SWCLC Blog

Welcome to the Whiteboard Course. These sessions aim to help you to:

• To learn how to use the IWB for simple annotation and drag and drop activities
• To feel confident using the IWB in class
• To move from using the board as a projection screen to a tool for student-teacher interaction

Please use this area to share ideas and materials connected to the sessions and to let us know how it goes if you try something out in class. You can also recommend good web sites or seek advice from colleagues. Most of all we want you to join in and support each other.

Useful Guides:

DFeS Guidance on Interactive Whiteboards in English

Whiteboard Basics - Using Activstudio 3

Whiteboard Basics - Using Text in Activstudio 3

Whiteboard Basics - Using Images in Activstudio3

Video Guides:

Whiteboard basics - using Activstudio 3

Whiteboard basics - using text in Activstudio 3

Whiteboard basics - using images in Activstudio 3

Teaching Tips:

IWB Tips

Teaching Techniques using a Whiteboard

ActivStudio 3 Flipchart of Examples

Flipchart

Some points to consider..

Can you identify any resources that you currently use that lend themselves better to using the whiteboard? (i.e. cut and paste, matching exercises)

Are there any videos that you will be showing this year that could be put onto the whiteboard in clips? What would be the advantage of this?

Can you think of any activities that you currently use as a plenary that would be ideal for using with the whiteboard?

What aspects of English are best suited to sorting, sequencing and classifying information as a way of testing hypotheses / modelling?  These aspects are ideal activities for pupils to come to the whiteboard and manipulate to understand or find something out for themselves. (i.e. dragging and dropping different paragraphs to find out which works best as a story opening or conclusion)

Adding video to flipcharts in Activstudio 3 is a great way to engage learners. Video can be embedded into a flipchart along with a player and the video can be paused to discuss key points. You can also use the camera tool to capture still images from the video which can be annotated and added to a flipchart for later use.

For example, a scientific process can be paused and still images captured which could be used to sequence the activity.

However, there a few points to keep in mind when using video in a flipchart.

Firstly, Activstudio 3 will only accept .mov, .mpg and .avi as videos which can be embedded within a flipchart. Other file types such as wmv cannot be embedded, they have to be inserted as a linked file (video) instead.

This means that a wmv file has to be viewed outside of the flipchart in a player such as Windows Media Player. I have had some difficulty capturing stills from video with Media Player - I get a blank screen so it may be wise to steer clear of .wmv files.

There are some great websites which are good sources of video for teaching and learning. Some of these offer .mpg files (National Archives) which work fine in flipcharts. Others offer .wmv which ideally need converting before use with Activstudio. Some of these include: Geography at the Movies, Teachers TV and Teachertube.

A useful free converter to turn these wmv files into mpg or avi is Koyote Soft’s Free Video Converter 1.3

Welcome to the Whiteboard Course. These sessions aim to help you to:

• To learn how to use the IWB for simple annotation and drag and drop activities
• To feel confident using the IWB in class
• To move from using the board as a projection screen to a tool for student-teacher interaction

Please use this area to share ideas and materials connected to the sessions and to let us know how it goes if you try something out in class. You can also recommend good web sites or seek advice from colleagues. Most of all we want you to join in and support each other.

Useful Guides:

Interactive Whiteboards in History

Interactive Whiteboards in Geography

Interactive Whiteboards in RE

Whiteboard Basics - Using Activstudio 3

Whiteboard Basics - Using Text in Activstudio 3

Whiteboard Basics - Using Images in Activstudio3

Whiteboard Basics - Using Video in Activstudio 3

Video Guides:

Whiteboard basics - using Activstudio 3

Whiteboard basics - using text in Activstudio 3

Whiteboard basics - using images in Activstudio 3

Whiteboard basics - using video in Activstudio 3

Teaching Tips:

IWB Tips

Teaching Techniques using a Whiteboard

ActivStudio 3 Flipchart of Examples

Example Flipchart for Humanities

Some points to consider..

Can you identify any resources that you currently use that lend themselves better to using the whiteboard? (i.e. cut and paste, matching exercises)

Are there any videos that you will be showing this year that could be put onto the whiteboard in clips? What would be the advantage of this?

Can you think of any activities that you currently use as a plenary that would be ideal for using with the whiteboard?

What aspects of Humanities are best suited to sorting, sequencing and classifying information as a way of testing hypotheses / modelling?  These aspects are ideal activities for pupils to come to the whiteboard and manipulate to understand or find something out for themselves. (i.e. dragging and dropping different properties / geographical definitions / images to find out which works best within a specific context such as image of out of town shopping centre in outer suburbs or cause of conflict in WWI)