A Wow a Day With The Hubble Advent Calendar
I’m not sure if The Big Picture will be doing a similar calendar tomorrow, but as we rapidly approach December, what could be better than reusing their amazing set of images from last year.
There are 25 jaw-dropping photographs from the Hubble Space Telescope. Put a different one up on your IWB every day to provide a little Wow factor as the students come into the room.
I never tire of staring at some of these images, particularly the ultra deep field picture (image 25). They are just astounding.
UPDATE – Yes, they are doing a 2009 calendar. The images are here.
Read More
Creaza – cartoon, audio, video, mindmap creator
Creaza is a free online suite of applications that lets you create online cartoons, edit movies, edit audio and create mindmaps.It’s not fre for the full version, but you can try it out and do quite a bit with the free demo version.
You use the toolbox along with various themes such as historical periods, fairy-tales, fantasy worlds. This would make a great digital storytelling resource for literacy, but also for history or geography.
Creaza integrates professional and user-generated content, creative tools and a social network in a new and innovative way. It’s been nominated for a BETT award this year too, so it’s obviously highly thought of.
Like other “cloud” applications all you need to use it is Internet access, a web browser, and the Flash plug-in. Creaza is available for PC, MAC, and Linux.
It’s free to register and use the demo version, so it’s definitely well worth checking out. If you want to be able to export your creations to your computer then you need to pay to upgrade to the full version. http://www.creaza.com
Read More
3 Quick Science Resources
A quick blog post to highlight three great resources that you could use to support your Science teaching.
1. The first is a very cool model of the Solar system that fits the entire Solar System onto one, very wide, webpage. Scroll from the Sun all the way to Pluto. The planets are shown to scale in terms of both size and distance from the Sun, unlike most models where the distances are squashed to fit the whole diagram onto the screen. The Sun is 560 pixels wide, so Pluto is 2 million pixels to the right….
Thanks to the Bad Astronomy Blog for the link.
2. The second is the NASA Image Archive which aims to bring public access to NASA’s image, video, and audio collections in a single, searchable resource.
The site contains everything from classic photos to educational programming and HD video, and is growing all the time as they continue to gain both new and archived media from all of NASA’s centers.
3. And finally one of my favourite sites for images – The Big Picture – produces yet another fantastic set of images, this time of the Large Hadron Collider which has now been switched back on and is already smashing particles together. The pictures are jaw-dropping and would look great on an interactive whiteboard. Should certainly spark discussion.
And also – if you are interested in the LHC then you can follow live updates from CERN via Twitter here: http://twitter.com/cern
Read More
How to embed a YouTube video into Smart Notebook
I’ve just written a quick guide on how to download and embed a YouTube video into Smart Notebook. Thought I’d share here 
How to Insert a YouTube Video Into Smart Notebook
Read More
Remake the Stars – Art and Second Life
This video was shown at the Essex ICT conference I attended last week. I think it’s a very powerful example of how modern technology can give you a different perspective on things. What better way to understand a piece of artwork than to jump right into it.
It’s called Watch The World by an artist who’s Second Life name is Robbie Dingo. In it he shows how he recreated Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night” within Second Life.
Sadly, the work no longer exists in Second Life, it was created purely to make this video machinima.
Read more about how it was made, and download higher resolution versions here.
Read More
Creative Commons Audio for your IWB
The internet is awash with websites that provide music and sound effects, but quite often using them in your own projects would breach copyright rules. Luckily there are many sites that now provide audio files under a creative commons licence. You can use these freely, as long as you attribute the original source. Sometimes you can even licence them to use commercially if you wish.
One of my favourites for sound effects to use in presentations or podcasts is Freesound. You need to register to download the clips, but it’s free to do so.
For music check out Jamendo – a community of free, legal and unlimited music published under Creative Commons licenses. There are many different musical styles available which would be great on podcasts.
Other sites that you might want to try include the following:
Incompetech: Search for music to use by genre or mood. Free to use as long as you give attribution. If you use a lot, send a small donation.
Sound Snap : 100,000 Sound effects and music loops to download. There is free content, but also premium content if you sign up and pay a fee.
Opsound.org : Described as “An experiment in applying the model of free software to music. Musicians and sound artists are invited to add their work to the Opsound pool using a copyleft license developed by Creative Commons”. Listeners are invited to download, share, remix, and reimagine.
ccMixter is a community music site featuring remixes licensed under creative commons where you can listen to, sample, mash-up, or interact with music in whatever way you want.
Free Loops : Free sound effects and loops to use in your own music remixes
A comprehensive list of sites and portals can be found on this wiki: http://copyrightfriendly.wikispaces.com/
You can also use the Creative Commons Search engine to find CC audio.
(Image used is by Beard Papa on Flickr, original here)
Read More
Scribblar – a shared whiteboard space
Scribblar is a another in a growing line of online collaborative space such as Etherpad, Wallwisher and is probably most like Dabbleboard in the way it works. And like my favourite sites, it’s free to use.
Using Scribblar, users can collaborate on their own online whiteboard or “room” – featuring many of the tools familiar to users of Smart or Promethean boards – lines, text, shapes etc. You can upload your own images where you and others can edit it or comment on it.
In addition to the whiteboard – there is a chat box to communicate with other users, and there is also a voice chat option as well.
You can create a Scribblar “room” without creating a free Scribblar account. However, if you do choose to create an account you will get some additional free benefits like having moderator privileges to be able to lock and unlock rooms, name rooms, and some privacy controls. As it’s free, and very quick, to create an account I would recommend you do so.
Your scribblar “rooms” can be embedded into other pages such as a blog or a wiki although it’s not true embedding. Here is one I created for playing about on, click on the image below to visit the room I created and have a go with the tools:
Or you can click on this link : Collaborate Now!
Proper embedding/skinning comes with a Scribblar Pro account.
One great part about Scribblar is how easy it is to invite others to the room. You just grab the URL and paste it into an email or into any social network or your VLE.
Scribblar could be very handy for working on shared writing – although if it’s purely text then etherpad might be better. You could also upload images and ask students to analyse them – maybe artwork or historical images. Or you could use it in place of your whiteboard software to record presentations that could then be shared over the internet or VLE.
If you do start using it – leave a comment below to tell me how it was used.
Read More
IWBs and Raising Attainment
Robert Marzano has just published an article in Educational Leadership that is worth a look. It’s based on the research project he carried out for Promethean which was published earlier this year (which I covered on the Blog here)
His research found that in general the use of an interactive whiteboard did produce a rise in student attanment.
He found that there were three features of the IWB that had a statistically significant relationship with student achievement. These were:
- Student-response devices – Voting kits such as Smart Response or ActivExpression. He found this accounted for a 26 percentile point gain in attainment.
- Use of graphics and other visuals. Marzano found that using images, charts and videos was also associated with a 26 percentile point gain.
- Use of whiteboard reinforcers. Simple “checks of knowledge” that can be played on the board such as “rub to reveal” “drag and drop” etc to reinforce the learning in the lesson. This had a 31% gain. Which is pretty impressive.
Pitfalls
Marzano also found that in 23% of classes, using the IWB did not lead to better results. In fact in those classrooms students did better without the IWB
On examining the evidence, Marzano and his researchers discovered that there were potential pitfalls in using interactive whiteboards:
- Using the voting devices but doing little with the findings. In many classrooms, teachers simply noted how many students obtained the correct answer instead of probing into why one answer was more appropriate than another.
- Not organizing or pacing the content well. In these cases, the teachers incorporated video segments from the Internet or images intended to represent important information in their digital flipcharts. However, they ran through the flipcharts so quickly that students, although impressed with the graphics, did not have time to analyze and interact with one another about the content.
- Using too many visuals. Digital flipchart pages were awash with visual stimuli; it was hard to identify the important content.
- Paying too much attention to reinforcing features. For example, when teachers who had worse results with the technology used the virtual applause feature to signal a correct answer, the emphasis seemed to be on eliciting the applause rather than on clarifying the content.
His recommendations
It is probably true that for some learners, the use of an IWB is not going to make them learn any better. In other cases the simple fact that an IWB is being used is not going to magically make the learning experience better.
Marzano suggested a few ways to improve the use of the IWB in the classroom:
- Teachers should think about how to organise the lesson on their IWB. They should group information into small segments before creating digital resource.
- Digital flipcharts should contain visuals – but not too many as to confuse and distract. Make the focus clear. Also don’t contain too much written information. I’d also add to this to be aware of clashing colours or backgrounds that make the information hard to read.
- When using voting kits, don’t just say which answer is correct. Take time to discuss the correct answer (and wrong answers) and elicit opinions from students. Get them to explain why they thought X or Y was correct etc.
- When using reinforcing activities – again be sure to focus on the answers and explain why something is correct or incorrect. Don’t let it get lost in the flashy response to an answer (such as a sound effect or animation)
My thoughts on all this
I’m sure we’ve all been in training sessions where the speaker uses powerpoint and the session is deathly dull and no learning takes place. But a different speaker, with the same tools at their disposal can create a fantastic learning experience.
There is a definite need for training to show teachers how to best make use of the IWB to support learning. Just dumping one on a classroom teacher will not make the lessons better and raise achievement.
I’m still amazed at the number of schools that will spend tens of thousands of pounds on interactive whiteboards. But then will not spend the £600 or so to get a trainer in (subtle plug) to actually show the staff how to use it. The expensive equipment then doesn’t get used, or doesn’t get used effectively. It’s a real shame.
You can also benefit from taking a look at some of the excellent IWB websites out there where teachers share their ideas. You can find a few in the sidebar of this blog.
I’ve just been reading an excellent blog post by Chris Betcher about IWB’s. His closing paragraph is this:
The REAL trick to all this is to ensure that this potential is being realised by teachers who understand the world of possibilities their IWB offers. If a teacher cannot see the potential, then of course we will struggle to see genuine “newness” in the way the IWBs are being used. As always, it is the creativity and insight of a talented teacher that brings this potential to the surface. Let’s stop being so hung up about whether IWBs can add value to a classroom. They can. The real question is whether the teachers who work with them can make the most of that potential and use them to bring that “revolution” into their classrooms.
Which puts into words exactly how I feel about the potential for IWB’s in the classroom.
Read More
Smart Board Goodies
Just wanted to draw your attention to a new blog I’ve discovered called Smart Board Goodies.
Run by Amber Coggin, an Elementary teacher in Alabama, the blog has some great links on there to resources that can be used on any brand of IWB, not just Smartboards. I’d recommend you add it to your bookmarks and check it regularly.
Go take a look now. And don’t forget to check out the websites in my sidebar; both the blogrool and the delicious feed, for some more excellent sites that I recommend.
Update – found another blog today that’s worth a look – check out http://ictscoil.wordpress.com for more IWB-related ideas for the classroom.
Read More
Translate this site
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. 
Buy the book!
