Integrating ICT into the MFL classroom:: PowerPoint

06/10/2009

As seen on Teachers TV

Better Learning with ICT is a new five episode series from Teachers TV which features innovative examples of classroom practice delivered by leading teachers from around the country. Broadcast during the channel’s ICT week in September, each episode shows an enthusiastic colleague visiting the ‘expert’s’ school, observing how he or she uses technology to enhance pupils’ learning and then tries to replicate the same techniques on return to their own institutions.

All the episodes can be seen from the Teachers TV website too along with some extra clips in the enhanced content which appears on the video timeline. Chris Thomas who stars in the episode on data handling has done a first class job in explaining in plain English such topics as how to get started with Wikis and embedding video clips into PowerPoint.

For me, the best of the bunch is the programme about Online Communities which shows how tools such as Twitter, Voki and VoiceThread can be used in the classroom to enthuse pupils and bring language learning to life. Lisa Stevens eruditely justifies her reasons for wanting to use such technology to help her pupils and I think she makes a great case.

I was lucky enough to appear in the first programme of the series Improving your Presentations which you can watch here thanks to the nice people at Teachers TV who kindly provided me with the necessary embed code.

Better Learning with ICT will be broadcast again on the television in the coming months, but in the meantime, if you can’t wait to check out the programmes for yourself, I suggest you head along to the Teachers TV website and get downloading!

Posted on 06/10/2009 in Blogging, Freeware, ICT Advice, Joe Blog(g)s, Nodehill, PowerPoint, Primary Languages, Vodcasting, Wikis | Permalink | Comments (2)

30/08/2009

Practise descriptions with My Avatar Editor

My Avatar Editor is a simple and straightforward tool for making your own avatar. The intuitive interface is easy to use and allows you a great deal of choice when customising your image. You also don't need to register on the site which is good news if you want to try it out in class.

In language learning, I could see this being a cool way for pupils to practise physical descriptions such as eye and hair colour as they could create their avatar, import the image into a PowerPoint, blog or wiki and add a text accordingly.

Likewise, they could create their own avatar for taking part in collaborative online activities such as a VoiceThread where they can conceal their real identity by hiding behind the image instead. They could also use avatars with a transparent background in a cartoon strip, photo story or movie clip to describe what is happening in each scene. Alternatively, you could keep pressing the Random button and elicit the description for each avatar as a whole class activity. Any other ideas?

Posted on 30/08/2009 in Blogging, Freeware, ICT Advice, PowerPoint, Wikis | Permalink | Comments (2)

05/07/2009

Teachers TV comes to Nodehill

Teachers TV are currently filming a new series designed to encourage colleagues to develop their use of technology in the classroom and improve their ICT skills. The five episodes to be broadcast in September will showcase good practice in the areas of social networking, video, PowerPoint, gaming, datahandling and mobile technology. They will all follow the same formula by featuring a keen volunteer wishing to update their knowledge by observing a leading practitioner and then transferring what they have learnt to their own context and seeing what difference it makes.

To find suitable candidates to play both roles, Gemma Gibbs from production company Illumina Digital used the TES staffroom forums to ask teachers to put their names forward if they were interested in taking part. This is what I did and was delighted to have had my offer accepted!

So on Tuesday, Gemma, her boss Morgan and volunteer Lise Bosher, a primary school teacher from Oxfordshire came to Nodehill along with a film crew to film me using PowerPoint for whole class teaching to introduce vocabulary and play games such as blockbusters and noughts and crosses using custom animations, triggers and drag and drop. The day went very well and the experience was highly memorable, if exhausting. The pupils loved being filmed and are now very excited about the prospect of appearing on TV in the autumn term.

As I will be soon leaving my current post, the programme to be called Presentations will be a kind of swansong, I guess as well a celebration of Nodehill and everyone that works at the school. Thank you to all those who made the filming possible last week and like you I look forward to seeing the final programme when it is unveiled after the summer holidays. One to watch for sure.

Posted on 05/07/2009 in ICT Advice, Joe Blog(g)s, Nodehill, PowerPoint, Primary Languages | Permalink | Comments (2)

30/06/2009

Improved drag and drop in PowerPoint

One of the creators of the magical draganddrop macro, Hans Werner Hofmann left a lovely comment on this blog recently saying how pleased he was that his creation had generated such a positive response and gave the great news that he has updated its functionality offering new possibilities for classroom use.

In addition to making an object follow the movement of the cursor when clicked, the macro can now also zoom in and out, rotate clockwise by 45 degrees at a time, add text and calculate mathematical formulas!

Following Hans' screencast explaining how to embed the macro into any presentation, I have updated The Magic PowerPoint created by Jo Rhys-Jones acting Primary Languages Advisor for Hampshire to include the new instructions needed and to explain how to run the slideshow in PowerPoint 2007 which differs quite radically from previous versions.

Download TheMagicPowerpointMacroImproved.ppt

To use the draganddrop macro you must first make sure you have changed the security settings so that macros are enabled. Here's what you do:

To enable macros

In PowerPoint 2002, click Tools and Macro. In the menu which appears click Security and select the radio button next to Medium. Click OK and close PowerPoint.

In PowerPoint 2003, click Tools and Options. In the Options window that appears, click the Security Tab and the Macro Security button. Click the Security tab and select the radio button next to Medium. Click OK and close PowerPoint.

Now when you open a presentation which contains the draganddrop macro, click the Enable Macros button if it appears.

In PowerPoint 2007, click the Office Button and then PowerPoint Options

Click Trust Center and Trust Center Settings

Click Macro Settings and select the radio button next to Disable all macros with notification. Click OK twice.

Click Options on the Security Warning message that appears

In the Security Options window which appears, select the radio button next to Enable this content. Click OK.

To apply the draganddrop macro

In PowerPoint 2002/03, right click the object you want to drag and drop, select Action Settings and then Run macro: DragandDrop and click OK.

In PowerPoint 2007, select the object you want to drag and drop, click the Insert menu and the Action icon. In the Action Settings dialogue box that appears, select Run macro: DragandDrop and click OK.

Once you've applied the macro, you can delete the other slides and run the slideshow by pressing F5 or clicking Slide Show and From Beginning. Hover over the object and you will see the cursor changes to a hand as if it were a hyperlink. To now move the text or image, click it and then release the mouse. Move the cursor around the slide and you will see the selected object follow! To stop it moving, click it again and you're done.

In the improved version you can also use the following key combinations to enable these different features:

Click + Ctrl = Zoom out
Click + Ctrl + Alt = Zoom in
Click + Shift = Rotate clockwise by 45 degrees at a time
Click + Alt = Input Text
Click + Shift + Alt = Calculate Formulas

N.B. When adding text to an object, Fertig = OK and Abbrechen = Cancel

More magic tips

To avoid your presentation from accidentally ending with a mouse click or moving on to the next slide, click on Slide Show/Slide Transition and remove the tick from the box next to Advance On Mouse Click for PowerPoint 2002/3. For PowerPoint 2007, click the Animations menu and remove the tick from the box next to Advance On Mouse Click. Save your presentation.
To move to the next slide, add an Action Button. In PowerPoint 2002/3, click Slide Show/Action Buttons and select the Action Button which points right. In PowerPoint 2007, click the Insert menu and Shapes, then scroll down to the Action Buttons and select the Action Button which points right. Then in both cases 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. Run the slideshow and click the Action Button to go to the next slide.
To ensure objects return to their original position, mark your presentation as read only and save it as a PPS file.
Have a look at Mark Purves' video tutorial on using the original version of the drag and drop macro with Jo Rhys-Jones' PowerPoint tricks presentation. Nice work.

Posted on 30/06/2009 in Freeware, ICT Advice, Interactive Whiteboards, PowerPoint | Permalink | Comments (30)

28/05/2009

Poll Everywhere introduces Twitter voting

Free online voting system, Poll Everywhere has introduced Twitter and PowerPoint functionality to its service making it now possible for users to tweet their responses anonymously in real time and have them displayed on a webpage, in a slideshow or as an embedded widget.

At first glance, this new feature creates a number of exciting possibilities for teachers and trainers. For example in the classroom, Poll Everywhere could

facilitate personalised learning opportunities and pupil voice
remove the need to purchase an expensive classroom response system
help students collaborate with each other and with a partner school
display live feedback from a teacher's Personal Learning Network and promote intercultural understanding
be used to model dialogues or short texts put together by the class with a class set of netbooks, in a computer suite or by using mobile phones

Likewise, in a conference session, the voting tool could

encourage debate by offering a visual backchannel where the audience can text or tweet their thoughts to the presenter. This could include answers from around the world if the session was being streamed live
reinforce connected thinking and intercultural understanding of universal issues we all face in education

If Twitter is blocked in your school, pupils can vote via the web without the need to register or post their names online. The number of polls you can make is always unlimited even in the free version and you can generate an RSS feed of the results too if you want. Do note though, you need to have PowerPoint 2007 to display votes. I can see the multiple choice poll being useful for topics such as brothers and sisters, hair and eyes, sports, pets etc.

Expect this to be big in the edublogosphere!

Posted on 28/05/2009 in Blogging, Freeware, ICT Advice, Interactive Whiteboards, Mobile Phones, PowerPoint, Videoconferencing | Permalink | Comments (0)

16/05/2009

Magnify and annotate your PC with ZoomIT

ZoomIt is a PC tool for zooming in on any area of your desktop using your mouse or arrow keys. Particularly useful for interactive whiteboard users, screencasters and PowerPoint fans, the free app allows you to annotate and type on screen as well as save images of anything you produce.

To zoom in and out press CTRL + 1 and use the mouse wheel or arrow keys to increase the zoom. If you then want to annotate, click anywhere on the screen and move the mouse accordingly. You can remove annotations one at a time using CTRL + Z or erase everything by pressing the E key.

The pen colour can be changed by typing r for red, g for green, b for blue, y for yellow and p for pink and the width by holding down CTRL and using the arrow keys or mouse wheel.

To save the section of the screen you've annotated, press CTRL + S.

Desktop Messager is another annotation tool which is worth checking out. Have a look at this earlier post to find out more.

Posted on 16/05/2009 in Freeware, Interactive Whiteboards, PowerPoint | Permalink | Comments (0)

20/03/2009

Testing iPods in Special Education

In this clip, we see pupils with special educational needs from Louisa-Muscatine Elementary in Iowa using Video iPods to help them do better in their basic skills tests and personalise their learning. The pilot project set up in 2005 allows students to listen to each question being read aloud while they follow the text on the screen and paper.

"Because of the capability of the Video iPod, students will be able to pause the test and advance to the next question at their own pace. Viewing the questions on the screen will help students with the one to one correspondance of each test question allowing the teacher to observe and assist individual students without interrupting others".

As the teacher Michelle Ryan says, the great thing about the iPods is that the pupils can work more independently from her and she can focus in on how each child is coping with the demands of the test.

The project report does highlight some teething problems with the initiative such as the time-consuming process of scanning in the papers and transferring them on to the portable devices as well as concerns over the security of the iPods and the test papers. Some have criticised the cost of purchasing the iPods in the first place, suggesting the money could have been better spent on traditional technologies such as pen and paper!

If you would like to make tests for iPods or mobile phones, have a look at the following links:

Posted on 20/03/2009 in ICT Advice, iPods, Mobile Phones, Podcasting, PowerPoint | Permalink | Comments (5)

10/01/2009

Powerpoint Spotlight Tool

Mark Purves from Ecclesbourne School has devised a method of imitating the spotlight tool on an interactive whiteboard, but in PowerPoint. Ingenious!

Mark first revealed this neat trick just before Xmas on Talkabout Primary MFL where he posted two versions of his speed reading presentation and clips showing them in action. Janet Carruthers then posted a variation of the idea to the language forum MFLresources which you can download here.

Download Janet_Carruthers_example

As Mark explains in his tutorial the key to the technique is placing the text in front of the object used to reveal what is underneath and setting the text colour the same as the background. To do this right click the text, select Order and Bring to Front. In Mark's examples he uses motion paths to the text appear in little chunks whereas Janet prefers the custom animation Fly Out Very Slow To Right

Playing around with the idea myself, I applied the drag and drop macro to an oval shape which meant I could move it around the screen to uncover the text in any way I wanted as opposed to the linear presentations of Mark and Janet. I also applied different triggers to the motion paths to generate a range of effects.

This is not to say that any one method is better than another, just different. My presentations are here for you to have a look at too and adapt as you wish:

Download Spotlight Tool

Download Speed Read Trigger

Thanks for the inspirational use of PowerPoint, Mark and for your 'how to video'. Very useful.

Posted on 10/01/2009 in Freeware, ICT Advice, PowerPoint | Permalink | Comments (5)

17/12/2008

Funky Flipcharts and Primary PowerPoint

Download Funky_Flipcharts_and_Interesting_Interactivity_IOW08.mp3

Download PowerPoint_for_Primary_Pupils.mp3

Download Funky_Flipcharts_and_Interesting_Interactivity_IOW07.mp3

Lesley Welsh the only speaker to have appeared at all three IOW conferences to date was in excellent form again for her two sessions Funky Flipcharts and Interesting Interactivity and PowerPoint for Primary Pupils at this year's event.

As you will hear, Lesley's manner is down to earth, encouraging and honest. Her classroom anecdotes are often hilarious particularly when she impersonates her former pupils and their idiosyncracies when learning French in Hartlepool.

Included here are three recordings, two from Lesley's 2008 appearance, plus her 2007 Funky version too and to be honest I found myself laughing out loud on several occasions when editing everything together.

For a more detailed description of Lesley's ideas on getting the most out of your interactive whiteboard, have a look at Amanda Salt's and Isabelle Jones' posts which do the business with aplomb.

Posted on 17/12/2008 in Interactive Whiteboards, IOWconference, PowerPoint, Primary Languages | Permalink | Comments (0)

13/12/2008

MFL Show and Tell 07-08

In the last couple of years, including an unconference element to a national event has proven to be a popular and useful way of allowing like-minded people to share their good practice and network with each other in a more informal setting.

Inspired by the early TeachMeets organised by Ewan McIntosh, I decided to try a similar idea for the second Isle of Wight Conference which allowed delegates as well as 'official speakers' to present their ideas in short bite-size chunks in the pub.

Below are recordings from every session from the last two years. The first come from 2007 at The Castle Inn and the second set from The Bargeman's Rest in 2008. Thanks to all those who volunteered to speak. Now sit back and enjoy.

MFL Show and Tell 2007