ActiveInspire From a Beginner's Point of View

I am very excited to be learning about ActivInspire and Promethean's ActivBoard. Since I am new to the software, I thought I would do a blog series about the things that I am learning. I am very familiar with SMART Notebook software and will be interested to compare what is the same and what is different.

Lessons that are created in ActivInspire (which is the software that controls the Promethean ActivBoard are called flipcharts. So, if you are looking for lesson plans to use, look for "flipcharts" after a title.

When I opened ActivInspire, a window also opened up called the ActivInspire Dashboard. This Dashboard allows you to go to Promethean Planet (where lessons and tutorials can be located), configure your board, and many other things. I saw where I could click on the check box at the bottom of the Dashboard if I don't want the Dashboard to open each time I open ActivInspire.

Browsers are on the left hand side of the screen after opening the software. I accidentally closed it and then couldn't figure out how to open it again. I finally realized that the title of the box was Browsers. Since I knew the name of the window, I could then click in the menu bar on View, click on Browsers, and the Browser window opened back up.

I have a Symbaloo webmix for Interactive White Boards with a lot of resources. The first resource I chose was GeekMonkee (aka Matt Barfield) and his Tech Tutorials. I am going through the ActiveInspire Basics flipchart first. This flipchart shows the different parts of the software, how to calibrate the board, how to clean it, etc. I highly recommend this tutorial (created by Kathryn Vaughn, Technology & Learning Consultant at Promethean World).

Make sure to join Promethean Planet so that you can start viewing and/or using flipcharts that have already been created. Promethean Planet also has links to tips, best practices, webinars, etc.

As I continue to learn about ActivInspire, I will be sharing my thoughts and what I have learned. Please join me in my journey.

My Favorite Networking Tools

Here is a list of some of my favorite tools to keep up with my network or PLN.

1. Skype is one I use all the time. My department created a group in Skype and we use it to keep in touch with each other whether we have a snow day, are out at a school, out sick, or on vacation. I know that last one would be - you are on vacation, why would you want to keep up with work? With Skype, you can go back and view previous day's conversations. Within our state (North Carolina), we also have an edtech group. This is made up of educators who are interested in technology. I have learned so much through this group. If we have a problem with some tech tool or need to ask a question about something, we post it in our chat group. Within minutes, someone has come up with an answer or suggestion. They are an awesome group!
   
   
2. Twitter is another networking tool that I have learned a lot from. I started off following the people in my Skype group. They were following other people and were re-tweeting them; so I started following them also. I am not the best to follow; I get so caught up in what other people are talking about and the links that they are sharing, that I forget to answer or re-tweet them! At my old school Twitter was blocked, so I started using HootSuite.
   
   
3. Discovery Education was a great networking tool, especially when I became a DEN Star. If you are lucky enough to work in a county that can afford to subscribe to Discovery Education, make sure to sign up to become a DEN Star. (There should be a star and an Ask Me How blurb that you can click on after logging into Discovery Education.) The DEN Star community is made up of educators from around the world. I hope to re-join my DEN friends sometime in the future.
   
   
4. Google Reader allows me to follow a lot of great blogs written by some really great educators. Through these blogs I learned about the 30 Day Blogging Challenge (which I thoroughly enjoyed). I have also been able to build my toolbox from these blogs.
   

I only have four networking tools that I use on a regular basis. I have a LinkedIn account and a Facebook account. I haven't been in LinkedIn very much at all. I use Facebook mostly as a friend PLN, not a lot of business.

One of my PLN friends mentions frequently, and I agree: by myself I am great, but with my PLN behind me I am brilliant.

Original Image from Wordle.

Working in My Garden

I really like AnswerGarden. It can be used for brainstorming, polls, comments, or answering questions. You don't have to log into or register for AnswerGarden, so elementary students can safely use it.

Click "Create an AnswerGarden" and type in your question. You can click on more options to password protect your AnswerGarden if you want to go back and edit the question. After creating the AnswerGarden, it can be embedded into your blog or wiki, or can be shared as a link.

A word cloud is generated from the answers. Below is a sample AnswerGarden embedded into my wiki. Please submit an answer to see the garden grow!


What would you use AnswerGarden for?... at AnswerGarden.ch.

Blogging and Images

'Two Bloggers, after Norman Rockwell'



I like putting pictures on my blog. Whether it is a picture of something I have created or from my camera; I think it gives the blog character and adds a bit of interest. I think all of my blogs have a picture of something on it.

I have heard of Creative Commons for a while now, but haven't done a lot with it. I am really glad that this challenge is covering Creative Commons and the proper way to add and attribute images into blogs.


How to Grow a Blog



 We are always teaching teachers and students about copyright and where to find images they can use legally. The sites that were posted will really help in giving teachers and students other places to visit for "free" images. I could not get one of the sites to change the creative commons only, so I just used the FlickrCC site.

All of the other sites I added to my Diigo list. I think I might create a webmix in Symbaloo on image sites using Creative Commons.

I went to FlickrCC site, and then I searched for images that relate to blogs. There were a lot of images that came up, but my two favorites are the two that I have used here.

I then saved the images to my computer, made sure that I copied the attributes and will paste them at the end of this blog. By clicking on the edit, on site button above the image, I could have saved the attributes as a part of the image. I really liked that about FlickrCC.

The next thing that I did was to upload one of my photos that I took when I was in San Diego a few weeks ago. We went to the zoo (loved it!) and saw the pandas. I took my picture of the panda and uploaded it to befunky. Befunky allows you to add effects to your photos.

I applied the cartoon effect to my panda and then resized it to better fit within this blog. The home page said that I could upload my photos from Picasa, but I couldn't figure out how to do it. I did it the old fashioned way, went to my album on Picasa, downloaded the image to my computer and then uploaded it to befunky. If anyone knows of how I can upload it direct from Picasa, please let me know.

Original Image: 'Two Bloggers, after Norman Rockwell' by: Mike Licht

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9106303@N05/2744489459

Original Image: 'How To Grow a Blog' by Konrad Glogowski

http://www.flickr.com/photos/53346833@N00/1776430181

 

Released under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License.





Real Life Person or Avatars?

What is better a real life picture or an avatar for your online life? I feel that there is nothing wrong with having an avatar for your online life. Many people feel that as an adult you should have a real picture of yourself so people know that you are real and they can see what you look like. I am not sure that I agree. So much of some of our lives are online from Facebook to Twitter to Skype to Blogs/Wikis; I am not sure I really want my picture out there! I have my real picture on Facebook, but use an avatar for Skype and Twitter.

What do you think? Do you think teachers/adults should use real pictures for all of their online profiles, or avatars? What do you use? Do you use something different for personal online profiles vs. professional profiles? I would be very interested in hearing opposing views on this matter.

For students, I think it is an ideal situation. You definitely don't want to post student pictures online, but an avatar that they create takes care of privacy issues for students.

I read the Advanced Activity for Week 4 on some different avatar creation tools. I really liked the Picassohead avatar creator. Here is my Picassohead:

 

This is the first time that I had seen or heard about Picassohead and it was a lot of fun to create this. One thing that I had a lot of trouble with was keeping my signature attached to my picture. I ended up copying and pasting into Paint and putting the signature on top of the picture. I could not find any other way of doing this.

I have another avatar that I created and use for Twitter and Skype. I created this in Gizmos (which has since changed to Digimi. Here is a picture of my other altar ego.

So, if you see either one, it is me!



Symbaloo Who? What?

Symbaloo sounds like a relative of Cindy Lou Who from Dr. Seuss' "How the Grinch Stole Christmas."

Symbaloo is a tool that I have been playing with for a couple of months now. Symbaloo is a different type of social bookmarking. The Symbaloo link here is to the educational site of Symbaloo. They call your page a "webmix". You can create webmixes and add other people's webmixes to your Symbaloo page.

To start, click on "Create free account". You can create tiles (websites), add tiles, delete, or move the tiles around on your screen. Symbaloo can be used as your home page and you can share your webmix with others.

Symbaloo is very easy to use. Once you create your account, edit your webmix, and start adding tiles. The tiles are just websites that you use on a regular basis. Here is one of my webmix links. Below is an image of another of my webmixes.

I like Symbaloo a lot because it is easy to use and very visual. Try it today!

30 Day Blogging Challenge

What is the 30 Day Blogging Challenge? This challenge was posted in a blog that I follow "Free Technology for Teachers" by Richard Byrne. I have found a great many gems in his blog. The latest one was "So You Want to be a Blogger? (or a better blogger?)". I want to be a better blogger, so I went to the link 30 Day Blogging Challenge. I didn't have to create a new blog, because I already have one. However, I did change the background on my blog. So, for my first post I am going to pose some questions for me to answer.

1. When did I start my blog? I started my blog in June of 2009 right before necc '09 (right before it became ISTE). However, I didn't do anything with it, so I deleted the posts and re-started in November, 2009.

2. How did I start my blog? At the time I started my blog, I had only heard about Blogger.com and it was the only one that was not blocked at my school.

3. What was in the first post? The first post in November, 2009 was about Web 2.0 Tools.

4. Why did I start my blog? This was my first time of attending a national conference and I thought I would write about my experiences at the conference and what I saw. That didn't work out very well. I had a great time at the conference, but I didn't really write anything of use. I didn't take the time to reflect on the day and what I had seen and heard. I decided later to try to start writing on my blog again, and then only posted a couple of things. I really thought no one would be interested in reading about what I had to say.

5. What did I decide to write about? I decided to start writing more about things I knew about; things I might be teaching to others. So I started with SMART Notebook tips, things I had created in EDU Glogster, new things I personally was learning.

6. What are sources of inspiration? I work with some very prolific blog writers and I get really inspired by their blogs. Steven Anderson has a blog "Blogging About The Web 2.0 Classroom" and is really into social media. Another co-worker is Melissa Edwards; her blog is "Technology: figuring out how the pieces fit". Evan Herreid is another co-worker and his blog is: "Techno Fusion". All of my co-worker's write about technology and how to use it in the classroom. They pull ideas from Twitter, what they are teaching to teachers, or other blogs and write about how they would use it in the classroom. My boss, Marlo Gaddis, has her own blog also: "Finding the Diva Within". Her posts have technology links and reflection posts. As a department we also have a blog that we are encouraged to post to: "In Touch". I usually post at least once a week (sometimes every other week) to this blog.

7. What are my top hints or tips? Two of my favorite tools to teach about or with is SMART Notebooks and EDU Glogster. That is what I write the most about.

8. What would make me happy about my blog? To know that people are benefiting from any of my tips and for them to tell me what they used and how they used it.

9. What are my future goals? My future goals are to write more and to hopefully have people comment so that I can become a better writer and to see if any of my tips actually make a lesson better for students.

10. What is my most exciting moment? Usually when I finish a blog post and am actually happy with what I posted. I look at it and realize that I write a little better after each post.