Making a flipchart with dock tools

Once you learn some of the basic tools it is easy to make a flipchart and start teaching with ActivInspire.  You will find your creative style and feel comfortable making flipcharts with increasing complexity.  Here is a simple flipchart for teaching phonics using the Fountas and Pinnell system based on a sort made by a colleague.  We frequently use the flipchart version of the sort so that we can discuss word parts and, in this case, what makes a vowel and long vowel or short vowel.

Exploring tools

As I have created videos on the tools for ActivInspire, I have had to use some tools that I either don't usually use or that are new to me due to how I have created flipcharts in the past.  I feel excited to share ActivInspire with people since it is something that has helped me present information more easily to students as well as given me the opportunity to present lesson within a technological framework that more readily reflects the choices students make with their downtime-using some kind of screen.  I am learning about new ways to make flipcharts and really having to think about how I could use the tools to engage my students more.  This has been such a valuable project in making me look at how I use technology as well as how I teach.

Toolbox

The toolbox has some very cool features that can enhance the use of the program ActivInspire.  Using the dice or calculator can make math flipcharts more fun for kids to use.

Reflection on Videos

I have been enjoying making the videos for how to use ActivInspire and cannot wait to share with my colleagues.  This has been an affirmation that technology integration is the direction I would like to go.  After all, if it is fun to share via videos, working with people face to face will be even better!

Shape, fill, connector, insert media and erase tools

My goal was to keep all of these videos to under 5 minutes.  The shape tool is one of my favorite things about ActivInspire.  I use it all the time within all subjects and unfortunately, this video went over my time goal.  I could have gone on even longer but...I decided to just keep it to the basics.

Pen, highlighter, eraser, text and select tools

When I first started using ActivInspire, the first tools that I used were select, the pen, highlighter, eraser and the text feature.  Since they are first tools I used, they are grouped together within this screencast.

Importing a pdf

The most useful function of ActivInspire is being able to import a pdf. Any document that has been created on your computer can be turned into a pdf, you can also scan a worksheet or download pdfs from the internet. Once imported, the worksheet can be written on so that work can be modeled.