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.
Read MoreUpdated Promethean ActivExpression Guide
A quick post to say that I have uploaded a revised guide to getting started with Promethean ActivExpression in ActivInspire. With a recent update the Question Wizard has gone and been replaced with a Question Manager.
There’s quite an important box that needs to be ticked to get a question onto the page which isn’t ticked by default. Read the guide and then have a go for yourself.
You can find the ActivExpression guide in the Guides section of this blog.
Read MoreStarting a blog : a guide for teachers
I’ve had a few requests recently for advice on starting up a blog, so I thought I’d summarise some of my advice in a blog post.
The first important decision is what blogging platform to use. There are many out there, but the main two that you should consider are Blogger and WordPress. You might also want to “self-host” your own blog on your own website.
Both Blogger and WordPress.com are free to sign up for. You will get a personalised web address which will be something like dannysblog.wordpress.com or dannysblog.blogspot.com. When you sign up you can choose that part of the URL. Think carefully about that – don’t pick something too long or complicated that your visitors might get wrong.
Both WordPress.com and Blogger give you a certain amount of free space, and some control over the look and feel for your blog. You can choose from many of the pre-installed widgets and plugins which give you extra features.
As an alternative – if you are doing an educational-themed blog then do consider Edublogs, which is geared towards free blogs for teachers. It uses the same engine as WordPress. The free version does come with some adverts, and there are paid upgrades if you wish which remove these.
If you are just starting out – I’d recommend using a hosted blog such as WordPress.com or Blogger. If you know a little more about what you are doing then you can buy your own webspace from one of the many internet hosting companies out there – and install your own version of WordPress from WordPress.org. This gives you much more control over the look and function of your blog with a wealth of plugins and themes to choose from and install. But to be honest, for the beginner I would not recommend starting there. In the future if you want to you can always set up your own blog and import all the content from Blogger/Wordpress.
Managing your blog
Both Blogger and WordPress provide you with an admin “back-end” to your blog which only you can see which lets you organise and write your blog posts. When you click the “publish” button your blogpost will go live for everyone to see.
You can also set up categories for your posts, this means that in the future all posts on similar topics can be easily found. Think about the categories that you want for your blog – what will you be writing about? You can add more categories later on, but it does help to start with a few. You can see the categories for this blog on the sidebar to the right. Tags are also important – these are keywords that can help you find posts later.
As you write your blog posts you can also add other content such as images or videos. It’s not always possible to upload directly to your blog – there are limitations on space etc. But you can upload videos to YouTube and embed them into your blog. Likewise documents could be uploaded to your Dropbox Public folder and then linked to from the blog – or uploaded to somewhere like Scribd.com
Content
The hardest bit about running a blog is thinking of content and writing it 
Think about what you want to say and who is going to read it. Your blog is public, so consider any issues of privacy. If you are going to be reflective be sure to anonymise details and names. Take a look at what other blogs are doing – visit some of the blogs in my Blogroll in the sidebar to the right to get some ideas.
Don’t steal chunks of content direct from other bloggers. If you read an idea that you like elsewhere then paraphrase it on your blog and give a link back to the original post.
Hyperlink often – if you mention sites and other bloggers then link to them, either to their blog or to their twitter profile so your readers can find them easily.
For some more things to think about take a look at these Five tips for writing better blog posts.
Other Guides
I have written a few guides which can find in the guides section of this website. You’ll find a general guide to Blogging in Schools, a guide to Making a WordPress Blog (screenshots are slightly out of date, but the basic ideas still work) and a short presentation.
Also worth taking a look at this guide from Edublogs on Getting Started With Edublogs. It covers the Edublogs platform since they are using packaged version of WordPress it will also be useful if you have put your blog onto WordPress.com.
Here’s a guide to getting started with Blogger, by Jim Hollis
If you do start a blog, let me know – post in the comments. Also if you have any other good tips for bloggers just starting out please add those too.
Happy Blogging!
Read MoreTen Twitter Tips for Teachers
I’m a massive fan of Twitter. I have personally found it to be the best source of new ideas and tips out there, and it’s free! It can take time to build up a decent sized network, but once you follow enough people then you begin to see the benefits.
I’ve written a short guide to Twitter for Teachers before, but I’ve updated some of the ideas and added a few more things that you can do to make your Twitter experience much more useful.
1. Follow Follow Follow
Twitter is all about following people. The more people you follow, the more tweets will appear in your timeline. There is a critical mass to Twitter. Early users often give up as the few users they follow may not yield many interesting or useful tweets. You need to start following lots of people (50+) to start getting useful communication.
Once you follow a few people – look at their twitter pages and see who they talk to, or who they follow. If they sound interesting, follow them too. Gradually build up a network of Twitter users who interest you.
Also – take a look at the “Who to Follow” page which will suggest other followers based on who you follow. Very handy.
Hopefully, those people you follow will also follow you back. Which brings me to:
2. Add a Bio to your profile
Whenever I get a new follower I check on their Twitter account to see if they are worth following back, or whether they are an automated spam bot. The first thing I check is their bio – the short piece of information that you add to your profile. If they say they are a teacher, or a teaching student, then I will pretty much always follow them back. If there is no information here, then I am more wary of them, and most likely will not follow unless their tweets look interesting.
It’s important to put something here – even if it’s just that you’re a teacher interested in Twitter.
3. Keep an eye on Hashtags
Hashtags are short codes used to help keep information on similar topics organised on Twitter. You can add a hashtag to any tweet just by using the # symbol followed by a word or acronym. Hashtags are often used during Teachmeets or other conferences to allow everyone attending that event to discuss it, even if they are not following many of the people at that event.
Here are some good hashtags for teachers to follow : #ukedchat #edchat #mathchat #pgce #nqt #scichat #edtech #teachmeet
If you want to take part in the regular discussions like #ukedchat then just add that hashtag to your comment and everyone following that tag will see it. If you see people using that tag that interest you, follow them it’s a good way of meeting other educators.
4. Use a Twitter client
The twitter site is OK, but it’s not brilliant. Especially if you want to monitor several different things at the same time – such as several hashtags, plus keeping an eye on who’s talking to you. There are different Twitter clients out there, but a good free one is Tweetdeck. You can set up multiple columns that look for different things. For example mine is set up to show my regular timeline, any mentions of @dannynic, a column for friends/family tweets who might get lost in the general stuff, and then columns for #Scichat and #ukedchat.
It makes following Twitter a lot easier.
Go mobile – get a twitter client for your phone too!
5. Protect or No Protect?
This is decision you’ll have to make for yourself. It is possible to protect your tweets so that only people who you give permission to can follow you and see what you say. I don’t use this myself – I just make sure that I don’t tweet anything too personal that might get me into trouble. But some teachers might prefer to keep their tweets away from the general twitter stream. At least be aware that the option is there should you need it.
6. Dont be afraid to lurk
There’s nothing wrong with just lurking – not saying much but following the stream of tweets from others. It will give you a good idea of the way that Twitter works. But you will get more out of twitter if you start sharing. Share your experiences, share good websites you’ve found. If you have a tip or piece of advice – share it You’ll get more follow backs. Join in when you feel ready!
7. Don’t just broadcast – interact!
Do try and engage with other users out there. Twitter is about communication. There are many users out there who just tweet links or news about their organisation without any kind of discussion with their followers. Remember to use an @ sign in front of their username so they can see your message eg use @dannynic to talk to me.
8. Get an Avatar
The default twitter avatar is an egg. It’s not very exciting. Change this to an avatar of yourself – or, if you don’t want a real photo of yourself up there, something more fun. Here are some ideas for making avatars for online sites.
9. Beware of Spammers
Do be aware that there are a lot of automated accounts out there who will follow or tweet at you, who may not always be benign. If you receive links in messages that you do not trust – don’t click on them. Some can direct you to dodgy websites that may compromise your twitter account. You can also block and report other users for spam if you find their behaviour worrying.
10. Follow Back
Twitter will alert you when you get a new follower. Take a second to check out their profile, and if they sound interesting (and not a spammer) then follow them back. Over time your network will grow.
A lot of people call their Twitter friends their Personal Learning Network (PLN) and I can definitely go along with this. I follow 4000 people, so it is not possible to keep up with all the messages flying past. But when I dip into Twitter I can always guarantee there’s a couple of excellent nuggets of wisdom, or links to new websites/articles out there that I haven’t seen before.
There are thousands of teachers on Twitter already – get on board and join them!
Got any more tips? Share them in the comments below.
Photo credit : The Twitter Bird Escaped by Netzkobold
Update – thanks to Rob Chambers for blogging about this post, and also adding some more useful links for teachers. Take a look.
Also a useful thing to know : How to use the Twitter @ Reply
Read MoreVideo Tutorial: Anagram Games in ActivInspire
Following on from the recent video showing how to do this in Smart Notebook – here is a video tutorial showing how to make an Anagram Game using Promethean ActivInspire software.
The countdown theme tune for those who want it can be downloaded here. And an example flipchart file can be downloaded here.
Other videos can be found in the Guides section of this site. More guides to follow. Watch this space!
Read More
Software guides in Under 10 Minutes
Here’s a brand new site that looks like a great idea for providing short and snappy CPD. Under 10 Minutes wants to explain how to use technology quickly and simply using short video clips. As the name suggests, each video guide used on the site will be under ten minutes. This would make them ideal for short personal training or for showing at staff meetings.
For example here’s a short guide on using WordPress:
In addition, anyone can upload a video to the Under 10 Minutes website. Upload a video to YouTube, Vimeo etc, and let the site organisers have the details. Find out more on the site.
It’s just launched, so is a growing resource. There may not be much there yet, but there’s enough to give you an idea of what the site is all about. Definitely worth bookmarking and keeping an eye on.
http://www.undertenminutes.com
Read More
Woices – location based audioguides
Woices is a FREE internet service that allows people to create, share and consume echoes, audio records that are linked to a very specific geographical location or real-world object. Woices ultimate goal is to extend reality by creating a new layer of audio information, what they call the echoesphere, that will make the world a more interesting place.
Echoes are words, left by one person at some precise place, that can be later listened to by anyone, as if their author was still there. Echoes can be about anything you want, from history, art or curiosities to personal memories or advices. An echo could even be a poem.
Audio can be recorded on portable sound recorders, on iPhones/iPod touches, or via a computer and microphone.
I got this link via a list of resources posted after a Technolanguages session :
http://technolanguages.wikispaces.com/technoLanguages+LIVE organised by Jess McCulloch
There are lots of ways this could be used in schools:
- You could produce audio trails on Field trips in Grography / Science.
- Pupils could record guides to museums or art galleries on school trips.
- Audio guides to the school or local area.
- Produce an audio trail of poems inspired by local landmarks.
- Historical information about different places and the events that happened there.
- Record guides in different languages.
- A science walk around your school/town.
And many more
Read MoreThe Best of the Whiteboard Blog as a Book
The Whiteboard Blog was set up in December 2007 as a way of sharing ideas to support teachers using their interactive whiteboards in the classroom. As well as interactive whiteboards it also covers other educational technologies that would be of interest to teachers such as digital storytelling and other “web 2.0” tools.
I’ve finally got round to distilling the best posts from this website and putting them into book format.
“The Best of the Whiteboard Blog” contains the very best articles from over three years of the blog collated and put together into one handy document running to over 200 A4 pages. It is chock full of ideas and useful links to help you to make the best use of your interactive whiteboard.
You can obtain an ebook version, or an A4 printed version.
Buy The Best of The Whiteboard Blog here. (electronic book / printed version)
Read MoreActivInspire Guides from Frederick County
A quick link to a really handy set of resources, from Frederick County Public School, Maryland USA.
Here are some excellent guides to using ActivInspire: https://sites.fcps.org/trt/promethean_activinspire
There is also an excellent blog with lots of useful information about Promethean whiteboards and other educational technologies.
Please be aware of the copyright on the resources. Use the resources for your own inspiration but if you want to reproduce them and pass them on you’ll need to contact the authors.
It’s a really great set of resources though. Definitely go take a look!
Read More
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!
