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We did it and you can too! If you are looking for a project for students that incorporates the study of electricity through the use of technology, then this is the project for you. Today we were able to use free software, a bluetooth adapter, a wii remote control, with a projector and laptop to create an interactive wall. We could operate our computer’s desktop by using a single clicking light-pen on the wall.

This interactive wall is not nearly as smooth as using a Promethean board. You are only able to left-click and double-click on the wall. Also you have to constantly be conscious of where the wiimote is so that you don’t block it. Despite this, it works really well and would be a great way to be able to interact with instructional content. With a low-budget interactive whiteboard you can easily present content without having to lean over and click with your mouse. Student can also shake out their kinesthetic moves with content. Imagine a giant image of a student’s journal entry projected on the wall with other students identifying and highlighting the main idea. The possibilities are limitless!

Here’s what you need to get started.

• Hardware
  • Wii Remote Controller-$39.99
  • IR Keychain lite-$15.95 (or build your own for under a $)
  • Bluetooth Dongle-$19.99
    
• Software:
  • Bluetooth software that recognizes the Wii
  • Johnny Chung Lee’s calibration software
• Directions:
  • Install bluetooth software
  • Synch Wii to computer
  • Place Wii at 45 degree angle to wall.
  • Calibrate LED light to wall using calibration software

Check out the rest of Johnny Chung Lee’s projects!

Notes:

We used a scanner stand to hold the wiimote in place.

Here’s the pen that Jim built using directions above.

Do you have a Promethean board in your classroom? Do you have activstudio installed on your computer? Have you thought to yourself, “What else can I do with this?”

Well this is the class for you! The Technology Trainers from the Department of Instructional Technology have teamed up to provide you a class that will help you  “light the flame of learning.”

Here is the REGISTRATION page.

This morning the Trainers and Coaches in the Instructional Technology Department started day 1 of a 3 day training session. Below are notes that I took of things I either didn’t know or want to remember to show others.

Reminder Notes from quiz:

• to change colors: menu>customize>colors hover to right-click
• new page: there is no last page just click the arrow to make a new one
• Annotations are only the pen, marker and eraser
• eraser feature great for hiding answers
• eraser only works on annotation objects
• T is only for new text> to edit already created text, double-click on it
• Quick Select toolbar great when tool box is hidden
• quickest way to pen modifier is to right-click on the pen in the toolbox
• premade action objects are located in images (shared)
• when dragging images to the flipchart, check whether “transparent” is checked (especially if you are getting pink outlines)

Module 1:

• ActivStudio is unlimited can be installed on teachers’ home computers and students computers
• use windex on a cloth to clean the board, be careful not to drip into the tray
• there is an icon in the toolstore that can be added to the toolbar for quick access to the “Dashboard”
• You don’t have to be an expert to us ActivStudio… Just dive right in!! Just use it as a whiteboard to get started… it’s ok.
• SHARE SHARE SHARE, Check out the APS PUG and Promethean Planet.
• Presentation mode doesn’t say presentation mode, It’s just not “design mode”
• Flipchart style should be set as standard activstudio for training purposes.
• actions are turned off during “design mode”
• encourage teachers to click on the N (upper-right corner) to add notes to flipchart in order to share details of flipcharts they are sharing
• use the hide flipchart icon on toolbar to hide and then show flipcharts
• The “marquee select” tool is the little white arrow. All of the training materials call it the “marquee select” tool
• Again: annotations are the eraser, pen and highlighter
• Check out all of the symbols and functions hidden in the keyboard.
• right-click on a text box to get to the spellcheck feature (F7)

We were shown lots of teacher-created examples of using eraser, text, colors and markers to make flipcharts interactive. Here’s an image of Randy working on a matching-vocabulary-to-definition flipchart. What I liked about this flipchart is that the instructor covered the vocabulary. So the student coming up to the won’t know which word they’ll get until they uncover a vocabulary word.

• Resources organized by Shared resources, Personal resources
  • Be sure to chose which category you want
  • Be sure to choose whether you want the image to be transparent, drag and drop, stamp, or grow (look at bottom of page)
• So of everything I learned today, my new favorite ActivStudio feature is “Drag to Copy.” If you right-click on an image from the resource library and choose “edit” and “drag to copy.” You’ve now got an infinite number of images that you can drag from the image. This is just what I needed for a math game called Banker’s Game by Kathy Richardson. I made this game into a flipchart that can be used for introducing the game and as a center. Here’s the Banker’s Game. It includes action dice. When you click on the dice, the dice tool appears.  bankers_game.zip

When I taught middle school students how to use video to tell a story, I quickly ran into the same challenge that I had when I taught the writing process to 3rd graders. Some students will quickly digest skills and strategies and speedily move along the continuum, while other students take more time. I solved this by using video to teach video production.

By recording your lessons on video, you too can empower students to work at different rates. For the video production class, I recorded all of my lessons using Captivate. Captivate recording everything I did on the computer and included my voice describing my actions. ActivStudio can essentially do the same thing. There’s an example below.

Imagine this. If all of your lessons for the writing process have been recorded. Whether a student is absent or would like a second demonstration, they can easily access that instruction for review. Students can move at a quicker pace. Guest teachers can negotiate classroom management while you teach by proxy through the computer. This technology gives you more time to meet in small groups and individuals. There numerous are possibilities. Here’s a link to what teachers at one school are doing with video.

To get started make sure that the Flipchart Recorder is on your activStudio toolbar. Click on the Flipchart Recorder and choose “Fullscreen Recorder.” Press record. Choose where to save the video. Press record again and there you go. Once finished you’ll have a video named “rec.avi.” Which is great!

If you develop instructional content with video, you have great work sitting on your computer. However, if you upload it to a website or blog, students can access it from anywhere. Our district has a great resource with WordPress. With your own WordPress account, you can organize your lessons for students to easily access whether they are at the library, home or school.

WordPress will display your video better if you reduce the size. The easiest way to to use Windows Movie Maker to convert your file from rec.avi to rec.wmv, with the size of 320 by 240 pixels.

Below is a video created using ActivStudio that demonstrates how to take a video created with ActivStudio and to convert it so that you can upload it to your WordPress site.

You can use this technology to teach any subject! Have fun recording lessons that empower students to pick up the pace!

Video Conversion