Eduwidgets

Eduwidgets is a new site from the VDOE for teachers and students.  In fact it is still in Beta version and in my estimation a lot of work remains to be done on it.  Furthermore, there are many aspects of it which I haven’t yet had time to explore.  Nevertheless, I think I’ll go ahead and review it now, based on what I know, and perhaps write a second post after I've explored it further and they've improved it more.
The general objective of the site is to give teachers and students the ability to create online, interactive content tied to Virginia’s SOLs.  These “widgets” then can be made available to other teachers throughout the state. Likewise, an Accomack teacher can search through and use content created by others. 
This content can be displayed in one of three interactive formats: timelines, graphs, and images.
Here is an example of a timeline I created.  Notice that you can click at the bottom to take a quiz on what you might have learned from the timeline.  I found this timeline fairly easy to create.  However, Eduwidgets does not work equally well in all browsers (you want to stay away from Internet Explorer).  If you follow the link, you’ll go to a timeline which has not yet been “published”, so it doesn't show up in searches, etc.  I have a similar one I submitted for publication perhaps a week ago--and haven’t heard anything back on it--so that seems like a potential problem as well.
You might want to view and perhaps use some of the content which they have available as “exemplars” to get an idea of how the graphs and “interactive images” work.  I also created an Interactive Image, but, I’m not going to put the link to it in, because I think I sort of overloaded the system--wanted it to do more than it could really do smoothly.  The basic idea here is to have the student drag and image or text to the correct location.
Another problem I found with the site is that the instructional videos are blocked by our filtering system.  Given that they are hosted by Vimeo, I would think they will be blocked by the vast majority of districts throughout the state.   I can’t understand why the VDOE didn't foresee this difficulty.
The vision seems to be for teachers to set up and manage student accounts and for students to do research and create content themselves.  The creations can be interactive timelines, graphs, or interactive images--some of them remind me of some of the Gizmos with which the science and math teachers are familiar.  You can sort through Widgets which are examples from the VDOE, or others which have been authored and shared by teachers and students from around the state.  You can search through these by subject, by grade level, or/and by SOL. 
You can sort through and use widgets created by others without an account.  If you register for an account you can make your own--and have your students make their own.  Registration can’t be left to the last minute, however, as you have to confirm your Email address and then wait to be approved.
To summarize, Eduwidgets is a site I’d use if I were still teaching history.  I’d come up with an assignment where they’d have to do some research and present their findings in the form of a widget.  However,  I look forward to the day when all the bugs are worked out and the site is a bit more user friendly.

Notebook 11 Review, part three

This will be the final installment on this series of three posts reviewing SMART Notebook 11

Today’s discussion is about some of the features that, strictly speaking, are not part of Notebook 11, rather, they are part of the “gallery” of images and objects which supplement the Notebook.

Gallery 2.0 Beta – Along with Notebook 11 you can download the Gallery 2.0 Beta version.  This gallery has a number of sort filters not available in the “classic” gallery—you can filter by manipulatives, sounds, 3D objects, widgets, pages, etc.  The other big advantage I see is that more attention seems to have been paid to explaining HOW some of the tools can be used.  For example, they have samples of activities which utilize layering to make things appear or disappear.  On the sample page they may include directions on how the page was built, or a link to an online video demonstrating how it was built—that is a big help.  It is certainly a lot easier than trying to figure out how to create these things on your own.

 In reviewing the new gallery, I also learned that in the Lesson Activity Toolkit, one can click on “examples” and then “help”, to find links to online videos and documents on how to use the tools in the Toolkit.  Again, this is a big help.  I remember spending what seemed like hours trying to figure out how to use the balloon pop activity.  The Toolkit is a wonderful supplement to Notebook and one which has been under-utilized in the past—these instructions make it easier for you to create interactive activities which will engage your students. 

3D Objects – While preparing this review I experimented with a number of 3D objects which could be spun around and viewed from all angles (think Google Earth).  However, to use this feature you must enable an Add-On which is only good for 30 days (unless you purchase it).  Too bad, because there are additional models available from the SMART Exchange and from the Google Warehouse.  You can also build your own models if you have the proper software.

 

A couple more quick comments and then we'll be done with SMART stuff for a while.  You can add and remove tools to the toolbar by clicking on the little wheel with the cogs over on the right.  This opens a window showing all the actions and tools available to you.   From that window you can simply drag icons on to or off of the toolbar.

 

Go to exchange

transparent background
 

Here are two buttons which can appear on the toolbar, and to which you may have paid no attention in the past.

 One of the icons takes you to the SMART Exchange--a site where you can search through teacher created SMART Notebook lessons for one which suites you. 

The second one makes the background of the Notebook page transparent, so that whatever you have on the page--things you've added with the pen, graphics, whatever, appear directly on your desktop, or some other window which is open on your computer.   This can also be done by clicking on the "view" tab and then selecting "transparent background." 

Well, thanks for reading this.  Next time I'd like to introduce you to a tool known as "class parrot"--sound interesting?



 

 

 

SMART Notebook 11 Review, part two

As promised in my last post, here is a brief word on some of the minor changes sound in SMART Notebook 11.  For a discussion of the major changes, go back and read my last post.

Before mentioning these changes, let me comment on one other issue that may crop up as you begin to use the SMART software with your Windows 7 computer.  I have found that using the SMARTBoard often triggers the Windows 7 software that is intended for use when Windows 7 is installed in a touch screen capable computer.  That is to say, on onscreen keyboard appears and can become quite an annoyance.  If you’ve seen this keyboard, find it as annoying as I do, and want to get rid of it, let your

friendly ITRT know and we can get rid of it forever.  

Now, on to the minor changes in the new Notebook software.

On the menu bar, you’ll find a couple of new options under “insert”.  One is an Internet browser—you can now browse the Internet without leaving SMART Notebook.  If you are used to the toolbars on Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, etc. you may not want to use the SMART Browser.  But, I think it is worth the adjustment to be able to click on the next Notebook page and have a website instantly appear with all of its functionality.  It took me a minute to figure out how to close the browser, but the thought is that you won’t close it, you’ll just go on to the next Notebook page.

By clicking on the “pen” tool, a drop down menu appears which now offers a crayon—I’m sure some of the elementary students will enjoy coloring or drawing with—probably some of the older students too if they are given that chance. 

SMART tells us that the “fill” tools have become easier to use and will now fill any closed object.  I’ll admit that I’ve sometimes had a problem with the fill tool in the past, I can’t honestly say that all those problems have been corrected—I still had a hard time getting it to fill some of the objects I tried to use it with.

Other minor changes:

·         Grouping objects can now be done with fewer clicks.

·         You can now select any object to become the pattern in a “creative pen” –which could come in handy, but is certainly not anything critical.

·         Formatting tables and the fonts within table has been made easier. 

A couple of final notes:  First, you’ll be glad to learn that all of these new features are explained in a notebook file which opens when upon your initial use of Notebook 11.  After that it can be accessed from help menu.  Finally, the non-notebook tools have changed,   “Smart Aware” has become “Smart Ink”.  Perhaps I’ll review that in some future post.

Speaking for all the ITRTs, just let us know if you still have Notebook 10 and you’d like us to come around and install Notebook  11 for you—or download and install it yourself by clicking here.  Also, let us know if you’d like some help becoming familiar with any of its features.

I intend to do one final post on Notebook 11—a post in which I discuss the new gallery, and the 3D objects.  See you then.

SMART Notebook 11 Review

 

Here are some of the changes you’ll find with SMART Notebook 11, and my first impressions of them.

When you open the notebook, you’ll notice that, unfortunately it takes as long as ever to load the program.  The tools across the top of Notebook 10 would sometimes fill the toolbar and you’d need to pull down some extra ones along the side.  SMART Technologies has addressed this by giving the ribbon across the top greater height –now there are two rows of icons—this created enough additional space that it allows for contextual buttons to appear.  With Notebook 10 you would click on the corner of a tool and some choices would drop down—for the pen you could choose from a number of colors, for the shapes tool you could choose between squares, circles, etc., With Notebook 11 all that is handled by having the “contextual tools” appear on the right side of the ribbon.  As with the Office applications (Word, etc.) the new ways of doing things are often added as another option, and the old procedures are still available.  That’s fine, if you’ve been using the program right along.  However, to a new user, all these options can be a bit overwhelming.

Okay, let’s talk about the changes I see as really significant.

 Activity Builder – Having been given a brief introduction to the activity builder at the EdTech conference in March, I was really looking forward to all I imagined it might do.  Therefore, my initial reaction to it was one of disappointment that it didn’t do more.  However, after looking at it further, I’m impressed with its possible uses.  Basically, it makes it easy for the teacher to create an activity where if the student drags an object or word into the correct spot, it will snap into place, fade away, spin, or in some way celebrate the fact that the student found the right spot.  If, however, it is misplaced, it snaps back to where it started and gives the student the opportunity to try again. 

After looking at the examples I began to see just how very useful this type of activity might be.  It can be used for categorizing, filling in the blank, true/false, ordering, labeling, sorting, and they even provide an example of “free form”. 

Although it didn’t really occur to me until I read it in a Notebook 11 review by Mike McGowan,  this is a step toward more fully integrating the Notebook software with the SMART Table—any of the activities will work equally well on the SMART Board and a SMART Table.  As such this feature will surely be welcome by our Special Education teachers. 

Reset Page option—this is such an obvious improvement that I’m surprised SMART Technologies didn’t think of it long ago.  How many times have you had students make changes in a Notebook page and then wanted to have another student try the same exercise?  In the past you would either have to manually put everything back where it started, or close and reopen the file (and lose any changes you did want to save.)  Now, you can just use the “reset page” option (which pulls down under the “edit” menu) and the page goes back to the way it was when the file was first opened.

Sound Recording- I initially listed this as a “minor” change.  But, upon reflection, I can think of a couple of teachers who might make real use of this feature.  I’ve had teachers who wanted to include their own voice, pronouncing words or letters of the alphabet. I’ve helped some do this, but found that the teacher  may or may not remembered how to do it the next time the need arose.  Now it is so easy that anyone can do it and I’m thinking a lot of teachers may really want to make use of this possibility. 

Speaking for all the ITRTs, just let us know if you’d like us to come around and install Notebook  11 for you—or download and install it yourself by clicking here.  Also, let us know if you’d like some help becoming familiar with any of it’s features.

In my next posting I’ll discuss some of the less significant changes found in Notebook 11.  Until then, have a great day.