Category Archives: Uncategorized

Be careful to create folders for each of your different kinds of content

Each category hold only its own kinds…

• Collections will take everything though
• Resource library can be moved around the screen

If you use a “magic viewer,” be sure to bring it out last so that its on the “top” layer. Otherwise right-click on it and send it to the Top. For example if you have a google map under a google earth pic. Double click on the top pic. Click on properties. And choose the “top” layer.

When you download a resource pack from Promthean Planet, be sure to pay attention to where the resources import to when you double-click on the downloaded file.  To save time, if you’ve downloaded lots of resource packs at once, don’t reindex until you’ve installed the last one.

two types of Desktop Flipcharts

• page backgrounds are live
• photo desktop flipchart

Camera tool:

• easiest to use “area” to capture any image on display on the computer
• save to flipchart (1st option) if the easiest to use

Use “user defined buttons” to add shortcuts on toolbar, for example, Avervision, Firefox, GIMP

?SNA (A=arrange windows) great for sizing flipchart in order to show a web browser and flipchart side by side

You can use properties, insert, flipchart link to link to other pages within the flipcharts…. link stays attached to specific page even if the order of the pages within that flipchart changes

Important! Before sharing a flipchart, go to menu flipcharts and fill out “Summary” then “embed file actions.” Finally choose save. This will give users a way to find the flipchart they need and the videos and audio files will be embedded in it.

This morning the Trainers and Coaches in the Instructional Technology Department started day 1 of a 3 day training session. Below are notes that I took of things I either didn’t know or want to remember to show others.

Reminder Notes from quiz:

• to change colors: menu>customize>colors hover to right-click
• new page: there is no last page just click the arrow to make a new one
• Annotations are only the pen, marker and eraser
• eraser feature great for hiding answers
• eraser only works on annotation objects
• T is only for new text> to edit already created text, double-click on it
• Quick Select toolbar great when tool box is hidden
• quickest way to pen modifier is to right-click on the pen in the toolbox
• premade action objects are located in images (shared)
• when dragging images to the flipchart, check whether “transparent” is checked (especially if you are getting pink outlines)

Module 1:

• ActivStudio is unlimited can be installed on teachers’ home computers and students computers
• use windex on a cloth to clean the board, be careful not to drip into the tray
• there is an icon in the toolstore that can be added to the toolbar for quick access to the “Dashboard”
• You don’t have to be an expert to us ActivStudio… Just dive right in!! Just use it as a whiteboard to get started… it’s ok.
• SHARE SHARE SHARE, Check out the APS PUG and Promethean Planet.
• Presentation mode doesn’t say presentation mode, It’s just not “design mode”
• Flipchart style should be set as standard activstudio for training purposes.
• actions are turned off during “design mode”
• encourage teachers to click on the N (upper-right corner) to add notes to flipchart in order to share details of flipcharts they are sharing
• use the hide flipchart icon on toolbar to hide and then show flipcharts
• The “marquee select” tool is the little white arrow. All of the training materials call it the “marquee select” tool
• Again: annotations are the eraser, pen and highlighter
• Check out all of the symbols and functions hidden in the keyboard.
• right-click on a text box to get to the spellcheck feature (F7)

We were shown lots of teacher-created examples of using eraser, text, colors and markers to make flipcharts interactive. Here’s an image of Randy working on a matching-vocabulary-to-definition flipchart. What I liked about this flipchart is that the instructor covered the vocabulary. So the student coming up to the won’t know which word they’ll get until they uncover a vocabulary word.

• Resources organized by Shared resources, Personal resources
  • Be sure to chose which category you want
  • Be sure to choose whether you want the image to be transparent, drag and drop, stamp, or grow (look at bottom of page)
• So of everything I learned today, my new favorite ActivStudio feature is “Drag to Copy.” If you right-click on an image from the resource library and choose “edit” and “drag to copy.” You’ve now got an infinite number of images that you can drag from the image. This is just what I needed for a math game called Banker’s Game by Kathy Richardson. I made this game into a flipchart that can be used for introducing the game and as a center. Here’s the Banker’s Game. It includes action dice. When you click on the dice, the dice tool appears.  bankers_game.zip

At every school I visit, I see teachers creating amazing flipcharts that engage students interactively with instruction! Today I saw a flipchart in a 1st grade class that recreated Calendar Time into a super interactive Calendar Time. While the entire flipchart was great, the coolest part was the daily graph. The teacher asks a different student each day to come up with a question for the next day. The next day, students graph their answers according to the question. Her students can’t wait to get to school to graph!

Here’s your chance to share your work. You can start sharing your ideas and flipcharts on the APS Promethean Users Group. Please share your work even if you don’t think it’s “amazing.” Flipcharts don’t have to have to be hyper stylized renderings of dynamic interactive lessons. If you are creating flipcharts that could be used by other teachers of the same grade or subject, then that’s what we want. It could be as simple as adapting a Mondo lesson into something more interactive.

So… if you are interested in sharing your flipcharts, this is how you can do so.

1. Register for a wordpress blog
2. Notify Chris EarthTree that you’ve registered, (I’ll add you as an author).
3. Log on to http://apscms.net/staffpages/pug/wp-login.php
4. Post an entry
   • Click on “Write.”
   • Write in a short description of your flipchart
   • Upload your flipchart (compressed) send it to the Editor (be sure to compress it first, right-click and “Send to Compressed File.)
5. Go to http://apscms.net/staffpages/pug to check it out!

That’s it! As James Brown says, “Get on up! Get in to it! Get involved! Get involved!”

Check out this post by Ben Gondrez at Fletcher Elementary. He’s figured out a clever way to reuse packing materials from the visualizers and give students a comfortable place to read.

The Dubious Rantings of Mr. Gondrez