User Groups

iPads & Flipped Classrooms

Claudio Zavala Jr — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 13:30:00 GMT

We have been in full swing with iPads for over half a semester now. But make no mistake; there has not been much of a slowdown. We remain busy developing training for implementation and finding resources (apps, after-market attachments, and online resources). In my last blog, iPads in the Classroom - App Evaluation/Research, I shared 5 ways to find apps and found that most use the App Store and word of mouth to narrow down their search. I have to say that I too find the App Store and word of mouth the most useful for finding apps, free apps of course. Worst-case scenario, the app is not what I expected, and therefore delete it.

Speaking of apps, we have had a surge in teachers joining the ranks using iTunes U for flipped classrooms. What initially started with 15 teachers, we are now over 35. Many of them are utilizing iTunes U for flipped classroom approach. In addition, we as a department are looking at developing Promethean and iPad training that our staff can take via iTunes U. Many of the teachers are creating screen recordings for their lessons. In addition, some will capture footage of themselves. One of the challenges in recording oneself is having someone available to record. What many of the teachers are doing is using their own cameras or mobile phones. Unfortunately, stability and tracking (when camera follows the speaker) has not been easy to overcome.

In February, our team was able to present at our state technology conference, TCEA. One of my goals was to find useful attachments and/or tools to help our teachers record videos for their flipped classroom. Enter Swivl, the portable cameraman in a box. The Swivl connects to various iOS devices and Android phones to record video along with audio (see table for specs).

Device	App	How it Works
iPod Touch 4gen, iPhone 3G/3GS, iPhone 4/4S, iPhone 5, iPad Mini (iPad Fall 2013)	Yes	Connects via charging connector to record audio and video
Android phones	No	Use Swivl tracking to record video via phone, no audio

The Swivl follows the instructor via infrared device worn on a lanyard. As you move across the classroom, Swivl app captures video using built-in camera on the iPhone. The video is ready for sharing to YouTube or to camera roll to use in post-production video apps. I created a demo lesson to show it in action, without any editing other than adding title and transition. I did forget to set the auto-focus to lock. That is why you see it jumping focus.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Imagine the possibilities! Not only can a teacher create lessons, how-to-videos, but also think of how students can use the Swivl to create video reports, student-to-student instruction, and dramatizations. Devices like this help transform the traditional use of video in the classroom. For example, flipped classroom redefines the traditional lecture portion. Redefinition as represented in the SAMR, seeks to enhance learning by utilizing technology in the classroom. Developed by Dr. Ruben Puentedura, this model aims to advance the use of technology through four stages, Substitution, Augmentation, Modification and Redefinition. You can hear from Dr. Puentedura by subscribing to his iTunes U podcast.

Although the iPad version will not be available until the fall, I definitely see the benefits of using it not only for flipped classroom but other projects. For example, possibly using Skype or FaceTime (depending on your schools Wi-Fi access) to conference from one class to another. That may be my next project to try!

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iPads in the Classroom – App Evaluation/Research

Claudio Zavala Jr — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 19:13:00 GMT

With second semester now in full swing, many of our teachers have had time to utilize the iPad as a tool in their instruction. Groups of teachers are using iPads as a tool for flipped classrooms. A cohort of teachers is using iTunes U to develop courses for students to take using iTunes U app. If interested in learning more about on our iTunes U project, watch this Prezi.

One of the common responses from our teachers relates to finding the right app to use for the right situation. It can be and has been challenging to get the right app. However, we have come up with a process for choosing an app. Please note that we are still making modifications to this plan, so feel free to share your thoughts.

At this moment, there are over 800,000¹ apps in the app store with thousands of them being educational apps. As a teacher, that's an enormous bank of possibilities, but narrowing it down and finding useful ones is a daunting task. In addition, finding free and effective apps is an added challenge.

An approach we took was to have a research apps session. It is our "Top 5 Ways to Find Apps". We met with the entire staff of our Career and Technology Education (CATE) campus on a morning of a professional development day. We began our session by creating a chat via our online collaborative learning platform. We asked the teachers to reply to this question:

What kinds of apps are you looking for?

Several responded with apps that help with productivity, storyboarding and scripting apps, engineering apps, a whole myriad of requests. Our next step was to share our list of strategies for finding these types of apps. Here's our list:

App Finding Apps – You can choose filters to locate educational apps. In addition, you have the ability to create wishlists to notify you when the app does become free or if price is reduced.
Blogs/Websites – Many people have already done a lot of the legwork for you. For example, Kathy Schrock’s app guide is a great resource for apps that work with Bloom’s Taxonomy.
App Search Engines – These sites lets you enter a specific topic or activity and list results.
iTunes U – One of the ways is to search through courses similar to your content area and find out what apps other teachers/professors are requiring their students to download. Be aware that this strategy is a bit time consuming.
The App Store – Apple has done a nice job of organizing apps into content categories in the Education App list.

A more concise list is available in the presentation. Follow this link to download: Top 5 Ways to Find Apps.

After we presented the teachers with these five tools, they broke up into content area groups to search for apps using the list. After about 15-20 minutes we reconvened and asked teachers to share apps they found and what way they found useful (I'll share a few at the end). We found that the majority of the group prefers to use the App Store to find their apps. But there was a mixture others.

As a follow up to this training, we've asked these teachers to share apps they find throughout the year and post it on our group page. Here are a few apps they found and what they use them for:

Dragon Dictation	Use for recording verbal assessments
Crime Reports	Use for research in CSI courses
Sticky Notes	Use for collaborative note taking and research
CDC	Use for medical research in health science courses
Type on PDF	Use this to complete PDF documents, worksheets, or tests

Overall, this workshop model worked. Please share your suggestions and if you do try this model, let us know what you find. Our next steps are refining our iPad trainings to be more content relevant. We are in the works to collaborate with curriculum department coordinators to better serve our teachers and in turn serve our students.

¹"Apple - IPod Touch - Learn about Apps from the App Store." Apple - IPod Touch - Learn about Apps from the App Store. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2013.

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ActivDriver Forum Posts

graeme horton — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 15:41:43 GMT

Hi,

Thank you for participating in the Beta. Please post any issues or bug using our online tool, as any posted in the forums may not be seen.

The Online reporting form can be found here

Best Wishes
Promethean

ActivDriver for Mountain Lion

graeme horton — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 14:14:03 GMT

This Beta version of the ActivDriver is for Mac users with Mountain Lion.

In order to download this file you will need to be registered and logged in to Promethean Planet, also you need to join this Beta Group, bly clicking Join group in the top right of this page

All issues / Bugs

graeme horton — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 13:08:54 GMT

Hi,

Thank you for your participation in the Beta testing. All issues / bugs should be reported using our online reporting form. The online issue reporting form is available here:

http://support.prometheanplanet.com/Prometheanbetacomments,

Please use this form to report any issues you may find using the software during the field trial. The Forums are available for discussion purposes and not for reporting problems with the software.

Many Thanks
Promethean

ActivExpressions and Self-Paced Quizzes for Existing Materials

Claudio Zavala Jr — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 17:04:00 GMT

In my blog post "So I Have Some ActivExpressions, Now What?" I focused on quick tips for getting started with using ActivExpression voting devices in your classroom. For those who have had an opportunity to use them or want to expand on the uses of ActivExpressions, I now want to share the idea of using existing materials such as blackline masters, online tests and publishers' materials for voting sessions. I will focus on using self-paced questions with those materials you already have in the classroom.

Gather Your Test Materials

To begin, collect whatever material you want to use for your voting session. For my example, I am using released test questions from the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR™), specifically a 5th grade mathematics test. This test has 13 questions (12 multiple-choice and 1 numeric entry). My next step is to print a set for my classes. In my case, I use the same set for all my classes and provide scratch paper to do the work. Now it's time to set up the flipchart.

Set Up the Flipchart

Next thing you will want to do is create a blank set of self-paced questions for your materials. In my case, I am using the released STAAR questions mentioned above. Open a new flipchart and insert questions via the Insert menu option (Insert > Questions). In the Question Manager window, proceed to add questions as you usually do. Start by entering "Enter your name or ID#" for the first question. This will help later when you export the results. Next, add as many questions as needed. Enter the following "Question 1" for the next question, which will be the second question in the session (see image below).

Enter answer choices for each of your questions. In my case, my answer choices are A–D for all questions. However, question 5 is a numeric answer so I have modified the question. Be sure to identify and/or enter the correct answers. Once complete, save your flipchart. It is now ready for the voting session. For your convenience, I have created a flipchart template that you can download.

Self-Paced Time

For this self-paced session, distribute the test copies and any other needed materials to students. After opening the blank self-paced flipchart, begin the self-paced session. Important note: notify students to enter their name or ID# for the first question. Feel free to use any other identifier for this part. The students proceed to answer the questions as they normally would with the exception being that they are reading the questions off the printed copies.

Prior to taking a graded self-paced test, I recommend using the same flipchart with a set of pop-culture questions. This will help students get accustomed to the format of the questions and minimize the students' stress level while trying to figure out the format.

All Done

Once all students have completed the self-paced test, be sure to export the results. To do so, open the Voting Browser window (View > Browsers > Voting Browser) and click the Export button as shown in the image on the right.

The ActivInspire software will then convert the results into an Excel spreadsheet and open the file. When you view the results, you will notice that each student's name or ID# will be seen in the first row for question 1. This is the reason for asking them to enter that for the first question.

Using a blank self-paced voting flipchart allows you to use existing materials with ActivExpressions, without the need to enter each question and answer into the respective fields in the Question Manager. Please share your experiences if you decide to use this flipchart method.

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TEDxAshburn

Adina Popa — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 13:40:00 GMT

Two years ago, a colleague sent me a link to a video: "Do Schools Kill Creativity?" In it, Sir Ken Robinson explains how important it is that we don't only teach STEM in our schools, but also emphasize the importance of visual and performing arts. Someone once said that we should add an "a" in STEM, to represent the vital role the arts play in our students' lives. STEAM should be the acronym we would want to use.

Robinson's video was so inspiring that I immediately started searching for more of his speeches and information. That is how I learned about TED. When I first "discovered" TED, I felt like I'd reached an educator's dream playground! Luminaries from around the world shared not only expertise on topics relevant to STEAM education, but also discoveries and visions of a better world transformed through STEAM initiatives.

Through further research, I discovered that the TED experience is replicable, with licensed events held around the globe. As a result, I applied for a license for our community and was thrilled to find out that we were granted such license.

The name of our event is TEDxAshburn and it will be held on Saturday, September 29. 2012 is the first year for TEDxAshburn and it is our dream to establish a world-class event, helping it become "THE event of the year!" We don't just have an impressive list of speakers; our audience is comprised of industry leaders from the East Coast, all ready to network and share "ideas worth spreading."

The event will be broadcast live, and we expect a large number of followers to attend TEDxAshburn virtually. All speeches will be recorded and made available on our TEDxAshburn site, as well as on our YouTube channel.

The theme for TEDxAshburn is "The Power of Everyone," promoting collaboration of any kind, in any type of environment. We intentionally made this a general theme, as we wanted speakers from any walk of life to contribute with innovative ideas.

Our list of confirmed speakers includes:

Jeff Platenberg, Assistant Superintendent, Loudoun County Public Schools
George Wolfe, Emmy Award winner and Director of the Academy of Science, Sterling, VA
Radu Burducea, Director XBOX and Kinect, US Education, Microsoft
Luke Dollar, Conservation Scientist, National Geographic
Shawn Hardnett, Chief Officer for School Excellence of Friendship Public Charter School
Lori Anne Madison, six-year-old speller and national sensation
Greg Toppo, USA Today Education Reporter
Student (we are currently working on the selection process for this speaker)

TEDx events are accessible to anyone, and everyone reading this entry is invited to participate!

You can even create a similar event in your community.

Who are the inspiring educators who influenced you? What is your favorite TED speech? Please use the comment section below to start a conversation on this topic.

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Six Resources for Teaching about Plants

Danny Nicholson — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 14:23:00 GMT

A lot of schools schedule their topics so that at this time of year they are teaching about plants. It's much easier to get outside and look at plants in the spring/summer than in the winter! Here are some very useful websites for science teachers to support the teaching of plants in their classroom.

Science & Plants for Schools

SAPS provides lots of ideas for lesson activities and teacher support for teaching about plants and the environment for both primary and secondary (elementary/high school) students. Their downloadable PDF booklets are an excellent resource with some great ideas to use in the classroom.

rEvolution

Aimed at upper high school students, rEvolution is a collection of online games that introduce and reinforce key concepts in biology, ecology and plant science. It is designed by the Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies (CARET) and departments of biological science at the University of Cambridge.

Parts of a Flower Song

Available on YouTube, this fun song for elementary/KS1 students teaches about the parts of a plant. Before you play it, ask the students to think of a different pose/action to match each plant part and then ask them to strike that pose at the relevant parts of the song. This forms a great lesson starter or plenary activity for the whole class.

The Great Plant Hunt

The Great Plant Hunt is an exciting project from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, funded and commissioned by the Wellcome Trust. The Great Plant Hunt aims to encourage school children aged 3–11 to explore the natural world around them, have fun and enjoy a rewarding learning experience. And they've now teamed up with Promethean Planet to share their resources with teachers around the world. You can access videos about Darwin, resource packs on topics such as biodiversity and also PDF files.

The Life Cycles of Plants

The Life Cycles of Plants is a set of interactive resources that can be used to teach about parts of a flower, seed growth and seed dispersal. It would work well on the interactive whiteboard as part of a lesson starter or plenary.

NGFL Cymru

The NGFL Cymru website has some excellent resources for all ages and subjects. The link provided takes you directly to their 'Plants and Animals in their Environment' section for Key Stage 2 (ages 7–11). There are some great interactive whiteboard resources on topics such as plant reproduction, plant life cycles, parts of a plant and the factors affecting plant growth.

If you have any other good resources, please share them in the comments!

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Learner Response Apps and iPads

Claudio Zavala Jr — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 12:10:00 GMT

As part of our district 1:1 iPad initiative for high schools (read more about this in my blog post iPads in the Classroom – Here They Come!), I was asked to evaluate Learner Response apps for iPads. We piloted the apps in a high school class and gathered anecdotal evidence. Using input from students and the teacher, as well as my own testing with colleagues, I will rate the apps on a 5-star rating scale. The criteria I used to evaluate the app were as follows:

User interface (student and teacher apps)
Easy setup
Self-paced quiz capabilities
Price
Question generator/wizard
Presenter/student Interaction

eClicker Audience (Free) ★★★★★ 4/5

One of the features of eClicker Audience that impressed me was the user interface for both the end user and the presenter. When the app is launched, the students click the Presenters link from their home page. The presenter/teacher will need to install eClicker Presenter ($14.99) to run a response session. While running the eClicker Presenter, students will enter their name and an optional ID. You can present students various types of tests, like mutliple choice, true/false, and Likert scale. You can run self-paced and presenter-controlled quizzes. Creating questions to use is easy, but you must use the iPad keyboard or a Bluetooth keyboard. I would like to see a way to import questions in future updates. A nice feaure when creating questions is the option to pull in images from your iPad photo roll. You can also export results in a CSV format to an email address. Overall, eClicker Audience and eClicker Presenter are powerful LRS apps that can be used in the classroom. The only reason I didn't give it a 5-star rating was the price of eClicker Presenter.

Student Clicker – Socrative (Free) ★★★★★ 5/5

Socrative's Student Clicker gives you the option of providing short-answer questions, quick quizzes, and multiple-choice questions. Students enter a room number created by the teacher using Teacher Clicker – Socrative (Free). After students enter their name and the teacher begins a quiz, students answer questions. These apps both boast an easy-to-use user interface. In addition, you can run both Student Clicker and Teacher Clicker in a web browser on your mobile device or on a PC/Mac. You can either create the quizzes in the teacher app or on a desktop using the browser. Additionally, you can import quizzes from a Microsoft® Excel® file (using their template) or import Teacher Clicker quizzes from colleagues. As stated before, both Socrative apps are simple yet effective. For purposes of running a quiz, Student Clicker and Teacher Clicker work extremely well. A major plus, both versions are free! All the features and ease of use, as well as the price, earned the Socrative apps a 5-star rating.

ResponseWare™ (Free) ★★★★★ 2/5

To begin a quiz, students will join a session ID. Teachers will intitiate the quiz using a subscription-based server software TurningPoint Anywhere ($199 per class). The user interface is easy to use. Students took particular interest in this app because it allowed them to ask the teacher a question via the app while taking a quiz. Conversely, the teacher could give feedback to students via the desktop server. You can run multiple-choice questions, as well as short-answer questions. Beyond that, howerver, ResponseWare didn't fair too well in our pilot: running the quizzes via the server software was extremely cumbersome and counter intutitive, and the steps it took to run a quiz were too many. Unfotunately, this led to only a 2-star rating.

ClickerSchool Virtual Clicker (Free) ★★★★★ 3/5

Virtual Clicker also requires a subscription to run the quizzes ($54 per year per class). Virtual Clicker's interface is is similar to others. After entering an ID number to join a session, students proceed to answer self-paced questions or live polls. Virtual Clicker also features chat options to allow communication between student and teacher. You can run Virtual Clicker from a desktop as well. Virtual Clicker gives you the option to create your own questions or pool from a bank of quizzes. You can run a multiple-choice poll and short-answer type questions. One drawback I found was not being able to run a self-paced quiz. During a pilot session, after starting question 1, I had to stop polling in order to begin the next question—in a class of 30 high school students, taking a 5-question quiz took some time. I give Virtual Clicker 3 stars.

Promethean ActivEngage (Free) ★★★★★ 5/5

Unfortunately, we were not able to test Promethean ActivEngage in the classroom, but managed to test it in a small group. To run Promethean ActivEngage, you need Promethean's ActivInspire software, as well as Promethean ActivEngage Server (fee-based) on either Mac or PC. You can create the various types of questions (multiple-choice, true/false, Likert scale, ans text in answers) using a wizard in ActivInspire, with the option of importing questions in ExamView and QTI/IMS format. Promethean ActivEngage's user interface is intuitive and easy to navigate. You have the option of running either a self-paced quiz or a live voting session. Setup is easy and done via the Promethean ActivEngage Server and ActivInspire. This app allows for seamless connection between instruction and assessment using ActivInspire, which, in my opinion, is this app's strongest asset. If you plan on investing in ActivInspire, Promethean ActivEngage would be worth a look. There were no issues with running the app and server client, earning Promethean ActivEngage 5 stars.

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Files & File Galleries

graeme horton — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 09:53:44 GMT

Add one or more file galleries to your group by selecting the 'New Post' button within the 'Files' area. You may set up several categories and develop your own structure for providing access to folders and files. You may wish to add some of your favorite, tried and true resources from the Planet! Learn more about wiki features and functionality in the Group Owners Group!

Forums and Forum Posts

graeme horton — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 09:53:25 GMT

As the group owner, you have the ability to set up a single forum, or host multiple forums for your users. These can be discussion forums or be set up as question and answer forums. Learn more about forum features and functionality in the Group Owners Group!

Learner Response Systems – Share Your Experience!

Planet Editorial Team — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 13:29:29 GMT

Whenever members of the Planet team meet teachers and technology specialists who use Learner Response Systems (LRS), they're always eager to tell us about how their teaching has been transformed since they integrated LRS into their lessons. It's always worth sharing an experience that others can learn from, so we thought it'd be great to bring these stories on to Promethean Planet. If you use ActivExpression, ActiVote or ActivEngage and would like to share your LRS story, please join in the conversation by contributing to this thread!

ActivInspire Update Adds Improved Features to Learner Response System Functionality

Claudio Zavala Jr — Tue, 29 May 2012 14:21:00 GMT

Last month, Promethean released the 1.6C update to ActivInspire that includes enhanced features relevant to our Learner Response System user group. I will attempt to highlight those improvements so that you all (or as we say in Texas "y'all") have a jump-start when you update your software.

Question Manager Enhancements

Previous versions of ActivInspire's Question Manager did not allow options to change the case-sensitive answer for Text types of questions. For example, if you entered "yellow" as the answer in the Question Manager and the student entered "Yellow" as their text answer it would mark it as a wrong answer. I recall having to adjust my students' answers in the exported results. A bit time consuming! The updated Question Manager now gives you the option to mark the answer as a case-sensitive. What does this mean? Simply, students can text in the answer with either a lower/upper case and still get the answer correct. Presuming they have texted in the right answer and correct answer has been assigned. To enable that option, make sure the box labeled "Mark answer case sensitively" is unchecked. (See image below)

By leaving the box unchecked, you will have the benefit of accepting an answer whether it was lower or upper case. In this example, I am assessing their knowledge of the Bradley house in To Kill a Mockingbird, rather than their spelling. In this voting session, both students inputted the correct answer. However, Terese texted in all lower case while Blade entered upper case for the first word. As you can see in the following image, both answers were accepted as correct because I left the "Mark answer case sensitively" unchecked.

If your answers do not require being case-sensitive on your next text type of voting session, try out this new feature. What a great time saver!

Self-Paced Test Enhancements

One of my favorite features of ActivExpressions has been the ability to use self-paced voting. Well, the recent upgrade to ActivInspire has only made the ActivExpression's functionality and use much easier as well as the setup of questions. The first improvement is automatically sending the correct answer to whichever device a student incorrectly typed during a self-paced voting session. After you have entered your questions, you will need to navigate to the Test Feedback Properties in the Question Manager. In that section, you will want to be sure to "check" each box. Click Apply and then Done.

Now when your students respond to questions via a self-paced session, they will now immediately see if the question they answered was correct or not. In addition, by checking all the boxes the students will be sent a summary of their total score when they have answered the last question. How's that for instant feedback?

Extras

In addition to the aforementioned improvements, two enhancements that may prove to be time savers are the default timer and question title page. Prior to the ActivInspire 1.6C update, you were required to enter a time when creating a self-paced voting session. The new update defaults to 59:00 countdowns. You can change the time up or down as you see fit.

The other featured enhancement is the ability to add the title to the flipchart page. What you need to do is enter the information in the Test Properties tab as shown in the image. Then in the Flipchart Page Properties, check the box "Replace the page content with a new design" to enable Question Manager to add the title to the flipchart page. Otherwise, your flipchart page will look blank.

Overall, these enhancements to ActivInspire have proven to be time savers to me as well as my colleagues. I especially like the ability to provide students with instant feedback to their responses. If you're using ActivExpressions and haven't updated your software, don't delay!

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Healthy Living Resources for Science Teachers on Promethean Planet

Danny Nicholson — Mon, 21 May 2012 17:00:00 GMT

Hopefully you already know this, but there are a great many readymade flipcharts and activity packs for teachers on Promethean Planet. Even if the resources do not exactly match your needs, they can be modified in ActivInspire to suit your class. It's also good to see what other teachers are doing on their flipcharts to give you ideas for your own.

I have been looking for materials to support the teaching of Healthy Living recently; here are just a few of the resources I found.

BrainPop UK Healthy Living Flipchart

Preview and download the resource

This is a really useful resource to help teach healthy eating. The quizzes use your ActivExpression handsets if you have them, but you could just pose them as regular questions. I like the Teacher's Cupboard idea for hiding additional information off the page, which can be dragged on to the page later. Moby rocks!

Healthy Eating Activity 2 – Healthy Eating

Preview and download the resource

This flipchart supports lessons from the Food – a fact of life website. The resource guides students to identify the different food groups and understand how to balance a healthy diet. This is another really useful resource to help teach healthy eating. The activities are simple, but help to illustrate the different food groups that make up a balanced diet.

Dental Health in Kindergarten

Preview and download the resource

This is a simple 2-page flipchart covering sorting foods (good/bad for teeth) and dental hygiene tools for Reception and Early Years children (ages 4–5).

Health and Growth (1)

Preview and download the resource

This resource is designed to support the Health and Growth QCA Science Unit at Key Stage 1 (ages 5–7). It features web links and ActiVote questions for assessment. The flipchart contains many different resources. It also includes teacher pages with useful web links to further resources.

Health and Growth (2)

Preview and download the resource

This is a short 10-question multiple choice quiz to use in a Key Stage 2 (ages 7–11) lesson about health and growth.

Cardiovascular Health

Preview and download the resource

This lesson is all about your heart and how to keep it healthy. Cholesterol, heart diseases such as hypertension, stroke and heart attacks are discussed, as well as steps to maintain a fit heart.

This resource is targeted at Key Stages 3–5 (ages 11–18). It is quite wordy and many pages are simply screen captures of text. It's useful for presentation purposes, but there's very little opportunity for student interaction or engagement.

If you have any other favourite resources on Promethean Planet then let us know in the comments!

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Forums and Forum Posts

graeme horton — Fri, 11 May 2012 13:30:31 GMT

Files and File Galleries

graeme horton — Fri, 11 May 2012 13:30:09 GMT

Blog Sample

graeme horton — Fri, 11 May 2012 14:10:40 GMT

As a group owner, you have the ability to set up one or more blogs associated with your group. In addition, you can also assign permissions to specific members to enable authoring capabilities. Learn more about wiki features and functionality in the Group Owners Group!

Wiki Sample

graeme horton — Fri, 11 May 2012 13:10:01 GMT

This is an example of a wiki article that may be written for your members. There are many different uses for the wiki and you have the ability to control which members have the ability to contribute. You can use the wiki to create a listing of FAQ's for your group or a shared set of documents that several members can contribute to and share ideas. For example, you could start developing a lesson plan, then allow others Chemistry teachers to collaborate and edit the document as well, resulting in a living document that can be modified and tweaked until it's ready to use! Learn more about wiki features and functionality in the Group Owners Group!

PD Generates Effective Classroom Implementation of IWB Technology

Adina Popa — Tue, 08 May 2012 11:50:00 GMT

When we opened our brand-new, technology-rich school four years ago, we were both excited and overwhelmed. We were excited to have access to cutting-edge technology that would allow both students and teachers to work and learn in 21st century environments, but at the same time we were overwhelmed for the same exact reasons. All of us wanted to use our interactive whiteboards effectively, but we knew that we needed to approach this technology in a premeditated fashion, creating (and participating in) professional development sessions that allowed everyone to learn and use the boards in most effective ways.

As a Technology Resource Teacher, I am in charge with staff development as it relates to technology initiatives in my school, and training staff to effectively use the interactive whiteboards was my first task in the new school. I created a Professional Development (PD) Plan that addressed this need, and implemented it from the start. Each year, I tweak the PD plan to adress the needs of staff at that point in time, but the skeleton (so to speak) remains the same.

We all know that students are better engaged in the new, faster-paced lessons delivered through IWBs (Smith, Hardman and Higgins (2006)). We also know that teaching via lectures and recall exercises is no longer a welcomed component of an interactive classroom. Furthermore, Betcher and Lee (2009) suggest that it is important to differentiate between simply projecting content on the IWB, and truly using the whiteboard in an interactive way. It was very important to us, therefore, that we knew how to effectively implement our interactive whiteboards in the curriculum.

I first started with research, demonstrating effective uses of IWBs, and then developed a school-wide professional development plan that leveraged and sustained successful strategies. The final result was a PD plan through which we learned how to create interactive flipcharts that maximized the power of IWBs, as suggested by Marzano (2009) and Betcher (2009). Although this plan is always a "work in progress" depending on each year's needs and wants, it is now our guide to effective use of interactive whiteboards.

Promethean Professional Development Plan

Goal

All teachers will demonstrate intermediate Promethean skills by the end of the 2011–2012 school year. Teachers at any level of expertise will showcase growth between two or more points in time.

Overview

This PD plan is the result of several suggestions and decisions made by the Steuart Weller Elementary PD focus group, a group of teachers representing each professional area in our school. Coming from different environments and facing different needs, they suggested actions that would benefit all of our staff, when implemented.

PD Focus group members

Grades K-2: One kindergarten teacher, three 1st grade teachers, and one 2nd grade teacher
Grades 3-5: One 3rd grade teacher, two 4th grade teachers, and two 5th grade teachers
Special education: One teacher
Specialists: Three specialists
Administration: Principal

Training Overview

Professional development will take place through three modules, delivered both face-to-face and online. The three modules build upon each other, the first addressing beginner skills, the second addressing intermediate skills, and the third addressing advanced skills. Learners can "test out" of any of these modules by creating flipcharts showcasing the tools required, and explaining how the tools are used.

Based on a survey created by our county and completed by each of our faculty (Appendix C), we realized that our staff is very diverse in Promethean skills and applications. This year we welcomed 19 new members, each at a different level of expertise. Because of this environment, we need to provide differentiated training and materials, and therefore we adopted the module model (Appendix A and website).

Since all activities have student achievement in mind, we decided to also use a Checklist for Effective IWB Lessons (Appendix B), applying the skills learned to planning lessons that increase student motivation and achievement.

Things to Consider When Training Adult Learners to Use IWBs Effectively

(Adapted from Professional Development that Works (1998))

Create an environment in which adult learning is valued. Provide 15–60 hours annually for staff development. If we don't spend enough time on well-designed training, staff will not want to switch tools.
Clarify the purpose of training. Teachers' time is in high demand, and we need to make sure that everything they do is perceived as valuable. In order for professional development to be effective, it should be a deliberate process that occurs within the context of teachers' daily activities in the classroom environment and connects back to student learning.
Effective learning happens when we stop delivering staff development as something we "do to" teachers. Instead, we must give adult learners choices in the process of their learning.
Never leave the focus from student learning!
Address emotional challenges of adult learners. Develop confidence, comfort, calm and competence.
Create an ActivGroup that assists the Technology Resource Teacher in providing timely mini-lessons to adult learners who need attention right away. These individuals also help with formal training, as the applications and connections generated by a group of experts are more valuable than if generated by one person alone.
Use surveys and assessment to guide planning. We must regularly survey teachers about their preferences, level of expertise and learning styles, in order to better create opportunities for learning.
Provide time for invention and lesson design.
Create effective and exciting programs that engage teachers.
Be persistent in helping all learners grow. Excellence requires time and effort.

ActivGroup Members

Centers: 2nd grade teacher
Effective design: 5th grade teacher
Using tools effectively and innovatively in math and social studies: 4th grade teacher
Innovative ways to use the ActiView and ActivExpression: Art specialist
Different ways to use multimedia with the interactive whiteboards: Librarian
Using tools effectively and innovatively in science: 3rd grade teacher
Using tools effectively and innovatively in language arts: 1st grade teacher
Morning routine: Kindergarten teacher

Planned Activities

Formal Meetings

August, new teacher orientation – completion of Module 1
November/December, three mandatory after school Tuesday sessions – completion of Module 2
January, three mandatory after school Tuesday sessions – completion of Module 3
February – ActivWeller (school-based mini conference during which teachers exchange best practices and effective uses of Activ tools).

Each staff member has the opportunity to "test out" of options 2 and 3 by creating flipcharts showcasing the relevant tools of those options, as well as innovative applications of these tools. If anyone wishes to choose this alternative, they can use the resources under on-going support to complete their projects. This year there are quite a few mandatory training sessions for our staff and we wanted to give them the option to work independently towards achieving this project's goals.

On-Going Support

Monthly staff meetings: Quick 10-minute tutorial of a tool or application delivered by an ActivGroup member.
Tuesday training (optional): Each Tuesday after school we hold one-hour sessions, presenting tools and innovative ways to apply these tools in a lesson. The Technology Resource Teacher announces what tools are featured, via our school's morning news, and teachers have the choice to participate in the training. The TRT or one of the ActivGroup members delivers the training on Tuesdays.
Team meetings: Technology Resource Teacher delivers 10-minute training sessions during grade level team meetings, at the request of the team.
LMS: Compile video and written tutorials (Appendix E) pertaining to different tools and their applications. Make these tutorials available to staff on our LMS. Use this collaboration tool to communicate with staff as well as post successful lessons, strategies and applications.

Evaluation

Quarterly surveys created by the county (Appendix D)
Observations
ActivWeller
End products (flipcharts and ActivExpression activities stored on LMS)

Measuring Outcome of Student Learning

Observational data: Are students engaged when Promethean technologies are involved?
Anecdotal evidence: Are students "getting it?" Is information retained better? Longer?

Oliver Wendell Holmes said that "Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions." It is my hope that, through this learning process, we have inspired not just our school community, but also the education community at large to bring interactivity to each classroom. Interactive whiteboards are amazing tools, but it is up to us, the educators who use them, to surface the high, positive impact they can have on students' learning.

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Louis Theroux: Extreme Love – Autism, BBC Two... Did anyone watch it?

Liam O'Marah — Wed, 02 May 2012 10:22:44 GMT

I realise that this probably only applies to the Brits that are reading this, but did anyone see Louis' recent documentary on BBC 2 about educating and living with autism in the US? To set this in context for the non-Brits, Louis Theroux is not usually known for his investigative journalism into such as hard-hitting topic, but after watching it I had to really take my hat off to the people in the documentary.

It featured an amazing school in the US (The New Jersey Development Learning Center) that has been a pioneer in helping pupils with autism, and the documentary featured the work of one bright teenager (Nicky) as they were preparing him to make the leap from an autism school to mainstream. There's a really funny instance where Nicky introduces Louis to a friend in school and describes Louis as 'famous' because 'he's got a Wikipedia page'!

Pictured: Louis Theroux with Joey and his mother, Carol (Source: BBC2)

I was particularly interested in the documentary after the work we just did with Mayer-Johnson on Planet to help co-develop their ActivInspire autism resources, but watching the programme made me realise just how wide the autistic spectrum is in terms of autism. And the people in it, your heart really went out to them and the daily struggles they have coping with autistim.

The teachers were quite naturally amazing - and I don't think that it's in every teachers job specification that they have to be experienced in restraint procedures for the more extreme autistic cases. Just the physical side to that role really makes you in awe of them (and also the parents, too).

So, I've tried to Google some links for people outside the UK to read up about it, so here we go:

If anyone else saw this programme it would be interesting to hear your views on it? Has anyone heard of the DLC in Warren, New Jersey?

Liam