you to take create images, edit screenshots, edit sounds and create music. All for free, and all through your browser.

I was rather pleased to find out that there will soon be an special version for students and educators that lets them use Aviary in a completely private setting which is separate from the rest of the Aviary community. Aviary Education will let teachers:

• Create private student accounts
• Manage assignments and projects
• Use the image editor, vector editor, audio editor & music creator
• access content and images which are 100% school safe

It’s currently in beta, so if you want to try it out you can request a free beta trial.

Check it out now: http://www.aviaryeducation.com/

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US whiteboard users might well be interested in this competition that has just been launched by StarrMatica.

StarrMatica is on a mission to help teachers in every corner of the United States!  They are giving away a $900 StarrMatica School Subscription in every state!

StarrMatica school subscription gives all teachers and students in a building access to an online library of 3,800 K-6 reading, math, and science manipulatives, animations, activities, and games at school and at home for an entire year.  Teachers can also search their library of interactive content to find resources aligned to state standards, the national core curriculum and popular textbook curriculums.

To enter you need to design a lesson or resource that uses some of Starrmatica’s resources. More information can be found on their How To Enter page.

Competition closes on 30th September when the entries will then be judged. You might recognise one or two of the judges….

Good Luck!

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Can I Play This at Home is a fun free online game, in which you try to win the World Cup as any of the 32 nations – by answering questions on tricky spellings, spanish verbs, state capitals, world capitals… or whatever else the teacher decides on.

Teachers can create their own quizzes on the site, and set the game to run using those instead, so it’s very versatile for revising any topic that you want.

http://www.caniplaythisathome.com/play.htm

Go take a look.

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