ACTIVINSPIRE BASICS. Chapter 1 - Connecting the Equipment. Two things to remember--power and connection!

Transcription

1 ACTIVINSPIRE BASICS Chapter 1 - Connecting the Equipment Two things to remember--power and connection! 1. The ActivBoard must be plugged into an outlet, and the power button on the left side must be pushed to be turned on (will be green). There will be a lit flame in the top left corner of the board if you have power. 2. Now the board must be connected to your computer. It can be hard wired by plugging the USB connection into the computer or it can be connected wirelessly with the hub. Connecting wirelessly is a little more complicated than hard wiring and will not be discussed here. 3. Connecting to the projector allows the students to view content and interact. Plug the projector VGA connector into the computer. 4. There are two different ways to connect a document camera (ActiView or Elmo) to the computer. The easiest way is to use the USB connector cord to connect the document camera to the computer and have the projector connected to the computer. The second way is to connect the projector to the document camera, and then connect the document camera to the computer with a VGA cord. Chapter 2 - Calibrating the Pen Once your equipment is all connected, you need to check if the pen is calibrated (where you touch the board with the pen is where the writing shows). There are two ways to calibrate: 1. Click on the ActivManager icon in the system tray and select Calibrate. Then follow the directions by clicking carefully in the center of the "+" that appears in five areas of the board. 2. Hover over the flame with the pen until the calibration screen appears. Then follow the directions by clicking carefully in the center of the "+" that appears in five areas of the board. Chapter 3 - Menu Bar and Toolbox The early version of ActivInspire was called ActivStudio, and the Toolbox was the only option for manipulation. However, ActivInspire has modeled its new look after Microsoft by having the Menu Bar across the top. So basically, there are two ways to access everything in ActivInspire. The pictures and lists below denote where basic features can be found. 1

2 Menu Bar 1. File - New Flipchart, Open, Save As, Print 2. Edit - Design Mode (red is edit and blue is presentation), Reset Page, Copy, Paste 3. View - Browsers, Menu Bar, Flipchart trashcan) 4. Insert Page 5. Tools (More Tools) - Desktop Annotate, Pen, Highlighter, Eraser, Fill, Camera, Clock, Tickertape Toolbox 1. Main Menu (same as Menu Bar above) 2. Other labeled icons are discussed in chapters 3, 4 and 5. Chapter 4 - Text Tools The following are basic text tools: select (mouse), pen, highlighter, pen/highlighter color option, pen/highlighter width option, eraser, undo/redo, reset page and text box. 2

3 1. Select (mouse) - use this to make selections as you would with a mouse 2. Pen - use to write on a page in ActivInspire or allow students to interact 3. Pen/Highlighter Color and Width - use to change colors and width for specific needs (different students use different colors for responses, highlight parts of speech in different colors, etc.) 4. Eraser - use to erase a specific thing 5. Undo/Redo - use to remove the previous action 6. Reset Page - use to return the page to its original view 7. Text Box - use to type in information; click anywhere on the page and begin typing Chapter 5 - Drawing Tools The following are basic drawing tools: Design Mode, Fill, Shapes and Color/Outline Options. 3

4 1. The Design Mode icon is circled red on the picture above. If the icon is blue, the flipchart is in presentation mode and all the actions will work. If you want to edit the page, click on the Design Mode icon, and it will turn red and allow editing. 2. The Fill tool colors a background, shape or object the desired color. Just click on the Fill icon, select a color and click where you want the color. 3. To use the Shape tool, click on the Shape icon, choose a shape from the selection, select a shape color, select a color and width for the shape outline, and click and drag the shape on the page. Chapter 6 - Presentation and Management Tools The following tools are some of the most useful and popular ones: Desktop Annotate, Camera, Clock and Tickertape. 1. Desktop Annotate - This enables you to use all of the ActivInspire capabilities on ANY screen on your computer desktop (websites, worksheets, textbook links, etc.). Click on the icon to activate and click on the icon to return to ActivInspire. 4

5 2. Camera - This enables you to capture images on ANY screen on your computer desktop (websites, worksheets, textbook links, etc.) **Be aware of copyright laws! Click on the icon to activate and follow the onscreen directions (drag points around image to capture, select where the picture is to be placed). 3. Clock - This can be used as a classroom management tool. Choose either analog or digital or both and set to Count Up or Down. 4. Tickertape - This displays a scrolling message on the screen and is an excellent way to focus on bell work, vocabulary words, objectives, reminders, etc. The screen on the bottom left appears when you select Tickertape. Fill in your message, color, position and click OK. The screen on the bottom right appears while the tickertape is running and allows you to adjust the speed, pause and edit the tickertape. To close the tickertape, click on the X in the top right corner. 5

6 Chapter 7 - Saving and Printing Documentation is the "name of the game" these days. Be sure to save your work and print as needed. Saving ActivInspire's menu is similar to Microsoft products in that you go to File, Save As. Be sure to give the flipchart a meaningful name (1st period, science , etc.) and know where it is being saved (Desktop, My Documents, etc.). Create folders to keep everything organized. Printing Printing is also located under the File menu. However, there are different options available to print the pages of your flipchart. Determine the number of rows and columns, which pages, include notes and ALWAYS PRINT PREVIEW! Chapter 8 - Browsers: Page, Notes, Resource The basic browsers include: Page, Notes and Resource. To view the browsers go to File, View and make sure Browsers is checked. To keep the browsers page from hiding, pin it by clicking on the push pin in the top right corner. Page Browser 1. This browser is used to manipulate pages easily. The scroll bar indicated in red allows easy scrolling from the first to the last page. 2. The slider in blue makes the thumbnails larger and smaller. 3. The page in green shows how the current page being viewed has the darker outline to indicate where you are. 4. To rearrange the pages, just click and drag pages to the desired place. A vertical black line will appear to show where the page is being moved. 5. If you have two flipcharts open simultaneously, you can drag a page from one flipchart to another by dragging it to the tab of the desired flipchart. 6

7 Notes Browser 1. This browser allows a teacher to makes notes about a particular page, activity, objective, etc. Once the Notes browser is opened, just begin typing in comments. 2. The Format Toolbar is located at the bottom of this screen. Click on this to change font size, color, centering, bold, italics, etc. 3. If there are notes associated with a page, there will be a Notes browser icon on the far right of the Menu Bar (shown below). Resource Browser 1. This browser contains resources for you to drag and use. Make sure you select Shared Resources (indicated by the red circle). 2. Click on the "+" to the left of the folder to view more categories for each folder. 3. When you find a resource you like, just drag it to a blank page. 7

8 Chapter 9 - Updating, Troubleshooting, Resources Technology is AWESOME when it is working! However, we all know that there will be issues from time to time. Keep the following in mind when you have problems. 1. A pop-up announcing a new update may appear when you open ActivInspire. If one does, follow the onscreen directions to update ActivInspire. 2. Another way to verify if you are up-to-date is to go to Help, Check for updates on the Menu Bar of ActivInspire. 3. For troubleshooting assistance, call Promethean at Before calling, be sure you have the serial number of the ActivBoard. This can be found on both sides of your ActivBoard towards the bottom. You will also need to access the ActivManager screen which is located in the bottom right portion of the system tray (see picture below--yours will not have a red X if you are connected to a board). 4. This Moodle course, Learning Lab: Basic Technology, is located on the Huntsville City Schools website. Click on the blue HCS tab, click on the Moodle icon on the right side, log into Moodle, under Professional Development, select Technology Professional Development and find Learning Lab: Basic Technology. This course has an enrollment key of LLBT. 8