We’ve all been there. You’re stood in front of a class for what seems like the 100th time and you’re asking them to recall a piece of information you all learnt last week. It’s just it’s not there any more and they’re definitely not up for hearing from you all over again for the 400th time. A few months ago I had an email from a colleague at CEGSA about Watch Know; a video resource site for teachers and pupils.
Initially i thought… “another one!”. We’ve already had Teacher Tube and there are a growing number of educational video on YouTube. However, I completely underestimated what this site has to offer. Instead of typing something blindly into the search box and receiving 3,000 results (most of which are unsuitable) what this site does is organise all of the content for you. All of the videos which are shown have been sourced by teachers like you and me. Teachers who have found the video suitable, useful and fitting. They are rated and sorted and save you (and your students) a lot of time. They’re still hosted on their original site (YouTube, teacher tube etc) but they’re all in one place and much easier to find.
Recent research shows that when asked to do research, rather than “Google” the topic or look it up on Wikipedia they go to YouTube and just watch the information as they make notes. Wouldn’t that be better than getting yet another “copy and paste” from a Wiki or other website? Another advantage that i found was that my students were bored of my explaining simile and metaphor (again) but when I showed them a video from YouTube every single one of them was paying attention and learning. They loved the zombies and other silly things that were involved and it helped them to retain something that they were struggling with previously. It helped to break up my lesson into small chunks with an educational video every 15 minutes as we learned (or reminded ourselves) of new skills.
So, instead of sending yourself crazy searching through 3000 videos on measurement. Let Watch Know sort it all our for you and then embed them into your flip-chart /Notebook etc for ease of access!
Give it a go and feel free to comment below about your experience.
Back in 2007 Promethean announced that they would be unveiling a new, innovative IWB which would allow more than one student to work on a task, at the board at the same time. In 2008 they revealed ActivArena and release ActivInspire to help make this transition even easier for the user. At BETT in 2009 I asked the SMART tech folk what their views were on this new advancement. What were SMART going to do in response? They told me, at the time, that they didn’t understand why you would want to have more than one user at the board anyway and pointed me towards the fact that their slates already meant that multiple users could operate the board, just from a distance.
Now, a year later, they have released their own version of Arena. It is now possible to have more than one user at a SMART board.
In the next few days I will write an update to this blog in which I will explain how SMART are using technology to achieve this and making some comparisons with Promethean’s now widely used version.
There are many teachers whouse Power Point with their Interactive Whiteboards and consider the fact that they are projecting an image onto the board for their pupils to view a good use of the technology in their room. In truth, teachers who simply ‘project’ are not using their IWB at all. They’re making good use of the projector but little in the way of pupil interaction often occurs inside a simple PowerPoint presentation. That’s not to say that those lessons are not good, however, they would no longer tick the “outstanding” (OFSTED UK) box when it comes to the use of new technologies in a classroom.
For many years those of us who work with IWBs have wondered why Microsoft haven’t done more with their presentation software. There is a lot of potential there. They did introduce the ability to write on a slide with recent upgrades which was a nod in the right direction and it would seems that Mouse Mischief is another attempt at becoming interactive.
Mouse Mischief is deemed as
A free, new way to make your Microsoft Office PowerPoint presentations interactive
as a member of Microsoft educators programme I was very excited when i received the email offering me a link to download and trial this new idea. I was looking forward to full interactive capabilities. Unfortunately, that isn’t what Mouse Mischief has to offer. It doesn’t even touch on the many features available in the leading pieces of software. However, it is an interesting way of using PowerPoint as a voting tool.
Downloading and installing the beta gives you a new toolbar in Power Point which enables you to add questions to slides.
The "Mischief" toolbar
You can choose to create “Yes / No” answers or multiple choice questions. You then set the answers and like many voting tool products on the market Power Point will present you with statistics based on the answers given by your pupils. The interaction comes when pupils are encouraged to move their mouse pointer onto their prefered answer at the board. The beta encourages teachers to divide pupils into teams or groups for this; this is wise as it would take a lot of time to get 30 pupils to answer one question at an IWB at the same time without a voting tool.
The idea is sound and I am glad that Microsoft are beginning to explore this area of Power Points potential. At this stage however, it’s still no where near as good as Notebook 10 or ActivInspire. They have a good way to go yet! The good news is that the software is still in it’s very early stages and Microsoft are looking for teachers to download it and give it a go. They then want feedback as to how to improve it. If you’re interested in giving it a go there is more information here.
The search feature is back – by popular demand. Before you can start to search for things in your library you will need to index your resources. To do so, try and
search for something and respond to the prompt.Before you can start
to search for things in your library you will need to index your resources. To do so, try and search for something and respond to the prompt.
You can now import information directly from a PDF as well as the usual (PowerPoint as Images, PowerPoint as Objects, SMART Notebook File, SMART Gallery Item File, Exam View XML File, IMS QTI XML File, and Resource Packs.)
They’ve also modified the compass and protractor tools, allowed us use the video screen recorder in a small area again, made sure that connectors are always on the top layer and allowed more flexibility with the clock tool too.
If you’ve got activ Xpression you will now have the option of sending questions to pupils’ individual hand held units so that they can answer in their own time. You can still log all of these responses and display them for analysis with the rest of the class.
To upgrade, open up Activ Inspire, click on the help menu and check for upgrades. You will then be prompted to download a file. Click save and then, once downloaded, run it .
I am interested in teachers’ view on VLEs and would be really grateful if you would complete the following questionnaire. I will report the results at a later date.
