5 interesting things that you can with Shapes in ActivInspire

The new version of ActivInspire offers lots more choices for using shapes and lines in your teaching. Here are five ways that you may not have thought of before (n.b. some of these tools are available with other IWB software, some are unique to ActivInspire).

1. Making irregular shapes with the Line-Chain shape 

When you use the Line-Chain shape, each click of the pen adds another angle to the shape. Ask students to draw an irregular pentagon, octagon etc, or set challenges ‘Draw an irregular pentagon with one angle of 45 degrees’.

 

2. Use the rectangle tool to create a Mondrian style painting

The rectangle tool can be dragged to any size or shape. Either change the fill of each shape to red,yellow or blue before you draw, or draw all the shapes in white. Then use the paint bucket to fill in different colours.

3. Matching shapes and outlines

When you choose a fill for your shape, try using the ‘no fill’ option. This allows you to draw a shape without any fill colour. Then, use the paint bucket tool to fill your shape. When you move the shape, you will find that the outline and the fill move separately. You can then drag the fills and outlines to different areas of the page and ask students to match them.

4. Colour blending using transparent shapes

Draw any shape and fill a primary colour. You may prefer to delete the border (see previous example) or use a very thin one.

Click on the centre of the shape. On the Object Edit toolbar that appears above the shape, click on the sun icon. Drag it to the left until the shape is semi-transparent. Now duplicate the shape and make them several different colours. Overlap the shapes to see the new colours that appear.

5. Sticky shapes for brainstorming and charts

Draw three shapes at the bottom of your page. Select them and add ‘Drag a copy’. While the shapes are still selected, go to the Properties Browser and open the Container section. Change the first drop down menu to Can Contain: Anything.

Now you can drag infinite number of shapes onto your page and write on them. The writing will stick to the shape so you can move it around without losing the writing.

Ultra high resolution art work on Google Earth

This one has been available for a while, but it is well worth a look.

Open up Google Earth. In the ‘Fly To’ box, type ‘Museo del Prado’ and click on the magnifying glass.

You will now fly off to the ‘Museo Nacional de Prado’ in Spain.

Zoom in until you can click on the ‘Masterpieces’ link at the front door of the museum. Click on this button.

 

 

Click on a picture to see it in high resolution. I’ve chosen ‘Emperor Carlos V on horseback’. Click on the picture to fly inside the museum.

                         

Then zoom in on the picture to see incredible detail. Below is a close up of the Emperor’s face. Notice the cracks in the canvas – amazing!

Remember that if you have an ActivBoard by Promethean, you can use the right click button on your pen to zoom in and out in Google Earth.

Crayola brings art to life on the IWB

I was very excited to discover this beautiful online drawing and painting site from Crayola. Unlike a lot of online drawing sites, the tools look realistic. Crayons make a waxy line on the page, and paint strokes can be built up to create a darker line.

The Crayola wheel lets you choose from nine different drawing tools. Each tool has colour and line thickness options.

I also loved this site because it reinforces, rather than tries to replace, traditional art tools. After a few minutes on the site, I was itching to buy some glitter crayons and nice white paper to recreate childhood memories!

You can print your artwork – I would also suggest teaching your students to use the camera/ capture tool that comes with your IWB software to take a screenshot of their work. Then you can create a gallery of student’s art work in your class.

Invite a whale to your whiteboard

http://www.wdcs.co.uk/media/flash/whalebanner/content_pub_en.html

This is a simple but gorgeous site which allows your class to view a full sized whale on your interactive whiteboard! The site will slowly pan over the surface of a whale, or you can move a viewer to see a particular part of the whale.

If you do want to move around with the viewer, just be aware that it takes a while for all the parts of the image to load.

Found this on iLearn Technology’s blog

Explore a sailing ship

ABC Australia’s The Navigators website offers high quality educational material for teachers and students.

The site includes biographies of the captains, games, maps, diaries and diagrams. There is also an excellent interactive tour (Go to Ships> Interactive Tour) of an 18th century sailing ship which works particularly well on the IWB. Roll your pen over the picture to see pop up information, and jump to different parts of the ship. The online version didn’t work for me (perhaps because it uses an older version of Flash) but the download works beautifully.

This site offers an interesting way to explore this part of Australia’s history with your board. Don’t forget to use your camera in the software to snapshot interesting parts of the website to use in a flipchart.

Using Google Earth in the primary classroom – ECAWA presentation

Today (and tomorrow) I’m going to lead a session on how to use Google Earth in the primary classroom more effectively. So I’m putting the links up here so that teachers have got easy access to them during the session.

1. Gmap pedometer http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/

This Google maps mashup provides an easy way to estimate and measure routes and distances.

2. Google Lit trips http://www.googlelittrips.org/

Download the Google tours to add a new dimension to a book.

3. AR Sights http://www.arsights.com/

You have to see it to believe it!

 

 

4. Promethean Planet www.prometheanplanet.com

To see the Activsoftware layers function.

I’ve taken screenshots of each part of my presentation and added it to a PowerPoint (which means it’s not interactive anymore, but might still be useful. Click here to download the PowerPoint.

Using Prezi on the IWB

Prezi is a presentation tool (similar to Power Point). But instead of following a linear format, Prezi viewers can choose the part of the presentation that they wish to see and zoom in – then zoom out to see an overview of the whole topic.

On the Prezi showcase board, there are some education examples but most of the ones I’ve seen are examples of secondary topics. I wondered if there is a value in using this in primary education, particularly for storytelling?

The screenshot below shows the overview of Miss Muffet. If you click on the picture, you can view the actual presentation on the Prezi site (or click on this link http://prezi.com/105574/). Click on the arrows in the bottom right corner of the screen to see the presentation in order, or zoom in (click on a word or picture) and zoom out (double click elsewhere on the screen) to visit the images and text in any order.

If you watch a Prezi on your computer screen and click through quickly, it can be a bit nauseating as it zooms from one topic to another. But when you are using it with a class on an IWB, this wouldn’t be a problem as the pace of the presentation would be much slower.

Like a lot of people, I have an aversion to using Power Point or other static presentations on an IWB. But I think Prezi could be a bit different as it offers choice and ‘links’ which make it much more interesting and interactive. It’s also possible to use it a bit like Deep Zoom and hide images and text by making them very small then zooming in.

Possible other educational uses:

Asking children to prepare presentations/ interactive tutorials using the software

Showing the layers of the earth, the food chain, etc by using the zooming feature

Using it with a desktop overlay function to predict the order of something e.g. events in the Civil War, sentence structure – then playing the presentation to see if they are correct. I’ve played with a basic sentence structure example here.

Using IWBs in a secondary school

As part of my work, I visit primary and secondary school to help them learn how to use the software and integrate this technology into their classrooms.

Introducing IWBs in primary school is easy. Primary teachers love the idea of highly visual, interactive activities for their children. When you combine this with the wealth of free interactive resources that exist for this age group, it’s easy to see why it’s so popular.

It can be more of a challenge for secondary teachers. (A disclaimer – I have never taught in a secondary school, so the following is based on comments and observations of secondary teachers). The curriculum is more demanding, and usually doesn’t allow much time for the type of exploration that works so well on the IWB. The physical set up of the classroom can make IWBs more of a challenge too.

Having said that, I’ve met lots of teachers in secondary schools who love their IWB and wouldn’t be without it. Here are just a few ways that I’ve seen these teachers use this technology to enhance their teaching.

Maths

• Use MathType or EquationEditor (Word) to write equations then paste them into flipcharts
• Use existing software such as GeoGebra to investigate shape.
• Use Promethean’s maths tools (such as a calculator, protractor and compass) to demonstrate concepts.

Science

• Embed Java and flash science animations into your flipchart
• Snapshot and label diagrams
• Use annotations to demonstrate how things move on the board (e.g. dots for particles)

English

• Use the deconstruct text method to pull keywords from a text
• Embed videos into a flipchart and then use the built-in video snapshot (ActivInspire) to take snapshots of scenes for viewing activities
• Use Promethean’s free Manga Shakespeare resources to bring a modern day perspective to the writing

Design and technology

• Embed YouTube and other videos showing correct use of tools, cooking techniques etc.
• Use the resources with your whiteboard to sort food in correct food groups

Phys Ed

• Put a large playing field or court on your board. Drag pictures of players onto the board to demonstrate where and how they can move
• Watch videos showing correct game techniques

Business studies

• Use the Tablet Panel in Vista to write directly into Excel spreadsheets
• Drag highlighted labels onto a credit/ debit sheet to identify the matching pairs

LOTE/ ESL

• Use fonts from other languages (e.g. Japanese) and type in these fonts on your board
• Use the microphone to record correct pronunciation of words
• Drag and drop to match pictures and words together
• Match the word and the correct translation
• Rearrange a sentence into the correct sentence structure

Art

• Visit virtual museums and galleries and use the snapshot to collect the images for your class
• Use free programs like ArtRage to draw and paint on the board

Cross-curriculum

• Scan books, workbooks and worksheets and then write on them on your IWB
• Use the camera tool to snapshot and enlarge diagrams and pictures from the web
• Look for high quality interactive websites which enhance your subject. Ask students for ideas – they often have superior web browsing skills!

Poisson Rouge – a site without language

There are lots of lovely websites for young children that you explore in a class setting. But what if you want your children to navigate the site independently? Most website rely on some language prompts such as instructions or labelled buttons or menus to guide navigation.

Poisson Rouge is different. This flash based site opens with a colourful playroom. Click on the toy you’d like to play with, then explore! Sometimes you need to hover, sometimes click and drag. It’s a wonderful opportunity for children to work in small independent groups to solve problems. So fire up your board, stand back, and let your children investigate!

www.poissonrouge.com

Making interactive 3D prisms in ActivInspire

This idea was suggested by some maths teachers at a local high school. I was intrigued by the connectors (lines which ‘glue’ shapes together) in ActivInspire, but hadn’t quite worked out what to do with them! I think this was a really clever and useful idea.

Click the video below to see how you can use the shapes. Remember that a personal edition of ActivInspire can be downloaded from Promethean Planet and can be used by any teacher, regardless of the type of board you use.

If you want to see an ActivInspire flipchart with these shapes, click on the link below to download the flipchart. You will need to install the ActivInspire software (if you haven’t already done so) before you can view the flipchart.

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/572056/Prisms.flipchart