Basic Use of ActivExpressions

Let's talk about Ad Hoc questions in ActivInspire using ActivExpressions. First of all, Ad Hoc is more like asking a question spontaneously. In order to do this, there is a button on the toolbar in ActivInspire. this button has a question mark in the middle of it and the tag is Express Poll. Once it has been clicked, a button will be placed into the flipchart. Hover over that button to see the different types of questions that can be asked. Some of the question types are: likert scale, multiple choice, text, number, sort in order, yes/no, and true/false.

If a teacher is using the text response, both letters and numbers can be used to answer a question. If they use the number response, only the numbers are used to answer a question.


With an Ad Hoc question, the correct answer is not shown until after all the voting has stopped. The teacher can then go into the upper right corner where there is an image of AB and a check mark and choose the correct answer. This changes the correct answer to green (bar chart or pie chart) so that the teacher can quickly see if they need to re-teach that goal, or did the students really understand it. 


Another tip that I learned is that once you start an Express Poll, if a student is putting in incorrect answers or silly answers, you can turn that voting device off at the board. That way the teacher doesn't waste time by talking to that particular student. I thought that was a very clever idea.

Image: 'Questions' http://www.flickr.com/photos/42788859@N00/318947873

Learning About ActivExpressions

The other day I was learning about how to register ActivExpressions. Here is what I learned:

To register ActivExpressions, you need to have your voting browser open. Click on View, and then click on Browsers. The Voting Browser is the last browser in your list and has a picture of a voting device on it. Once you have opened the browser, click on the image of the clipboard (which is Device Registration). Click on Expressions and click Register. From here, the easiest thing to do is to follow the on-screen instructions. Usually you only have to register your voting devices once a year. You can register all of your voting devices, or just register the number of students in your class using your voting devices. If a student leaves your classroom or you get a new student, it is very easy to add or delete one voting device. 

A good rule to follow is to add a name of some sort to your voting devices. For instance, you might want to put your name in front of the number of the device. One of the reasons for doing this, is that if your voting device develops legs and walks out of the room, you can turn the device on and see who it belongs to. To name your devices all at once, go to the Device Registration (see above) and click Rename. Once again, follow the on-screen instructions. You have up to 14 characters that you can use. Make sure to put a space at the end of your prefix, it just looks nicer. One thing that you may notice is that ActivInspire renames your voting devices and starts with 0. You can easily change this by clicking on that device, click rename, and change it to the last number in your sequence. Make sure to click on Done.

Studyladder - Online English Literacy & Mathematics

As I was scrolling through Twitter this morning, I came across a tweet from @teachersharetp (Toby Price). He created a Livebinder on using Special Needs SMART Notebook Lessons. I am always on the lookout for something that can be used with Interactive White Boards (IWB). When I went to Mr. Price's resources web page, I found a link to something called Studyladder. (I also noticed that he has a Studyladder Livebinder on his resource page.) Anyway, I decided to go and check out Studyladder.

I first went and previewed some activities, and the next thing I looked at was pricing. As educators, we are always curious to find out how much something costs! Imagine my surprise when I saw that as a teacher, you can register and get a free account with Studyladder. Here is a video clip about Studyladder:

After creating my own account, I went in and started looking at some of the Literacy resources. I opened the one for Kindergarten and Concentration game. When I got to that page, I noticed in the upper right corner a link to "Open Whiteboard version". Score!!!

 

Studyladder also has activities for Math, Science, Music, and Art. Each interactivity has a whiteboard version so that you could use these on your Interactive White Board. Why not go and check out this resource for your class?