I'm really starting to fall in love with my Polyvision board (Smartboard). It has taken me a while to get comfortable with it and really run quickly between write and click mode, but I've just started doing something that my students LOVE.
When I review for a test — we've already taught and retaught. But we cover so unbelievably much that I like to give a good review.
This week, as a part of the review process– I used the whiteboards that were generated and shared them on their notes wiki that had already been created. (Take a look at combined wiki notes and smartboard screenshots.)
This is one screen from the computer science review. (I always mark terms and items that are included. Additionally, the students are required to take notes every day and turn them in as 10 points on the test. )
You can also see my intro to keyboarding quiz review.
So, if you have a smartboard of any kind, this is what you need to do to accomplish this:
1) Learn how to save your screen in the smartboard. I just click the Save button on my remote control. (I also print a copy for my notes binder.)
(I set mine to my directory on the server so I can go back to my desk and do the next steps.)
2) Create a wiki for your notes that your students can access.
(You can do this on a blog too, however, it might take a little longer and some blogs require the images come from elsewhere, a wiki will upload the images for you.)
3) Create a page for the notes for that test.
For keyboarding, I will have so few quizzes, that I am using one page — one page per test for computer science.
4) Edit the page, and put your blinker where you want to insert the image.
Hint: Make sure that you leave several enters and spaces AFTER the place where your cursor is so you won't have to learn how to go down after the image or start over.
5) Click the image button (on wikispaces it looks like a picture), browse for the image and then click Upload. Double Click the Image to put it on your page.
6) Position on the page and shrink.
After you double click the image and put it on the page, it will usually be HUGE. (Unless you go in your smartboard settings and reduce the save resolution – which I'll probably do next week.)
To make it smaller in wikispaces, you have to go to the bottom LEFT hand corner to get the double arrow to drag and make it smaller. It will look like you're making NO progress, but you are. It will take several drags to shrink the image down to fit on the page.
7) As an add onto this —
I may work to have students integrate their notes in and under these images.
(Remember, these are the beginnings of my year — my topics may look easy now but they will progress.)
Something I wish for:
What would be great would be a system that would record the podcast, record the smartboards that I save and then upload it to be accessible automatically (via private portal or something.)
To me the limitation of doing this (although very beneficial to the students) is the manual labor required to make it happen. Sharing these files should be easier or at least require less manual labor. For those of us who teach bell to bell and have a really full schedule, we don't have a lot of time to add this to our plate.
Some might think such readily accessible information might encourage absenteeism, I think it will encourage excellence. It has just got to be easier and more streamlined.
Perhaps you know of something that would do this.
tag: education, teaching, smartboard, Polyvision, wiki, wikispaces
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5 comments
We use SmartBoards and they export to powerpoint slides. Once exported, the powerpoint can be run through profcast on a mac or lecshare in a PC and can be easily narrated and turned into a podcast for viewing on an ipod or on a computer. The kids like to take turns doing the narration and it demonstrates how well they know the material too.
Skitch is a fantastic program for taking screen shots and uploading them in a one button process (included is storage space and it automatically gives you code to embed in wiki or blog).
If you want to record motion…On the Mac, a program called ishowu can record anything on your screen and export a movie. I think you’d have to turn that movie into a podcast file. It doesn’t automatically upload it.
If you are using an actual SMART Board with SMART Notebook software, there is something called the Recorder. This will record all of your motions on your SMART Board (pages you open, annotations, etc etc) and when you stop recording it automatically creates a movie file you can post anywhere (your website, teachertube, youtube, etc)….
In all these cases, the difficulty isn’t in making the recording, it is in taking the time to upload to make it publicly accessible.
It sounds like skitch may pull things up more quickly.
I just wish there was an easy way that would combine audio – the instructor – the class notes and create an archive file available to the students without a lot of individual uploading — when one has six classes there isn’t a lot of time for the uploading process.
I export image files of each slide from the Notebook software and have started putting them into Voice Thread to discuss them. It is quite a bit of extra work though and wouldn’t help on the time aspect. I’ve just started using it and intend to have my students start doing the time consuming parts. I have a short example on my class blog.
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