:promethean in 30 seconds

Apologies to regular readers who may already be aware of these resources… they’ve already been available for some time but I wanted to point them out properly in a blog post.

The first of the two flipcharts contains various ‘magic’ x-ray magnifying glasses, which can be used to reveal hidden text or diagrams on the flipchart page. This is often an incredibly effective way of increasing pupil involvement in a lesson… it also beats writing out an answer hands down

The second flipchart provides a solution to an ongoing problem with ActivStudio, concerning its inability to produce a square root symbol.

Both flipcharts contain full instructions on how to add these features to your own pages. To download, right click on either of the links below and and select Save Target As…

The Magic X-Ray Magnifier

My Solution to the Square Root Problem

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By far the most effective way of grouping and ungrouping objects is to set up a User Defined Button in the toolbox.

These are normally found in the resource area on the right of the toolbox, and look something like this:

These icons are customizable tools, meaning they can be assigned to perform a wide range of different functions… including grouping and ungrouping multiple objects

If for some reason these icons are not present in the main toolbox, they can be added from the Tool Store at any time.

Start by right clicking on one of the icons. A new window will appear titled Keystroke Definer, allowing you to change what the icon does.

Select Special Keystrokes from the three options on the left, then place a tick in the box marked Ctrl and select the letter G from the drop down list. If you want, you can also type the word ‘Group’ in the text box marked Tool Tip (this is the text which will be displayed whenever the mouse hovers over the icon).

Your window should now match the one shown in the screenshot below. Once it does, click OK to close the window.

From now on, clicking this icon will be the same as pressing Ctrl and G on the keyboard. If you want another button for ungrouping objects, simply repeat the process for the other icon and select Ctrl and U in the Keystroke Definer.

Try selecting a few objects and click the icon to see what happens!

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The most basic way of grouping and ungrouping objects in ActivStudio is by going into object properties as described previously.

Although this method of grouping works, it’s not exactly simple or easy to remember, and neither is it quick to do in front of a class of pupils. Thankfully there are other ways which are much simpler.

If you are beside the computer, select the objects to be grouped and simply press Ctrl and G on the keyboard. It is also possible to press Ctrl and U to ungroup them again.

This still does not solve the problem of grouping objects quickly when you are standing at the whiteboard. However, help is at hand in the form of User Defined Buttons…

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When you create objects on the flipchart page, it is sometimes useful to group them so that they act as a single object. This is very handy when drawing diagrams or moving complicated objects around on your flipchart page.

The most basic way of grouping and ungrouping is to select the various objects you’re interested in, then double click on one of the selected objects to open the Object Edit toolbox.

In this toolbox, click on the icon of the red tick on the white page. This will open the Properties window for the group of objects you have selected.

Select Identification in the white panel on the left of the Properties window, then click to place a tick in the box where it says Grouped.

Finally, close the Properties window and try resizing or rotating your newly grouped objects.

To ungroup the objects again, go back and remove the tick from the Grouped box. Note that this will ungroup everything to its most basic possible level, meaning that handriting will be broken down into individual penstrokes.

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Whenever you are moving lots of objects around on the flipchart page, it’s useful to be able to select more than one object at once. This also comes in very handy when grouping objects.

To select multiple objects, start by clicking and dragging the arrow cursor across the flipchart page.

Draw a selection rectangle across the objects you are interested in. Note that any objects which this rectangle overlaps will become selected, not just the objects fully inside it.

For example, in the diagram below the blue, green and red polygons will be selected but the orange hexagon won’t.

If there are a lot of objects on the page, this ‘overlapping’ method of selection can sometimes be imprecise and frustratingly difficult to use. Thankfully it is also possible to add individual objects to the selection one at a time.

This is achieved by first holding down the Shift key on the keyboard. With this key still held down, click on whichever objects you want to add to the selection.

If you accidentally select an object you don’t want, continue holding down Shift and simply click the object again to deselect it. All the other objects will remain selected.

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Hi again! Sorry to all my many thousands of readers who’ve been eagerly awaiting the next installment for so long.

While I’m trying to find out about how to publicize this blog thing, please enjoy the latest addition to my downloadable flipcharts page… an ActivStudio version of Tetris!

To download the flipchart, right click here and select Save Target As…

Instructions for Use:

In case you’re wondering where all the playing pieces are, there is a massive stack of them hiding behind an invisible rectangle, just above the top of the white playing area. To get a new piece, just drag one down into the playing area.

Whenever pupils make a line of bricks, you will need to ungroup all the blocks to delete that line and move the remaining blocks down a row.

To do this, select all the pieces in the playing area and press Ctrl+U. Alternatively you can use a User Customisable Button for ungrouping, which will be explained in full at a later date…

The game can be saved whenever you like and reloaded from its previous position, just be careful not to save over the original or you’ll have to download it again

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When I first started using ActivStudio, one of the main frustrations was always having to walk across the board to the main toolbox to switch between the arrow cursor, pen or any other tool.

In front of a class of pupils the seconds really count and thankfully there’s a much quicker way of switching between tools without having to walk over to the other side of the screen.

Start by clicking on the Promethean man in the corner of the main toolbox, then click on Studio Settings…

After a few seconds the settings window will appear. In the white navigation panel on the left, select Toolboxes.

Click to place a tick in the box marked Show Quick Select Toolbox, then click OK to close the settings window.

From now on, whenever you right click on an empty part of the flipchart page, a small toolbox will appear with the most frequently used tools.

Just as with any other toolbox, it is possible to customise these tools through the Tool Store.

Note that whenever you right-clicked previously, you recieved a small popup menu allowing you to copy, paste and reflect objects. To access this menu you simply have to click on the small blue button in the top left corner of the Quick Select Toolbox.

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The first problem many teachers seem to encounter when approaching an interactive whiteboard is knowing how to use the pen. An important fact that a lot of people don’t seem aware of is that you don’t actually need to touch the board with the pen to move the mouse pointer.

If the pen is floating near the board (within about 2mm) then the technology will detect the pen’s location.

In other words, you only need to touch the board with the pen when you want to write, draw or select something.

The other important part of this is that to right click, you only need to hold the pen very near to the screen and press the small button on the side. This is incredibly useful for accessing menus and toolboxes without having to walk over to your computer.

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Okay, here goes. It seems like I’ve been planning this blog forever… hopefully it’ll live up to my own expectations if nothing else!

By way of introduction for those who don’t know me, I’m a Maths teacher with a massive interest in technology and interactive whiteboards in particular.

After one term of using our new Promethean ActivBoards, I’ve been thinking it’s probably about time I started sharing some of my ideas on how to make the best use of this amazing learning tool.

My hope is that all teachers in everyday classrooms will actually read this and be able to make use of some of my ideas… for this reason I’m going to try and keep each post as short as possible. If it takes more than a minute to read then it’s too long!

With that in mind, I should probably stop writing fairly soon… that’s the first post out of the way at any rate

Bye for now and come back soon!

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