On Vacation

Busy week this week, not much time for blogging. Been sorting out loose ends prior to my annual ski trip.

Off on vacation today. Back soon.

Friday Links Fun

A couple of quick links for a Friday.

Firstly - if you haven't already gone there, check out Teachers Love Smartboards. James has some great posts about using Smartboards in the classroom. He also posts links to some excellent websites that can be used on any board, not just Smartboards. One of my favourites from his recent posts has been this link to a great animation tool called Kerpoof! It's well worth a visit.

Also, via the TES forum I found a link to a great resource for secondary Science called Freezeray. The site has plenty of interactive activities that cover various aspects of Biology, Chemistry and Physics and would be great for some extra reinforcement during a lesson. Again, since they are written in Flash they will work on any IWB.

The BBC have produced a great site to accompany a forthcoming TV show called The Brainbox Challenge. Plenty of interactive Flash games that will work well on any IWB.

For an online Brainstorm tool, check out Bubbl.us this will allow you to create brainstorms/mind maps/concept maps on your IWB. If you register you can save and recall previous diagrams and best of all, its all free!

And finally - for Geography teachers, Oxfam have an education area on their website containing the marvellous Mapping Our World resource. This resource works with maps and globes to transform pupils’ understanding of the world it allows pupils to flatten a globe, turn a map into a globe, and merge different map projections. It's suitable for students age 8-14 (KS2/KS3). Mapping Our World has won several awards, and it's not hard to see why.

A quick starter idea - Countdown Clock

Here's a quick idea for a lesson starter/plenary. The idea is to give the students 5 quickfire questions and a set, short, time limit to answer each one.

The way you can do this will be slightly different whether you have a Smartboard or an ActivBoard

Promethean Version

1. On page 1 write/type your first question.
2. Put another question on page 2, 3, 4 etc
3. Go back to page 1
4. Click on the Clock icon from the ActivStudio toolbar. Select Count Ddown from the list.
5. Set the time you want each question to be shown. In the example below I have chosen 30 seconds.
6. You can set a sound to play at the end of each time limit. Click on the drop down arrow to choose a different sound.
7. In the second drop down, choose "Turn to next page".
8. Make sure the Repeat box is checked. This will make the clock work on every slide rather than just the first one.
9. Then click OK

What will happen is that the first question will be displayed and the clock will start counting down. When it reaches zero, the sound will play and ActivStudio will immediately turn to the second question. This will repeat for all the questions you have written.

SmartBoard version

Smart Notebook does have a countdown timer, but it does not turn the pages automatically.

You can find the timer in the gallery in several places. Check under - Essentials for Educators - Mathematics - General Resources - Tools. Drag the timer from the gallery onto your 5 question pages.

Set each clock to Count Down and set the time to 30 seconds.

Once the clock has counted down, move to the next page. You will have to do this manually.

Quick Tips

Smart Quick Tip #1 - If you use the Timer a lot, it is well worth dragging it into your My Content area of the gallery so you can find it quicker.

Smart Quick Tip #2 - You can search the gallery by keyword. So a quick way to find the timer would be to type the word Timer into the search box at the top of the gallery. All the items that have a keyword of Timer will be returned in the search.

General Tip #1 - If you want to set up the questions during a lesson and you do not want the students to see them before you are ready, You can use the Blank or the Freeze button on the remote control to hide what you are doing until you are ready.

Yenka Science and Maths Resources

Yenka is a new resource from the people who produced Crocodile Clips. It's based on their Absorb range of online teaching materials that originally were released alongside Crocodile Physics and Chemistry.

The whole library is going to be a subscription service, but on release they have produced 700 resources which can be used free-of charge.

These resources cover aspects of science and maths and should work very well on an interactive whiteboard. Well worth a visit.

Yenka via kwout

Promethean software version 3

I do a lot of training in schools using Promethean Activ Boards, and in nearly every case they are still using ActivPrimary 2 or ActivStudio 2. Most of these schools haven't been made aware that version 3 is available - and has been for nearly a year.

Version 3 has some new features and tweaks that make it work a little better than v2.

If you already own version 2 - you can upgrade to version 3 for free. All you need to have is your Serial number, which you can find inside the box that the Activ software came in. You can also find the serial number in the Help > About menu inside the software.

There are two different pages to go to, depending on whether you are in the UK or the US.

UK users should go here.

US users should go here.

You can enter your details at the bottom of the page, and will then be sent a link to download version 3. If this does not work, or the thought of a 600MB download is too much, you can order a CD for a small fee. On the page you will find a link to a pdf file that explains the new features of version 3.

For teachers who want to be able to check out Promethean resources on their computers, but dont want to install the full version of ActivStudio/Primary - there is a Flipchart viewer that you can download. You can get it here

The viewer is also good if you want students to be able to take home copies of the lessons you have produced on your classroom IWB. As an alternative, you can also direct them towards ActivStudio Student Edition. This is freely available for use by any student of a school or institution that owns licensed copies of Promethean Activstudio. Every one of your students may install this software to create their own flipchart presentations or open their teachers’ flipcharts.

Three Quick Links

I'm full of cold and losing my voice here. So just a quick post today.

Three quick links that I should have mentioned earlier, all of which have some good advice and ideas for using the IWB in the classroom.

1. The Smartboard FAQ written by Jim Birney

2. 50 Things to do with an Interactive Whiteboard

3. The Busy Teachers Guide to Interactive Whiteboards

OK, back to bed and dosing myself up with Lemsip and Strepsils....

Health and Safety

When I deliver IWB training sessions I do get asked quite a bit about the health and safety implications of using a whiteboard and projector, especially after a report appeared in the Times Newspaper a few years back.

There are several guidance documents that are worth referring to. Many schools now have this guidance printed out and stuck on the wall next to the IWB.

Health and Safety Exectutive Guidance
Becta Guidance
Teachernet Guidance
National Whiteboard Network Guidance (word document)

Basically, the guidance can be summarised as follows:

• Staring directly into the projector beam should be avoided at all times.
• Standing facing into the beam is minimised. Users, especially pupils and students, should try to keep their backs to the beam as much as possible. In this regard, the use of a stick or laser pointer to avoid the need for the user to enter the beam is recommended.
• Pupils and students are adequately supervised when they are asked to point out something on the screen.
• Employers should also try to ensure that projectors are located out of the sight line from the screen to the audience; this ensures that, when presenters look at the audience, they do not also have to stare at the projector lamp. The best way to achieve this is by ceiling-mounting rather than floor or table-mounting the projector.
• In order to minimise the lamp power needed to project a visible presentation, employers should use room blinds to reduce ambient light levels. The brightness on the projector can then be turned down via its internal settings.
  

In addition to this advice, I would like to add a few comments

1. Make sure that both sides of the board are free from clutter - so that it is possible to stand either side of the board when addressing the class. This minimises the need to stand directly in the beam.

2. Check the remote control of your projector (or a. Find your projector remote control and b. check it!) and see if it has a button that says Blank or No Show, Mute/Pic or Show/Hide or something like that. This button will dim the output of the projector, basically blanking the screen if you do not want to use it for a while. You can now talk to the class without being dazzled by the beam. Obviously this is only handy if you do not want to refer to the board as well. This is better for the projector bulb than turning it off and on all the time using the power button.

(On a side note - most projector remotes also have a Freeze button which lets you freeze the projector on the current image while you sort out the next piece of work.. maybe put up a problem for the pupils to solve while you then find the next part of the presentation or a web game etc. The other use (and one I obviously do not condone!) allows you to check your emails while the pupils are copying something off the IWB!)

3. As I mentioned before, reduce the glare of the board when giving presentations by using a pastel page background instead of a white one.

If you follow this advice, and employ some common sense you should have no problems using your interactive whiteboard safely.

Embedding ICT @ Secondary Guides

Back in 2004, the DFES and BECTA produced an excellent series of guides which covered the use of Interactive Whiteboards in Secondary schools for each of the National Curriculum subjects.

Each document containsed a set of subject specific advice, guidance and examples to support more effective use of ICT in the teaching and learning of science. There is some great case studies in each one. I was pleased to have been able to have some input into the Science one - a colleague of mine wrote it and I provided some of the ideas.

A copy was, I think, sent to each school but when I do training sessions very few teachers have seen these. You can get them online, but they are rather buried in the quagmire that is the teachernet online publications catalogue. Some can still be accessed from the site, but others do not have an obvious download link or are out of print.

I've done some digging around, and here are the direct links to the pdf files for each subject:

Use of Interactive Whiteboards in English

Use of Interactive Whiteboards in Mathematics

Use of Interactive Whiteboards in Science

Use of Interactive Whiteboards in Music

Use of Interactive Whiteboards in Art and Design

Use of Interactive Whiteboards in History

Use of Interactive Whiteboards in Geography

Use of Interactive Whiteboards in Design and Technology

Use of Interactive Whiteboards in MFL

Use of Interactive Whiteboards in PE

Use of Interactive Whiteboards in ICT

Use of Interactive Whiteboards in Citizenship

Use of Interactive Whiteboards in RE

Thanks to Hertfordshire Grid for Learning, who are hosting all of these files on their webspace.

Other good guides from BECTA include:

Getting the Most from your Interactive Whiteboard - A guide for Secondary Schools
Getting the Most from your Interactive Whiteboard - A guide for Primary Schools

If you are interested in getting some ideas for the use of whiteboards in your subject, or you want some materials to give to other teachers in your school to inspire or inform them, then it is well worth your while downloading these guides.