Voting Kits

Primary Maths Learning Clips

Posted on May 26, 2011 in Numeracy Resources, Voting Kits | 1 comment

Learning Clips is a growing bank of resources for teaching Primary (Elementary) maths. Some resources are free

Free Learning Clips can be accessed here. You will need to register, but it’s free. Additional resources are available by subscription. The resources are ideal for KS1 and KS2 for use with Interactive Whiteboards and include video, interactive activities and some worksheets. If you just want to take a look, you can access resources without a login on a time-limited basis. If you register, these free resources are not limited.

Many activities come with a flash video alongside which sets the scene, and a further video provides a plenary. The main interactive activity can be made full-screen. You can search for resources by Year and Unit, or via Topic list. More free examples can be found here.

Some resources can be used in conjunction with Promethean ActivExpression voting handsets to allow for polling and assessment.

If you teach primary maths then the site is well worth a look and worth adding to your list of maths bookmarks.

http://www.learningclip.co.uk

A guide to voting with Promethean ActivExpression

Posted on Oct 4, 2009 in Hardware, Interactive Whiteboards, Promethean, Tutorials and Guides, Voting Kits | 2 comments

I’ve written a new guide for the ActivExpression voting kit produced by Promethean. It’s based on the help files that you can find within ActivInspire, but I’ve added some additional bits and pieces.

I’m delivering a short session on this at a college next week, so thought some handouts would be useful.

The guide is hosted on Scribd here.

Voting with ActivExpression

I hope you find it useful! If you are interested in the other guides that I have written, they are all listed on my Guides page on this blog.

Smart Response LE

Posted on Jun 3, 2009 in Interactive Whiteboards, SMARTboards, Voting Kits | 4 comments

Thanks to James Hollis from Teachers Love Smartboards for the heads up on this one.

Hot on the heels of the rebranding of Senteo to Smart Response, Smart are bringing out the Smart Response LE, a voting system for early years, lower Primary and SEN classrooms.

It’s a much simpler system than the regular smart response, with just 5 large coloured buttons to choose from. There’s no need for sign-in, and the voting is run in anonymous mode.

You can read more about it here. And there’s a video on TeacherTube too, click here if you can’t see the video below.

It’s a really neat looking system, and I look forward to seeing more of it when it gets released. If I get a chance to play with it, I’ll tell you all about it on the Whiteboard Blog

Smart Response Update

Posted on May 15, 2009 in Voting Kits | 2 comments

Just a quick heads up. Due to problems with the Smart Response update patch, Smart have taken down the download page until they can fix the issues in versioning and languages.  The versioning is specific to any file created in 9.7, saved in NB SP1 and then opened in SP2.  The language issue makes NB perform inconsistently when used with an OS in another language.

From the Exchange forum here:

We’ve had to pull the Notebook Software SP2 packages off our website due to the problem I have outlined in both the Technical Support and the Notebook Software 10 subforums.  This extends to SMART Response due to the fact that it is bundled with Notebook Software 10 SP2, and we are unable to offer a standalone download for just the SMART Response software as it requires Notebook SP2 to function correctly.

I ask of anyone looking to download the new software to be patient for the time being while we work on applying an emergency fix to the software so that this doesn’t happen any longer.

If you did upgrade, don’t panic, the chances are things will mostly be ok but you will get error messages when opening NB files created previous to the upgrade

So keep an eye on the Smart website, forum (and of course this blog) and as soon as the download is back up online Smart will let us know.

Senteo Rebranded as SMART Response

Posted on May 5, 2009 in Interactive Whiteboards, SMARTboards, Voting Kits | 1 comment

Smart have just announced that their Senteo Voting System has been upgraded and rebranded as Smart Response.

If you already own Senteo handsets then there is a new upgrade to the software available. If you’re still running Senteo v1 then you really need to upgrade as version 2 came out a few months back. Version 2 users should still see some improvements. Download it here.

This is taken from the Smart website:

Senteo software 2.0 users
If you’re upgrading from Senteo software 2.0, you’ll see that we’ve made a few improvements, such as offering you the choice of seeing test results displayed in both pie charts and bar graphs. You can also drag the chart or graph onto a SMART Notebook page to get a closer view and add your own annotations in digital ink.

Senteo software 1.0 users
If you’re still using Senteo software 1.0, upgrading to SMART Response will provide you with many new features and enhancements. We’ve redesigned the interface to make it easier than ever for you to use all of the system’s tools and features.

SMART Response software allows you to do the following:
• Display performance and test results in pie charts or bar graphs. By dragging the chart or graph onto a SMART Notebook page, you can get a closer view and add your own annotations in digital ink.
• Use the new tab in SMART Notebook software to conveniently access all of the assessment features in SMART Response software
• Insert content pages between questions to enhance quizzes and lessons
• Organize and track grades and test results using the new built-in gradebook
• View and manage all assessment data from one location using Teacher Tools
• Assign different point values to individual questions within any quiz, test or exam
• Tag questions and student names with keywords to track and evaluate results in greater detail
• Produce instant reports on student or class performance

The upgrade to SMART Response software is available free of charge for customers using Senteo software and is compatible with all your existing hardware components for the Senteo interactive response system.

You can download this upgrade from the Smarttech website here. When I upgraded from v1 to v2 I found it worked better if I uninstalled Smart Notebook and installed this upgrade from scratch. I don’t know yet if that will be the case again, but it’s probably a good idea to do so.

There was an issue with the first release of the new version yesterday, but Smart have apparently fixed this driver issue now. You will need to download Service Pack 5, the site has not yet got links to it, but for now you can get it from these 2 links:

Service Pack 5 for the PC

Service Pack 5 for the MAC

(Thanks TeqSmart for the links)