An experiment with the common .IWB file format in Smart/Promethean (and Easiteach)
A new feature with the latest version of ActivInspire is the ability to export your files as the Becta-driven .IWB file format. This is an interesting step for Promethean to take since previously they’ve removed the ability to move your files out of their own flipchart format – even removing the old ActivStudio/Primary feature of being able to export to PowerPoint. For teachers who don’t want to be “locked in” to one particular file format if they ever change schools, the need for a common whiteboard file format is quite important, as is the need to be able to move from one brand of whiteboard to another. You could also use this to create files for Easiteach.
There’s been discussion about the .iwb format over on this thread on Promethean Planet, with teachers asking about which features survive the export to .IWB. So I decided to run a little experiment seeing as a whiteboard trainer I am lucky enough to have both Smart Notebook and ActivInspire on my computer.
I created a simple file with many of the basic features in ActivInspire. I exported that file as the .IWB file format and then import it into Smart Notebook. To do this yourself, in ActivInspire go to File -> Export -> Becta (.iwb) and then in Smart Notebook go to File -> Import and then choose .iwb as the file type.
My first page was a basic plenary circle that I’ve used many times before. Lots of words around a simple shape. Here’s how it looked before the export as an .IWB file.
And here’s how it looked once imported into Smart Notebook.
Basically as you can see it moves all the words up into the top left hand corner and loses text formatting. With a little work it would be pretty quick to move everything back into place.
Here’s the same file imported into RM Easiteach:
The next page I tried used lots of the simple features that I would often use in an ActivInspire flipchart. I grouped some shapes with text, added a text hyperlink, attached a sound to a shape.
The page in Inspire looked like this:
And in Smart Notebook looked like this:
Most of the features transferred OK, again the text needs to be rearranged and restored to its original positions. The red circle still had the hyperlink to a sound file. And once I’d retrieved it from the top left corner the text with a hyperlink to the BBC website worked fine. Images and clipart pictures moved across fine. And the yellow background was kept intact.
The Drag a Copy/Infinite Cloner feature of the yellow arrow had been lost. The biggest problem was the grouped shape with text, which became this:
The shapes and text were still grouped together, but the text had been moved a long way away from the original shape. Again with a quick ungroup and regroup it could be fixed.
Here’s the same page imported into easiteach:
In Easiteach the infinite cloner works, but the hyperlinks to sounds and web pages are lost. Grouped object works fine though.
I then tried a page with some shapes and a grid background. Not surprisingly the grid was lost on the transfer, although the curve was kept.
But a page with a background image from the Promethean Resource library kept its background when transferring.The page below looked identical in both versions.
So I decided to try something more complicated, but still using basic shapes. Here’s one of the pages from my 5 Lesson Start ideas files. The page uses a graduated blue and yellow rectangle as a background, locked in place, then several pieces of clip art with a line and a shape grouped together hidden behind a clip art boy.
This file, once exported and imported becomes this :
Basically quite a mess. Again, it’s fixable, but you’ll need to invest a little time in ungrouping, rearranging, regrouping and resizing everything on the page.
The other pages in the file were affected in the same way. All would need work to become useable again, but not insurmountable.
I also tried importing into RM Easiteach – the files did look a lot better. Here’s the same page for comparison:
Which suggests that maybe the text issues is more a problem with the Smart Import than the file format.
So from what you can see, although the possibility is there to now export files from Promethean into Smart (or Easiteach) via the .iwb file format, the format itself is very limiting. You can have shape, text, hyperlinks and grouping. But more advanced features will not survive the move. I haven’t even attempted to try some of the page actions that you will find in Promethean, they just won’t move across as they’re Inspire-specific. Also if you are doing this be prepared to have to rearrange every single piece of text. I do wonder if it’s almost quicker to build the files again from scratch.
With the demise of BECTA I doubt there is any drive to work on the .IWB file format and make it a more robust standard. At least being able to remove the need for rebuilding would be useful. Hopefully someone will pick up the project.
If you’ve had any more luck with a similar experiment – or have any other questions, please let me know in the comments below!
Update 1 – you can also get a IWB file Board Viewer applet via this site.
Update 2 – I have since tried this with Mimio v8. Mimio doesn’t handle the .iwb files very well – they end up looking very similar to they did in smart Notebook, which was not very good. But I was impressed to see that Mimio Studio opens Smart .notebook and ActivInspire .flipchart files really well. This is quite impressive – but you will need a mimio device to unlock the software – I don’t know if you can purchase a licence for the software separately. Can anyone advise?
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ICT Reviews for Schools – Whiteboard Guide
You may not know this but PC Pro magazine produces an occasional supplement for education called ICT Reviews for Schools. The free guide is packed with buyer’s guides, reviews and features to help schools spend their IT budgets wisely.
Issue 4 is just out, and this time features a very interesting article written by Terry Freedman entitled “Getting the most from your interactive whiteboard”.
The guide also includes head to head reviews of a Promethean and Smart whiteboard as well as a great guide to 10 free online tools.
It’s well worth a look. It’s a free download, and you can get hold of a copy here.
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Inanimate Alice Presentation from BETT
Here’s a copy of my Inanimate Alice presentation from the BETT show on Friday as part of TeachMeet Takeover. Thanks to all those who came to watch, and thanks to Promethean for letting me have some time on their stand.
English and MFL teachers should definitely check out the Inanimate Alice resource – it’s free so go take a look!
The presentation was videoed too, you can see it on YouTube here.
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ActivInspire Training Videos and Resources
Here are two very handy links if you are an ActivInspire user and are looking for ActivInspire training materials.
ActivInspire flipchart creation help and resources : This wiki has some very useful ActivInspire helpsheets and handouts, including help on using containers and actions. There are sheets for other software such as Audacity, Excel and Photostory too.
ActivInspire Training videos : These videos, produced by Denver Public Schools, cover many features of ActivInspire and are well worth a look for some extra help.
Dont forget my ActivInspire training videos here, and please get in touch to book ActivInspire training/CPD for your school or college.
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Annotate Word Documents with Promethean ActivMarker
This post was inspired by a Promethean ActivInspire training session that I delivered recently. An English teacher wanted to annotate on top of Word documents, but didn’t want to use the transparent flipchart, or capture sections of text with the camera and annotate them within ActivInspire.
It is possible to do this, using a little known tool that comes bundled with ActivInspire called ActivMarker. It’s a slightly hidden feature and many Activ users don’t seem to know about it, which is a shame as it’s a handy feature.
To launch ActivMarker go to the Start menu and click on -> All Programs -> Activ Software -> Activ Inspire -> Activ marker
Once launched, the next time you open Microsoft Word you will notice a new floating tool over on the right hand side of the window, which looks a bit like this:
To start writing, click on the Pen icon, then start drawing over the top of your Word document. Or click on the highlighter to highlight different words. You can change pen size and colour.
The annotations will be added as clip art into your document. This will work with any Microsoft Office application, including PowerPoint and Excel.
When you save the document you can save it with these extra annotations, and call it back in the future. Or quit without saving to keep your document pristine.
Don’t forget if you want to annotate over PDF files you can use the File -> Import feature to import the PDF file into ActivInspire. It will put each page of the PDF onto it’s own page of the flipchart. Use the Page Zoom tool to zoom in and out to display the text larger on the screen if you wish. You (and your students) can then annotate on top of the flipchart – good for group editing tasks, or examination technique using past exam papers.
If you are a SMARTboard user you also have a similar feature to ActivMarker, called InkAware, which runs automatically.
Let me know what you think of ActivMarker in the comments section.
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Promethean ActivInspire Training Resources
Here’s a summary of the Promethean ActivInspire (and ActivStudio) training resources that you’ll find in the Guides section of this blog.
Promethean Helpsheets
- Using Desktop Tools in Activinspire
- Making an Anagram Starter in ActivInspire
- ActivSoftware Inspire Studio Toolbars
- ActivSoftware Inspire Primary Toolbars
- Activstudio 3 Toolbars
- ActivExpression voting guide
- Promethean ActivInspire – Adding Graph Paper and Grids
- Check your Interactive Whiteboard Gallery
- Moving between IWB Platforms
- Screencasting with IWB Software
- Creative use of colour in IWB files
- Lesson Starter Ideas for your Whiteboard
Promethean Training Videos
- Making an Anagram Game in ActivInspire
- Desktop Tools and Screen Capture in ActivInspire
- ActivSoftware Inspire Edition – A first look
I am working on some more guides and resources, watch this space!
Also take a look at the Promethean section of this blog, which has lots of other articles I’ve written that you might find useful.
Other websites
The official guides and resources can be found on PrometheanPlanet.
A great wiki of resources from Tom Cooper : http://promethean.york.wikispaces.net/su10training
Some useful resources from Technology Resource Teachers
The Promethean Playground : http://prometheanplayground.wikispaces.com/
Promethean ActivInspire CPD/INSET
Don’t forget, you can book me to deliver Promethean ActvInspire training, check out my Think Bank website or just get in touch for details.
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Embed HTML Codes into Promethean ActivInspire
With the latest update to Promethean’s ActivInspire software you can now use embed codes from YouTube (and other sites) and embed the video directly into your ActivInspire flipchart page.
First go to the YouTube video that you want, click on share, then copy the embed code (looks like both the old and new embed codes work)
Once you have copied the code, switch back to ActivInspire and click on Insert then Link and Embedded HTML
In the box that appears, paste the embed code
The video will then appear on your page as a moveable object. You can’t resize it, so make sure you grab the largest version of the embed code – click on the size before you copy the code.
Using this technique you can embed any YouTube video into the page. You’ll need YouTube access to play the video, and if the video gets removed from YouTube the link will be broken.
You can download and place YouTube videos using some of the various downloaders out there, if you download as a FLV file, but you will be in breach of the YouYube terms and conditions.
You will need to update your version of ActivInspire to the very latest version to be able to do this – to check if you have an update available go to Help and Check for Updates. You might also want to check you have the most recent version of Flash player too.
Have fun!
Don’t forget, for Promethean ActvInspire training check out my Think Bank website.
Update – I have tried this with Vimeo clips, but they didn’t work. I have successfully managed to embed the Random Name Picker and Arcade Game from the Classtools.net website. Try it with other embed codes and see how you go. If find any good ones, let me know in the comments!
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Triptico – an essential interactive whiteboard resource for teachers
I have written about Triptico a few years ago, but it’s worth mentioning again since the site, and their resources, has had quite a revamp since then. Triptico has changed from being a website of online resources to a downloadable application which runs locally. Triptico uses the Adobe Air platform, so as long as your school network allows you to install it then you’ll have no problems. You might need to have a word with your technician just in case….
The Triptico resource application currently contains 20 different interactive resources – all of which are easy to edit, adapt, save and share. You can access them all with one simple download… everything is completely free – and you will receive updates whenever new resources are added!
There are some great resources that teachers will find useful for their interactive whiteboard. Each one can be customised and saved – ready to use whenever you need it.
Here are just a few:
Word Magnets has lots of different uses. You can create drag and drop sentences, adding adjectives to create “better” sentences. Or create a quick Fridge Magnet Poetry activity.
Find 10 asks the students to select the 10 correct items from a grid of 15 different things. The grid can be customised with your own items. Would make a fun lesson starter activity.
There are countdown timers, student name pickers, Image and word spinners. There is even a resource you can use when running a class quiz – keeping track of each team’s score.
You can view a screencast of the various Triptico resources here.
David Riley at Triptico has done a fantastic job in creating all these resources. And the fact that they are free is even more impressive. For the latest updates to Triptico then it is well worth following David on Twitter or go take a look at his blog.
I definitely think that Triptico is an essential download for anyone who has an interactive whiteboard, whatever brand you have. You can download your free version of Triptico here : http://www.triptico.co.uk/
Thanks to Jose Picardo, who reminded me about Triptico via his blog.
What do you think of Triptico? Let me know via the comments…
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Promethean ActivInspire – Adding Graph Paper and Grids
One of the things that I often get asked by teachers when delivering whiteboard training sessions is how to get graph paper onto their whiteboard screens. With the old ActivStudio/ActivPrimary (and also in Smart Notebook) you had to select these grids from the resource library.
With ActivInspire this has been made a lot easier. The grid is always there on the page, it’s just hidden by default so you can’t see it. Although it’s simpler, it’s often a feature that is missed by most teachers – it’s not an entirely obvious way to get it. I thought it would be worth highlighting this method for Promethean ActivInspire users.
So here is how to get graph paper in Promethean ActivInspire. On the flipchart page where you want the grind, choose the selection tool (the arrow) then right click on the page and click on “Hide grid“. This will toggle between the grid being visible and being hidden.
This will make the grid appear. If you want more control over the size of the squares and the look of the grid then you can also access a grid designer menu.
To open the grid designer, right click on the page again and choose Grid Designer. A window will pop up.
In this window you can control the look of the grid. Click on the plus and minus buttons to make the squares larger or smaller.
Click Close when done.
If you want to have horizontal lines for writing on – change the Direction to Y only.
For diamond or isometric paper – change Grid Style to 45 degree, or choose Angle and define an angle for the diamonds.
If you choose Allow Snap then objects that you move on the page will line up to the nearest corner – good for lining things up on the screen. This works well with shapes but also lines and text boxes.
If you draw lines using the line tool, the lines will go from a corner to a corner – which helps when trying to draw neat diagrams in maths or Design and Tech.
You can even have “Allow Snap” turned on, but have the grid hidden. So text and shapes will align themselves on what appears to be a regular page.
With Allow Snap turned on, any shapes that you draw will be forced to match the size of a grid square – good for looking at areas.
And something else to try. Draw several squares, right click on each and select “drag a copy” to create a very fast pictogram/bar chart where each square will snap in place.
So that’s it. It’s quite quick to get graph paper in ActivInspire, you just have to know about the right click toolbar and the Grid Designer.
If you spend time setting up the axes of your graph with the line/arrow tool – you can then put this graph into your resource library. Right click on the page from the Page Browser at the side of the screen and choose Add to Resource Library and then Add Page to Resource Library. The page will then always be available to you from your area of the Resource Library. This is a good thing to do with any page template that you use a lot – from lesson objectives, tables etc.
For more ActivInspire Guides look in the Guides section of this website. And for information on thePromethean Promethean ActivInspire training I can offer, visit my Think Bank website to learn more.
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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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