ActivExpression Update?

Do you have ActivExpressions in your school? Do you know if they are up to date and current with the version of Firmware that is on them? Do you even know what I am talking about?

If not, then keep reading so that you can make sure that your ActivExpressions are up to date so they can work with the newest version of ActivInspire and the features that are available in the Question Editing system.

So how do you know what version of firmware is on your ActivExpression. Well if you can turn on the device you can pretty much know what version you have. If you look at the bottom of the screen when you turn on the device the firmware version number shows up briefly and then disappears. Now don't worry there is another way to see the information without having to keep turning the device on and off to catch a glimpse. When the Expression is on you will need to press the Menu button. After you do that in the display area you will see three options press the "Dot" next to the word Diagnostic. The second line down in the list is the Firmware version that the Expression is running. You should have 9.02.39 which is the current version. The 9.02 is the software and 39 is the Build number which is also shown as B39. If you did not completely understand the above directions I have a short video that demos the steps to see the version number.

So what do you do next if you need to update your ActivExpressions? There are a number of steps that are involved to make sure that each unit in your bag is updated properly. The best way to accomplish this is to sit down and update all of them at the same time instead of trying to do some here and there. That is unless you keep up with the ones that you have updated each time you start another group of units. The easiest for me that I have found is to do them all at once. It leaves no room for marginal error and you can determine any problems that occur right then.

Below is the full video of how to check and update your ActivExpressions.

A Question A Day

So we have now had a new multi-touch mobile SMARTBoard with the extreme short throw projector in our office for a little over a month now and I have to weigh in on it.

First off the multi-touch capability for me has to be one of the best features of the board. The ability to have two people working on the board at the same time is a great feature. As well the ability to size images similarly to what an iPad/iPod, SMARTTable or Microsoft Surface can do with the multi-point drag feature. Most of the rest of the board features are the same as they were before but with a couple of tweaks here and there for upgrades and add-ons.

So what have we been doing with it for the past month? We have been asking questions. I know you may be thinking, why or what? We wanted to see how people reacted to the board as they were coming into and through the office. The questions are more of a prompt than anything else in that we want people to touch and interact with the board. Some people have come in and asked us what it is, while others know what it is and just keep going. We have had some takers with the questions that we have been asking. Things like, what is your favorite cereal, to thought provoking ones about your favorite quotes. The main thing is that people are touching the board and asking questions about it.

So as a teacher, I have to ask you how do you use your interactive white board (IWB)? Whether it is a Promethean ActiveBoard or a SMARTBoard. Do you just look at it in the room? Is it just a fixture on the wall, or stand? Or is it a tool that you use within your classroom? The best thing that you can do with your IWB is use it, and if you do not understand something just ask. I am pretty sure that there is someone in your building that can answer or is willing to help you to get the answers to your questions. Remember that you have an on-site technology facilitator as well as a District Instructional Technologist that are here to help you to better understand the tool so that you can make it an effective, integrated and productive part of your instructional day.

You have a Classroom Solution: Now What?

So now your classroom has been setup with the new district solution. What does all of this stuff do you might be asking or rather what IS all of this new stuff? For now know that your school will have a member of the Instructional Technology Staff come out and do an in depth training on all items within your new Interactive Classroom. Let's take a look at what is involved in your new setup.

We have designated three designs of Interactive Classroom for the schools depending on the grade level you are teaching. If you are in the Middle or High Schools you will have an eInstruction Solution. If you are in an Elementary School you will either have a(n) SMARTClassroom or ActivClassroom Solution.

Each Classroom solution has similar items included, I will give a brief description of what everyone will have and then go into detail on what the differences are afterwards. All classrooms will have a Lightspeed classroom audio system. The system includes the deck unit which controls the volume for the computer as well as the two lapel microphones and the concert mic. Each classroom will also have desktop computer with flat panel monitor and USB hub that will be in the cart. This will allow you to not have to rely on one of your classroom computers to be the used in the cart at the front of the room. On the top of the cart you will have a Lumens Document Camera, which is the rounded Ladibug design and provides you with a myriad of additional integrating opportunities. Within the cart itself you have three areas, the upper area has a flip down panel which has two pull out trays and a storage area. On the bottom right is a smaller storage area where the computer is housed. On the left is the larger storage area with a pull out drawer and shelf where the sound deck is stored. When both lower doors are opened you will have access to a third pull out tray which provides an additional workspace.


OK, now that we have discussed what is universal to each cart, let's take a look at what is not the same depending on your grade level. If you are in a Middle or High school you will have the eInstruction Classroom Solution which includes a Wall mounted LCD flat panel monitor, Mobi Interactive tablet and Pulse voting system(CPS).



If you are in the Elementary Schools there are two different models of solution choice. Some schools will have the SMARTClassroom solution which includes an Interactive White Board(IWB), SMART Airliner Interactive Tablet and SMART Response voting system.


The second option for Elementary Schools is the Promethean ActivClassroom. In this setup you will have the Interactive White Board, ActivSlate and Learner Response voting system(LRS).

There are handouts for each Classroom Solution available on the Curriculum Warehouse: Learning Village, located in the Curriculum sections Resource button. Also for our School Technology Facilitators the same information is in the Webportal in the Classroom Solutions folder under the Information for Technology Facilitators Link.

photos provided by: eInstruction, SMART, Promethean

The 3D Interactive Solar System

A couple of days ago a colleague posted a link to a website that offered a view of the Solar System. I was skeptical at first needless to say, thinking that it might not be a really educator friendly website. Boy was I surprised.

The site Solar System Scope(SSS) is a 3D interactive website that allows you to explore all there is in our solar system from the planets individually to Saturn's rings to the Constellations.

When you go to the site initially and just let the page load you will notice that the site seems to be moving on its own, changing views and showing different information on its own. The site is set up, so that it will seem to from what I gather, to demo each area of the websites option choices for viewing. Once you click on the site you are then able to interact with the Menus, planets and other objects on the screen.

Along the left side of the webpage there are three tabs that allow you to interact with the site in different ways. In the first tab you will find the Cursor Info Texts which define what each of the cursor identities are. You will also find the Hand icon that allows you to; of course, interact with items on the page. The second tab shows you the different views that you can see while using the page. These affect the broad views of the entire webpage unlike the Hand icon interacting with individual items. The view types are Heliocentric, Geocentric and Panoramatic. The third tab gives you the Setting information and Search features of the site. You can change the Planet and Moon, Stars and Constellations, Earth Observatory, Time and Reset settings from the tab. You can find a Planet or Moon, Star or Constellation or find a Specific Time in the Search features.

On the right side of the page you have a slide ruler that allows you to zoom in and out within the viewing area. Along the bottom of the page is the Time and Date Calendar. If you hover over either of the items you will see a clock or calendar for you to change settings. Then there is a Start, Fast Forward and Fast Rewind time buttons where you can see the solar system in action.

Lastly up in the top right hand corner of the screen you can change the Language, hide the interface button. Then you can use the Arrow button and/or the Space bar to change you out to the full screen mode and back.

The site looks great and the possibilities are limitless on how you can use it in your classroom. It would also be a great tool to use with your Interactive White Board to show the solar system on a larger screen where your students can come up and touch the board and move things around and make things happen. In just a few days that I have known about the site I have shared it with a number of teachers at the Elementary school level and all of them have really been excited to see it and use it.

Did U Know: Doc Cams and Other Software

As you know I have been sharing a few things lately about Document Cameras with you and today is not unlike the others.

I have a new feature tool that you can utilize which you may not have thought about or had even known could really be done.

Did you know that you could take the displayed content directly from the doc cam and place it into any one of a number of different software packages that you may currently have loaded on your computer? Now I have to preface this by saying that I am a PC guy and cannot guarantee that any of the information that follows will work with a Mac. If there is anyone out there that has tried these please share them so what we can all be informed. As well I have verified just the software packages below will allow for this to occur, please share if you have accomplished this with additional software and I will update my posts.

Now it does not matter whether or not you have an Interactive White Board (#IWB) just that you at least have a computer/laptop, a doc cam and a digital projector to perform the following functions.

Within the eInstruction Workspace, ActivInspire, SMARTBoard and Office Products (Word, Excel and Power Point) you are able to insert the doc cam display directly into the product in an image format. The feature for the most part is part of the Insert Menu on all of the products in one way or another. When you choose the Insert Menu item and the Scanner/Camera option you are asked to import from a specific device. Depending on what type of doc cam you have hooked up to the computer/laptop will determine what you choose from the listed items. Here is a sample listing for some of the doc cam models on the market.

Lumens:
DC130, 150, 155, 160, 162 and 210 choose Visual Presenter V1 Twain
DC166, 260 and 265 choose Visual Presenter V2 Twain

AverMedia:
300P and 300AF+ choose Visual Presenter V1 Twain

Dukane:
210 and 335 choose Visual Presenter V1 Twain

Embedded below are the steps per software package on how to Insert the displayed image directly into the listed software packages.

Video Killed the Radio Star

In a bit of irony Steven (@web20classroom) was talking to me the other day about creating some short video tech tips that we can post and share out with the district. I said that I thought it would be a great idea. Little did I know that I would be the guinea pig in this project. Although I have plenty of years standing in front of small groups of 15 to 30 people with as many as 75 sometimes, this is something that would probably go out to many more people and would increase my digital foot print immensely. Thus causing me more anxiety than I previously thought, but I digress.


So I stressed a little bit about doing it and reluctantly said that I would dive in and be the first person to share a tech tip. So what was the topic going to be? Why not using Document Cameras with Skype. It is something that I have passion for and have learned a lot about, so I said yes lets create the video. Now the stress level kicked in. What if I mess up, or don't talk loud enough, maybe I will butcher the steps to set things up and ruined things for some people to set up their doc cam as a webcam for Skype.


Finally today hit and it was down to the wire and we needed to get going on creating the video. I mulled around for a while and finally got cornered and it was time to start filming. Surprisingly enough things went very well and we got the tech tip in on one take. So how do I feel about it, I feel great about it and will definitely do it again, so look out for more videos from not only me and @web20classroom but from the rest of the crew here at WS/FC DIT Department.


Oh, I almost forgot, here is the link to the video for our first WSFCS DIT tech tip.

NCTIES:The Experience

I know that I may be a little bit behind on this post but I was lucky enough to get to attend the NCTIES Conference at the beginning of the month of March. While there I got to see a number of people that I have not seen since last years conference. I also got to showcase a couple of years of work on my part into concurrent and technology fair sessions. For the better part of the past three years I have had a little side project within our school district separate from my normal everyday activities. This side project has been on Document Cameras(doc cams).
How it all came about was that one day while at a school I was teaching a workshop at one of the teachers came to me and said that her doc cams was not working and would I be willing to take a look at it to see what might be wrong. Well with it being me I said sure why not I will take a look at it, I know a few things about doc cams. When I went into her classroom I immediately realized that I was not as smart as I thought. The reason was that the doc cam that she had was not one that I knew about. You see our district has normally used Lumens doc cams, but this was one by AverMedia. I knew nothing about AverMedia products so I spent some time in there working on the issue she was having all along making mental notes about what I was doing along with saying how many other types of doc cams are in out there in our school system.
It turns out there are many different types of them in our schools. If you want to get really technical we have doc cams from four different companies and almost 15 different model types. It took me a while but over the three years I have learned as much as I can about these products and what makes them tick. I have contacted companies and technical departments regarding issues that I have come across. I have researched many different ways that you can use doc cams in Education and for instructional use. Well armed with that knowledge, a comprehensive Livebinder and another member of our Instructional Technology Staff I came to NCTIES2011 to present "The Three C's of Document Cameras." This was a culmination of three years of collaboration, getting dirty, tweeting, blogging and talking with as many technicians and people that I could.
Now I have to admit this was the second conference I have ever presented at. The first one was about two weeks earlier. Although both made me nervous the NCTIES one was more nerve racking than the first. I kept wondering if I had everything, if the preso would be enough, if I was going to be able to get the points across to the attendees and most of all I was worried that when I turned around in the room to present there would only be a handful of people made up mostly of my co-workers showing their support. To my surprise there was close or maybe more than 50 people in the room. I immediately started sweating and all the fears of what might happen flooded into my mind. So it was time for the session to start and it was time to put up or shut up. Well in my normal ADD fashion I started off with asking the audience what types of doc cams they had by asking what the colors were of the units they had in their schools. Of course I got responses for all of the colors I asked about and even a few colors that I did not ask for which made me kind of laugh a little bit. That was enough to break the ice and make me feel just like I was back in one of my schools teaching our in district teachers. Then I began to think, hey this isn't so bad, oh and what made it even funnier was that my boss was snapping pictures from the back of the room while we were teaching and I kept wondering if I was moving around to much.
So all in all my experience at NCTIES was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be an of course I also know that it could have been far far worse. So will I do it again and take that plunge into the conference presenting realm? Sure, now that I have gotten to see what it is like to be a presenter I no longer feel of it as something that I have to do but rather something that I look forward to doing.