ActivInspire Export Options

In talking with someone recently about being able to export a flipchart to a pdf on a PC I decided to write up a quick blog about it and include that you can also export individual pages as image files as well.

To export a flipchart as a pdf file you will, of course, need to make sure that the file is open inside of ActivInspire first. Once that is done you will need to just click on the File button in the top left of the window or click the Menu button and then File from the Toolbox. Now comes the strange part you will need to click the Print button or you could also press the CTRL + P kwik key option. Yes I did say the Print option, because you will be printing the page to a pdf. After you click print then select the Export to PDF button. Now you have the Save in Location box that pops up and all that is left to do is to name the file and click Save.


You can also export a flipchart page as an image file. In order to do this you have two options to start. First is to just Right click on the flipchart page you wish to convert or from the Page Browser click on the Menu icon in the upper right corner of the page to convert. Click the Export Page button and the Save in Location box pops up. Name the file and then choose from one of the four file types listed, the default file type is bitmap. Then click the Save.


I hope that this provides you with some new insight into some of the additional features that you may not have noticed within the ActivInspire software.

Wonderopolis Categorizes its Wonders

For a number of months I along with some of my colleagues have been talking, tweeting and blogging about the fun and interesting ways educators can use Wonderopolis in their classrooms. Some teachers are using the "Wonders" as their start up activity or as a ticket out the door.
One way I had not thought about using the wonders was to have it tied to the subject material that teachers are delivering in class.

I went back into take a look at some of the past wonders. Which can be done by clicking on the Wonders Tab at the top of the website. I started to make lists of the wonders that could be used in class as part of the curriculum. As I was making the list I had a Duh moment. Over on the right hand side of the Previous Wonders page there is a column labelled as Categories.

This was that light bulb moment because when I started looking through the names I noticed things like Art, Cooking, Environment, History etc., and as soon as I clicked the site provided me with a list of wonders along those categories. With nearly 350 current Wonders on the site and hopefully many more to come these Category listings will eventually grow larger and larger. This will be able to provide educators more choices in delivery of content to students. Plus, who knows, it may motivate a student to take a greater interest in Science, Math, History, English/Language Arts or Weather.

So take a look at Wonderopolis to see what wonders are waiting for you and your students.

Image Provided by: Wonderopolis.org

Making a Difference

In the first week of school this year I received an email from a teacher who was a little frazzled because her classroom Interactive White Board (IWB) was not displaying the computer input correctly.  I had a free moment before leaving to go to a workshop so I called over to the school to speak with the teacher.
When I got the teacher on the phone they proceeded to describe to me what the problem was and I immediately realized what was going on and that it was a simple fix.  Now there was a problem that came up, I would not be able to get to their school until the next day so I decided to walk the teacher through the fix over the phone while she was in her classroom.
I had the teacher go through the steps slowly with me by describing the steps they would need to do to fix the problem with the IWB.  The teacher listened to me and was able to do the steps to fix the problem and even talked the steps back to me and said that they would be able to fix the teachers IWB in the room next door because they had the same problem.
She was very excited to have things working and her students, that were in the classroom and behaving incredibly well, were excited as well.  She had the students thank me over the phone which made me feel very good.  Now what was even better was the fact that two days later an inter-office envelope came into me with the following card that the students in her class made for me to thank me for taking the time to call their teacher to help her with the problem.

To me I was just doing my job but to the students I made a difference by taking the time to contact the teacher and help her out over the phone.  I had a friend some number of years ago tell me to figure out how you can make a difference and take it as far as it will go.
So now I have to ask you.. How have you made a difference today?