Posts made in December 4th, 2009

Royal Institution Christmas Lectures 2009

Posted on Dec 4, 2009 in Science Resources | 0 comments

I’m really excited to have recieved tickets to go and see one of the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures tomorrow.

As a scientist I regularly try and watch the lectures on the TV every year – and they always manage to amaze and inspire me with stuff I haven’t heard of before. Although aimed at school children I have always found that the lectures never dumb things down too much, and are just as informative for adults as well.

The lectures were started by Michael Faraday have been running since 1825! So it really is a long tradition.

This year’s theme is The 300 Years War with Prof Sue Hartley:

Plants might seem passive, defenceless and almost helpless. But they are most definitely not! Thanks to a war with animals that’s lasted over 300 million years, they’ve developed many terrifying and devious ways to defend themselves and attack their enemies. Vicious poisons, lethal materials and even cunning forms of communicating with unlikely allies are just some of the weapons in their armoury. Using these and other tactics, plants have seen off everything from dinosaurs to caterpillars.

In the 2009 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, Prof Sue Hartley will show you plants as you’ve never seen them before. They are complicated, cunning, beautiful and with plenty of tricks up their sleeve. And what’s more, we humans are dependent on them in ways you’d never imagine. As well as much of our food, our drugs, medicines and materials are all by-products of this epic 300 million year war.

If you want to see some of the past lectures, there is a video archive here (registration required)

Collaborative drawing with Flockdraw

Posted on Dec 4, 2009 in Art Resources, Interactive Whiteboards | 2 comments

I’m always a fan of collaborative tools that let you work on the same document across the internet. I’m also a fan of online drawing tools. So I really like collaborative drawing tools

Flockdraw is another collaborative drawing tool that’s well worth taking a look at.

It’s free to use, and you get a unique URL which you can use to share your drawing with others, and have them contribute. Combine this with an interactive whiteboard, which makes it much easier to draw than a mouse, and you have quite a fun tool. 10 users can all be drawing at the same time. Others can view the drawing, but not take part.

You also get an embed code which you can use to embed your drawing into a web page. I tried it on the blog here, but it doesn’t scale – so is far too wide…. wiping out all the sidebars. Would be fine on a VLE / Learning Platform page though.

Here’s the pad I set up. I was not able to use it on a board, so it’s just a mouse scribble.

If you like art stuff online – also check out Livebrush, Scribbler, Dabbleboard, SumoPaint, Bomomo and Imagination Cubed.

Using your Whiteboard Software at Home

Posted on Dec 4, 2009 in Interactive Whiteboards, Tutorials and Guides | 3 comments

I was amused yesterday to find out that the technician at a school I had been in recently complained that I had been making some “bold statements” during my training.

Apparently I had told all the staff in the school that they were allowed to have copies of Smart Notebook 10 to run at home for lesson preparation, and that they should see the technician for the product key.

He was under the assumption that this was not the case. Thankfully, my training manager explained to him that I was correct and he learnt something new that day. Which is good.

It makes such a difference to be able to prepare IWB materials away from the IWB. To be able to produce a lesson resource in the same way that you might produce a powerpoint or a worksheet. And Smart and Promethean agree, which is why the terms of their licence do cover teachers to install it at home, as well as in their classroom.

But it is a shame that so many schools do not know this. They are either not told when the boards are installed, or the information is not disseminated down to the teachers from the one person in the school that does know this. I make sure when I deliver training that all staff are aware that for both Smart and Promethean boards – staff are allowed to have copies of the software to use away from the IWB for preparation of lesson materials.

I’ll say that again.

Teachers are allowed to install Smart Notebook or ActivInspire onto their home machines to prepare lesson resources.

Please spread the word to your teachers and schools that you know.

Smart Notebook can be downloaded from here. It is a 30 day trial and you need the product key to unlock it. You can use your serial number of your board to get an unlock key. I’ve written a guide on how to do that here.

Promethean users – you can download ActivInspire from here. Check with your ICT coordinator/technician for the serial number.

Please spread the word. There are plenty of users out there who don’t know this. And who don’t know they don’t know this

Still at least one more technician now does know this

(Image credit : Analog by Aopho via Flickr.)