Class Tools
I may have mentioned Classtools.net before, but I’ve been using it a lot recently so it’s worth another mention. There are lots of handy flash tools on this site, but these two are my favourites.
This is a cute little tool that allows you to set the class a time limit for a given task, and then count down the time left with some fun background music. There are 10 tunes included, ranging from a 30 second Countdown theme tune, 57 seconds Hawaii Five-0 or a 7 minute piece of Mozart. If you want you can even upload your own mp3 file to use instead.
This was a fun alternative to the built-in Promethean and Smart timers, and would also be very useful for users of other whiteboards who don’t have access to a timer in their own software.
There are several different ways you can use the name picker, and they don’t all involve names!
This tool lets you input a list of names/text and then go to either a fruit machine or typewriter view. Names are then picked at random.
I’ve used it when getting students up to speak for a presentation – giving me a random way of choosing the order. I’ve seen this used by Ewan McIntosh at TeachMeet in the same way. Clicking the “remove” button will take the chosen name out of the list so they do not appear twice.
It could be also used with keywords or a topic heading. In typewriter mode one word at a time will appear letter by letter (and they dont get to see the other words). Students could then have to give a definition of the word, or one student with their back to the board has to guess the word from the descriptions given by other students. There’s many ways this tool could be used.
This can be run in full screen mode or embedded into your blog, and you can even save this to your computer to run offline.
There are many other tools on the classtools website -including Timelines, Venn Diagrams and Fishbone diagrams. It’s well worth taking some time to look at them all and see which ones could be used well in your subject/year group.
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Coke and Mentos
Following on from this post; I have two videos to share with you. Today we tried the Diet Coke and Mentos experiments.
The first was streamed direct onto the internet using Qik.com
The second was put together in Windows Movie Maker using clips from my camcorder
Diet coke and mentos from Danny Nicholson on Vimeo.
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Flip Video
I’ve been hearing about the Flip video from teachers across the pond via Twitter for a few weeks or so. They’re now available in the UK.
The flip video is a small handheld camcorder with 2GB of on-board memory. It can take up to 60 minutes of video in 640×480 resolution.
The best bit is that it has a “flip out” USB connector so it can plug straight into a USB slot on your computer. Ideal for using with laptops with easily accessible ports. So no messing with docks and cables.
It’s not going to replace the need for decent camcorders for decent quality recording. But as a fun handheld camera to give out to pupils to record video around the school, to take on field trips, or to film experiments or new reports it would be ideal. It’s going up against the Digital Blue and ToughCams, and if its robust enough, should take them on very well indeed.
They retail for just under £100 each so buying a few for class use wouldn’t break the bank.
I haven’t got my hands on one yet, but they certainly look like something that’s worth investigating further.
More info on the Flip website, and also from these resellers:
Play.com
Firebox
Currys
Amazon.co.uk
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MirandaMod Unconference
Just plugging this for @Digitalmaverick on Twitter
The MirandaMod UnConference takes place on 10th July at the Institute of Education, London. More info here.
MirandaMod is an informal, loosely structured unconference of like-minded educators to share ideas about the use of technology to inspire others. This will be the first of what we hope will become a regular feature in the MirandaNet calendar. It is likely that MirandMod will usually (but not always) be a fringe event following or attached to a formal MirandaNet seminar/workshop or meeting. It is hoped to establish an International dimension to this event
Unfortunately, I am booked to do training elsewhere, so unless they cancel I won’t be able to attend. But if you are interested, visit the Wiki page and sign up.
Update – The school have cancelled, which is a result. So I’ll be there. Giving a talk, not sure what on yet!
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The SMART Teacher Content Challenge
Just to make you aware, if you’re not already, of a great competition from Smart:
Show off your lesson development skills with the SMART Teacher Content Challenge. Take the opportunity before July 31, 2008, to send us an innovative and effective lesson that incorporates digital content – you could win a seven-day trip for two or a school subscription to the SMART Learning Marketplace.
And SMART makes entering the challenge easy. We provide you with 30 MB of free digital resources from the Marketplace – find images, video clips, audio files and manipulatives (learning objects) to help you make your lesson great!
Teachers in the US and Canada will win a trip to London to see BETT 
Teachers in the UK and Ireland will win a trip to Calgary to see Smarts Headquarters.
I’ve been to Calgary in the past (not to Smart HQ though) and it’s a great place. I know which prize I’d prefer 
Follow these steps to submit your lesson to the SMART Teacher Content Challenge:
- E-mail your name and school details to smartteacher@globalgridforlearning.com. You’ll receive a promo code within 24 hours.
- Visit the SMART Learning Marketplace site and enter your promo code
- Download your free 30 MB of digital resources
- Create a dynamic lesson with your newly acquired images, manipulatives (learning objects) and multimedia files
- Write a report about your experiences teaching with the lesson and submit your report and the lesson before July 31, 2008 to www.globalgridforlearning.com/smartteacher.htm
More information can be found here
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Electricity and Circuits Ks2
Here are some handy links for teaching Primary Electricity on an IWB
This is something I haven’t seen before. Looks quite fun
I used to use a great piece of free software called Crocodile Elementary, from Crocodile Clips. It seemed to have gone but I think I’ve found it again. It’s been rebranded as Yenka Basic Circuits, and you can download it from the Yenka website here.
From the BBC:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/6_7/electricity.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/science/activities/conductors.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/science/activities/changing_circuits.shtml
Other Links
Make an Electric Circuit Online
BBC Learning Zone – Electricity Videos
For a quick 10 minute preview, that explains some aspects of circuits. Go to Furry Elephant, and choose series or parallel circuits. It literally only allows you 10 minutes though.
Link to other Links Pages
E=TC3 6G Changing Circuits Page
E=TC3 4f Circuits and Conductors Page
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TV on your Whiteboard
There are different ways to get multimedia content onto your IWB. Youtube is pretty good, but it can be something of a lottery. Buying professional CD’s and DVD’s is another option.
One other way that has interested me for a while, is turning your computer into a Television. This is becoming easier and easier.
A few years back I bought a plug in device that was the size of a paperback book. It was quite awkward to use and the picture quality and recording quality was pretty poor.
I have just bought a new device that has really impressed me. It’s called the Pinnacle PCTV Nano stick and it is a hybrid Digital/Analogue TV tuner stick.
First thing to impress me was the price, it was only £35 in PC World. Secondly is the size, its tiny. And the third thing to impress me is the picture quality. Plugged into my normal house aerial the quality was pretty good, and we’re not a particularly strong area for television reception.
Using the supplied, portable aerial was less impressive. I was not able to get a signal at home. I am going to look into some kind of digital booster and see if that makes things better. I don’t want TV on the move as such, but it would be nice to have a system that I could use if no rooftop aerial connection was possible.
The Stick comes with Pinnacle TVCentre Pro software so that the television picture is shown in a window on your computer screen. This software will also let you use your computer as a hard drive/DVD recorder and it is this aspect that interests me for use on an IWB.
You can save TV programmes as straight MPEG files or DivX format. It will also export for devices such as ipods etc. I could take the DivX file and copy it straight onto my Archos to view on the train for example. File sizes can be large, but recording directly onto DVD would avoid filling your hard drive too quickly.
For a teacher who wants to record snippets of a TV programme to show to a class this is ideal. You could record adverts that use really bad science and then get the class to pick the science apart.
It could also connect to the coax output from a video recorder and let you digitise any of the old video tapes that you have hanging around in your department cupboards that haven’t yet been put onto DVD.
Obviously copyright is an issue here, and I would check this with your school first.
There are several other PC/TV Sticks out there. Pinnacle are doing a few, and also check out Happauge for other PC/TV devices.
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Whiteboard Day
I’m doing a Whiteboard in Science training day tomorrow, so here’s a quick post to use partly as a brain dump and partly so I can point the trainees towards to cover some of things that I will be mentioning during the day.
Firstly – a summary of useful links from the last day can be found here:
http://www.whiteboardblog.co.uk/2008/03/whiteboard-training-day-links.html
My Science IWB Files
To Download YouTube Videos:
http://www.converttube.com/
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/04/download-youtube-videos-as-mp4-files.html
http://www.zamzar.com/
http://smartboards.typepad.com/smartboard/2007/12/smartboard-vide.html
Science IWB Links
http://del.icio.us/dannynic/science%2Biwb
Science Whiteboard Blog Posts
http://www.whiteboardblog.co.uk/labels/science.html
And when using powerpoints on an IWB, don’t do this:
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Diet Coke and Mentos
Not a totally whiteboard related post, but in a few weeks time I am going to be trying out the Diet Coke and Mentos experiment with my group of Primary Teachers. We’ve talked about it quite a bit over the year, but haven’t actually tried it out yet.
I was looking into release mechanisms to allow me to set off the reaction from a safe distance. I saw some good ideas at the ASE conference in Jan. One thing that you can buy is the Geyser Tube, which is available from gadget stores such as Firebox for about a fiver.
Put the mentos in the tube, then pull the string and stand back. The pin will pull out and release the mints into the Coke.
Try this as part of a Sc1 investigation – test different brands of cola, types of fizzy drink etc. There’s a Mythbusters clip out there that tries to explain what is going on.
If you haven’t seen what happens when you do this, then check out the Eepybird website, for the chaps that started the internet phenomenon.
I’m hoping to get some photos and movie footage when we do finally do this. I’ll be sure to shareif I do
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About Me
Danny Nicholson : Educator, Science teacher, ICT Consultant, PGCE lecturer, Author and Web2.0 / SMART Masters/ Interactive Whiteboard Trainer. Contact me for any training requests. 
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