Andrea's Portfolio
Promethean Interactive Whiteboard Lesson
Using Promethean Interactive Whiteboards and ActivInspire software
My Background with Promethean
When I started at The Academy, our school was equipped with regular dry-erase whiteboards. My principal, however, was bound and determined to get interactive whiteboards, the latest and greatest in educational technology at that time, put into every elementary classroom. Being the technology-lover I am, I was ecstatic about the possibilities that would bring for our school. I had read about interactive whiteboards, but did not realize their full potential until I had one in front of me. What started as a love for technology and natural curiosity turned me into an interactive whiteboard trainer for our district and a representative on the national Promethean Teacher Advisory Council.
I worked as both a trainer and an advisory faculty member on Promethean Interactive Whiteboard hardware and software, and helped instruct teachers new to using interactive whiteboard technology in the classroom. Not only did I teach them how to use the software, I also helped them connect their classroom lessons to the new technology and learn how they make their lessons more interactive with the use of these interactive whiteboards.
Screencast Video
Here you will find a video of a flipchart I created using the ActivInspire software for Promethean Interactive Whiteboards. A flipchart, as the name implies, is a sort of “virtual flipchart” that allows the user to create multiple pages prior to instruction embedded with interactive content.
Why interactive technology?
In this “Making Containers” flipchart, I teach users how to create an on-screen container that accepts or rejects the objects put into it, giving students instant feedback. When I first started using the ActivInspire software, I was impressed by its capabilities and intricate design features. This flipchart is just one example of the creative way I use technology in my classroom (read my classroom blog or see my Twitter feed for other creative ways I use technology). Students are engaged when interacting with technology in the classroom. This is a concept that has not changed in the years I have been teaching; rather, the technology has been the component to change.
A Promethean Trainer
My time as a Promethean trainer, a member of the Promethean Teacher Advisory Council, and founder of our school Promethean user group have been influential in my growth as a technology leader, and critical in my choice to pursue a degree in Educational Technology and Leadership. I included this “how-to” flipchart to show how I’ve used the tools interactive whiteboards offer educators, and to highlight my knowledge in technological design.
Feedback from Fellow Teachers
Many teachers were at a loss of how to best incorporate the new technology in their classrooms. The Promethean User Group was a lunchtime informal meeting of educators who were interested in how to do more with their interactive whiteboards in their classrooms. Each meeting had a theme, which was determined by the users themselves. I offered up possibilities of what teachers could do, and they decided what they most wanted to do.
This flipchart was one I created for the user group, and for any other interested teachers. Teachers liked having the screencast videos available to them for review after the group meeting, or if they missed the meeting that day. I found it really helped for the users who needed more repetition (here’s a great reason for flipped learning!).
Moving Forward with Educational Technology
While I still have interactive whiteboard technology in my classroom (I have used both Promethean and SMART interactive whiteboards), I find I do not use all of its functions as frequently in my one-to-one environment. Rather than having one student interact with the whiteboard, I can have all of my students interacting with content in a variety of ways on their own devices. Promethean has since come out with a web-based program called ClassFlow, which allows teachers to run interactive content on their interactive whiteboards while students view content on their own devices. This has been a great addition to the Promethean family of software tools, and I have converted some of my flipcharts to the online ClassFlow version. It has been a great tool for students who are absent and miss out on the daily lesson; they can still review the content on their devices at home similar to how they would view it in class. Engaging learners young and old with content through technology, whether done in a one-to-one or whole-class environment, is a great way to learn for the student and the teacher.
A Description of "Making Containers"
When you drag items that are not insulators into the containers below the words, they are "thrown" back to their original place below. If the item is placed correctly, the item remains in the box and a reward sound is played, giving the user instant feedback.
This page shows the first steps of creating the flipchart. It is helpful to have the outline of your page complete with the images you'd like to use before creating your containers. The next page will show you how to create the containers.
In this example, students would grab images from the red box in the lower left hand corner and drop them in the appropriately labeled container. If the shape drawn was a sphere, they would drop the image in the blue box. If it was a cone, they would drop it in the yellow box.
When you drag items that are not insulators into the containers below the words, they are "thrown" back to their original place below. If the item is placed correctly, the item remains in the box and a reward sound is played, giving the user instant feedback.