Senteo 2 video tutorials

If you use the Smart Senteo voting kits then you may already know about the brand new version of the Senteo 2 software. If not, you can download it for free here.

When I installed it I had a few issues. I think this was because I tried to install it over the top of the old Senteo and Smart Notbook install. I found I had to completely uninstall Smart 10 and Senteo v1, and then install Senteo v2 and it all worked fine. That may not be the case when you install it, but be aware.

To accompany the new version of Senteo 2, Smart have updated their training guides with some new printable guides and also 2 minute video tutorials. Follow the links below;

Printable Senteo 2 Guides

2 Minute Video Tutorials

If you haven't been to the Training section of the Smart website before it's well worth a visit.

Don't forget you can also ask for help and support on Smartboards and Senteo kits in the Smart Exchange forum; http://exchange.smarttech.com/forums/

Happy voting!

Word Wall

One of the products that caught my eye at the ASE conference this weekend was something called Word Wall.

Word Wall is, in essence, a piece of presentation software for an interactive whiteboard. It allows you to make flipcharts like you would in Smart Notebook. It would be ideal for users of other IWB's such as Hitachi/Interwrite boards where the software that comes bundled with the boards is not as user friendly as the software that Smart or Promethean users gets.

The first interesting bit is that Word Wall comes with a big bank of interactive buttons and activities that make it quite easy to add fun activities for lesson starters or plenaries. These integrate really easily with the "CleverClick" voting handsets that Word Wall also sell. These handsets have a small screen and allow you to text in answers as well as simply voting a, b, c, d. They even use predictive text!

The second interesting bit is that, when you save a flipchart that you have made you get the option to share it. This means that, if you have an internet connection, a copy of your file gets added to a central online library of flipcharts. These files are then accessible to any other Word Wall user. This is a very neat idea that should mean that pretty quickly there will be a large bank of user-created content that teachers can share and download. I wonder if Smart or Promethean have seen this yet?

If you don't have a Smart or Promethean board and are in the market for a piece of software to get the best from your board (or just from your projector) then Word Wall may be something to take a look at. The handsets are also quite fun, and add a little more than just voting on answers.

If you are going to the BETT exhibition, Word Wall will be demonstrating their software and clickers at the show. Failing that you can order an evaluation copy from their website: http://wordwallweb.com

Senteo Software Update

Senteo users might like to know that Service Pack 4 has been released by Smart which fixes a few issues with Senteo and Smart Notebook. It's a large file since it also includes Smart Notebook (rather than a patch)

To quote Michael on the Smart Exchange forum:

Senteo SP4 includes fixes for Notebook 10 that are needed to address problems in the way Notebook 10 interoperates with Senteo.

3 important things to note with this new version of Senteo software:

1. This version will install Notebook Software as well as Senteo Assessment Software

2. The Software will automatically update itself if it can detect a receiver plugged into the computer. No need to type in messy serial numbers, no need to fumble with the "Find License Code" button in the previous activation process.

3. When Senteo software is activated, Notebook Software 10 is activated as well. Kill 2 birds with one stone.

Although slightly more time consuming because of the larger download, it is recommended that you download the complete Senteo SP4 upgrade package.

You can download it here.

Senteo Questions

I haven't got round to writing that many question sets for my Senteo just yet, that's a job for the summer once I've got my other writing jobs done.

But, if you are looking for Senteo questions for Primary Science then can I point you in the direction of Mark Warners excellent Teaching Ideas website.

They don't have their own section, so you will need to look in each science page and pick them out, but there's plenty to choose from. The links to the three pages are below:

Life Processes
Materials
Physical Processes

Senteo

I've recently got my hands on a set of Smart's new Senteo voting kits. They look really nice and I can't wait to try them out with a class soon.

Smart is moving into a quite crowded market, against products like Activote, TurningPoint, Quizdom etc but this is a pretty nice product.

Once the software is installed you get a Senteo option on your Smart Notebook toolbar (and also in Powerpoint, but I've not investigated that yet). Adding questions for the students to answer couldn't be easier and I've made a short video to show how to do it.

Take a look at the video here.

The handsets are quite chunky, and less "nickable" than the TurningPoint ones. They come in a very nice padded bag with a carry strap for ease of transport. The receiver was installed pretty quickly and it was really simple to import a class list into the Senteo Manager. I'll do some more tutorials soon to show how to do this.

First impressions are very positive. I set up a test, logged in some handsets and ran the quiz very quickly. Output to Excel was also simple. I don't know how good the data mining is yet, that's something else I need to investigate.

Will post more on here once I've had more of a play.