Posts made in February 6th, 2009

Dr Who Notebook Game

Posted on Feb 6, 2009 in Activity Ideas | 0 comments

Just a very quick post to point you all towards this excellent Smart Notebook file to teach dictionary skills. It demonstrates an excellent use of linking to sounds produced by Lynne Horn.

If you click the correct answer K9 will say affirmative. If you click the wrong answer a Dalek will exterminate you.

Even if your subject is not languages, it’s worth taking a look just to see how you could adapt this idea for your own subject. Would make a nice quiz for a plenary or starter.

You can record your own sounds or download them from one of the myriad of sound effects sites out there.

Remember – in Smart Notebook if you want to link an object to a sound, all you need to do is right-click on the object, select Sound and then browse to the sound file you want to play.

In ActivStudio it’s a little more involved but still straightforward. Right click on the object and choose Properties. Select Actions and from the drop down box choose Play Sound. Click the Set button and choose your sound. Then click OK.

Teachable

Posted on Feb 6, 2009 in Resources | 0 comments

When I went to the ASE conference in January I was given a demonstration of an excellent website called Teachable.

Teachable.net is a high quality resource sharing website for teachers, where you can browse, download and adapt Powerpoints, worksheets and other interactive material for your class. All the files are contributed by other teachers, and have been quality-checked and tagged under easy-to-find categories.

There are over 1000 different lessons to download, ranging from high impact KS3 starters, to in-depth interactive A-level worksheets.

Unlike some other sites, Teachable is not free. Access costs from just £15 for a 10 file bundle, or there is a special offer for schools for access up to 400 files and get some training bundled for free. Charging does mean they can employ people to check the quality of the uploaded resources, which is fair enough.

Alternatively if teachers submit their own resources to the site they can get credits which they can spend on download other resources. And if your resources sell to other teachers then you will get a cut of the proceeds as well. So there is a benefit to sharing your materials with the world! Here’s a list of the types of resources they are looking for.

You can preview everything before you download the full version, and when you do download the full version they grant you a Creative Commons license the right to copy and share the resource (for educational use).

At present the site deals mainly in PowerPoints and Word files. There’s no facility to upload Smart Notebook or Promethean files. I discussed this with the representatives of Teachable at the time and they say they’ve had no call for this facility yet. Teachers are sticking with PowerPoint. While a lot of the powerpoints I saw were interactive with the use of Macros and suchlike, this did seem like an opportunity missed.

So, if you do have any high quality Smart Notebook files or Promethean flipcharts then I suggest you get in touch with Teachable to create some demand. In the meantime check out the bank of resources that are already there and perhaps share some of your good work too.

Teachable also runs a cool blog that is also worth adding to your RSS reader. From a post recently here are 10 Top Physics Videos. Well worth a look.