The last two days at The SSAT Annual Languages Conference in Liverpool have been brilliant, a great opportunity to meet up with colleagues, put faces to names and make new acquaintances. I was delighted with the positive response to both The wonderful thing about triggers is triggers are wonderful things! and Mr McIntosh goes to school. Delegates seemed genuinely fired up by the potential of the ideas presented and how they could use them to enhance teaching and learning.
In many ways it was a relief to finally tell the world about triggers and share one of PowerPoint's hidden gems. It's been a good year and a half that I've been asking the question "Do you know about triggers?" and to date probably only about five people have said "yes!". Approximately the same number put their hands up when I asked the question again at the start of the session on Tuesday.
You'll see at the bottom of this post there are many supporting resources to the trigger session including
- my presentation
- a podcast of the session
- video tutorials
- show notes
- weblinks
I hope my efforts will not only support and encourage those interested in finding out more, but also allow colleagues to develop the use of triggers further. We'll see what happens. It would be great to see some of your trigger creations, guys. Let's share!
The conference also offered Ewan and myself the possibility of meeting up with that rare species, the English MFL blogger and podcaster. It was a privilege to chat at last with Alex Blagona from Northgate High School and Steph Hopkins from Southend High School for Girls who have been experimenting with new technologies in the classroom. Our own TeachMeet à l'anglaise took place in the famous Cavern club and we have the pictures to prove it. Hopefully in a year's time there will be more language teachers wanting to join the movement too. We'll see.
In the spirit of the event and not content with just keeping our discussions to ourselves, I suggested making a few recordings during the conference with my mp3 player and USB microphone. I'll be posting the results in the next few days. These will include separate interviews with Alex and Ewan as well as Mr McIntosh goes to school in full. Keep checking the blog!
Show Notes
Animation Factory over 400 000 animated images, video clips, PowerPoint templates, backgrounds
Bruno Guillemin MFL resources for KS2-4
Eyedropper a free tool for telling you the RGB value (Red, Green, Blue) of any pixel on your screen. Ideal for copying colours in PowerPoint and making seamless backgrounds
Audacity free sound editing software
ASSIGNMENT: Podcast - excellent tutorial on making podcasts using Audacity
Art Explosion 800 000 clipart
Two Stars and a Wish Nodehill French blog
Office 2003 Add-In: International Character Toolbar
Colourful Connections TES article January 2006
Going further with presentation software as a teaching tool Becta ICT in Secondary e-magazine article
Use triggers to create an interactive slide show in PowerPoint
Drag and Drop presentation created by Hans Werner Hofmann and Ute Simon
dead gekko more examples of the potential of the DragandDrop macro with some supporting material created by ICT teacher Steve Bath
Download wonderful_thing_about_triggers.mp3
Download the_wonderful_thing_about_triggers_is_triggers_are_wonderful_things.ppt
Download drag_and_drop_tutorial.wmv
Download stickmen_tutorial.wmv
Download powerpoint_shortcuts_and_tips.doc
NB: if you are having difficulty advancing from slide to slide by clicking with the mouse in the Drag and Drop presentation, here are two solutions:
1. Go to Slide Show/Set Up Show and make sure Presented by a speaker (full screen) is selected not Browsed at a kiosk (full screen)
2. Insert the Action Button which points right (Slide Show/Action Buttons). Hold down the left click and drag the Action Button shape as large as need be. Let go of the left click. A dialogue box should come up. In the dropdown menu Hyperlink to, select Next slide. In both cases, run the slideshow and for 1. click anywhere on the slide and for 2. click the Action Button. In both cases you should go to the next slide.
Balgona? Who's he? lol
Posted by: Alex Blagona | 12/10/2006 at 01:42
Sorry, Alex. I've corrected the typo!
Posted by: Joe Dale | 12/10/2006 at 12:25
Great stuff Joe! Thanks for sharing your resources for those of us who didn't make it to Liverpool. It'll certainly give me hours of entertainment over the half term!
Posted by: s dernley | 12/10/2006 at 18:58
Cheers Sam,
Drop me a message if there is anything you get stuck on. I've tried to make the notes as clear as possible. Feedback would be much appreciated.
Best wishes
Joe
Posted by: Joe Dale | 12/10/2006 at 19:35
Thank you for sharing Joe. Can't wait to hear the podcast.
Posted by: Silvia | 14/10/2006 at 17:54
Hi Joe,
I had chance to listen to your podcast of the session alongside the powerpoint presentation today and also view the tutorials. They are very clear and contain lots of simple but really effective and creative ideas. When I get chance to make my own 'triggerhappy' powerpoint I'll e-mail the results. Excellent work, thanks again for sharing!
Sam Dernley
Posted by: s dernley | 17/10/2006 at 18:58
joe, just had to say many thanks for some excellent tips and resources - thanks for sharing!
rob
Posted by: steffilover | 30/10/2006 at 20:08