Getting Up and Running

Version 3.2.1 / February, 2011

2 SECTION 1. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS Getting Up and Running To use VizZle, it s best to have the most current version of Adobe Flash Player. When you download VizZle, Adobe will automatically check and update your Flash player, as well as install Adobe AIR. Just keep answering Yes or OK to the prompts, and you will be set up automatically. In the unlikely event you don t already have a Flash player, or if you prefer to run the update yourself, you can get the most up to date version of Adobe Flash at: http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/ Click on the kind of browser you have (e.g. Windows Explorer, Safari, Firefox, Opera etc.) and follow the instructions to install. INSTALLING AND RUNNING VIZZLE: To download and install VizZle, use the link provided in the email that included your username and password. A link to the installation information can also be found through VizZle s home page at www.monarchtt.com in the upper right-hand corner. After following the prompted steps, you will find a VizZle icon on your desktop. Anytime you want to launch the program, double-click the VizZle icon on your desktop and the log-in page will appear. Enter your username (the email address you provided) and the password you received in an email from our support team. A new feature in this release allows you to check the Remember Me box to store your password for quicker entry. The stored password will only be used in this situation it will not effect password-protected actions (like keeping kids from exiting at will or getting into things they shouldn t). And that s it You re in! If you are experiencing difficulties, the most efficient way to reach help is by visiting our Help site at http://monarchteachtech.zendesk.com/home or by sending us an email to support@monarchteachtech.com. In this brave new world of Blackberries, iphones and instaapps, email is the quickest way to get your SOS to the correct person. You will be immediately assured that your message arrived safely via return email, and the support team member best able to help you with your problem will contact you as soon as possible (often within a few minutes, but always within 24 business hours). 2

3 SECTION 2. Finding Your Way Around There are three main components in VizZle. After you login you will find yourself on the Landing Page. The Landing Page highlights the lessons recently added to the shared user library in What s New, has news and information for users, and it links you to the three main areas of the system. Here s what it looks like: CREATE links you all the templates for creating your own lessons and tools. Create customized activities or customize activities you ve found in the library for your students using a variety of templates including Matching Boards, Game, Build-a-Book, Timers, Token Boards, First-Then boards, and the all new Scheduler. Pix-to-Go is a blank slate that allows you to use any images from the VizZle image database or your personal uploads for printed table-top activities like flash cards, topic boards, memory games or worksheets. TEACH links you to all your personal files and folders. From there you can organize and share activities through the student folders, launch lessons, tools and playlists for play, and manage your data collection and reporting. SHARE links you to the shared public library of lessons and tools created by other VizZle users. You can search by keyword directly from the landing page by typing your query in the search box and clicking search. Or you can go to the advanced search to browse by categories by clicking on the large orange Share. Every lesson accepted in the library has been vetted to 3

4 make sure it works and contains accurate information. Preview the activity (and you can Play it for the full effect from the Preview screen) or drag it to one of your folders to store it for later use or editing. NOTE: If you are having trouble viewing the entire program on your screen, make sure your screen resolution is set to a minimum of 1024x768. To do this in Windows, minimize programs until you see your desktop. Right click on the background of the desktop. Select Properties. Then select the Settings tab (all the way to the right on the top). Now slide the Screen Resolution toggle to 1024x768 or higher. Then select OK or Apply. Maximize VizZle and you should be good to go. For Mac users, go to System Preferences, then Display, and set it at 1024x768 or higher. I. SHARE Share, the shared public library of lessons and tools created by VizZle users, is a good place to begin your familiarization tour of VizZle. It s where you will find the activities recommended to you in your welcome email. For a video tour of Share s features and functions, click on the Learn button just underneath the large orange Share and search box in the upper left of the Landing Page. To enter Share, click on the orange Share button in the upper left of the Landing Page. This is what you will see: 4

5 You can use the activities suggested to you as a way of familiarizing yourself with the various types of lessons VizZle has to offer. To find those specific activities, type the four or five digit Lesson ID number (provided in your welcome email) into the Lesson ID search field (see the red arrow below), and then click the Search button. After clicking search, you will see the activity on the search returns page. When you click on it, Activity Summary information will appear at the right of the screen, with options for further actions. To explore the lesson, click the Preview button (red arrow below) to enter the lesson overview. When the page is set in Icon mode (see the purple arrow below) it looks like this: 5

6 NOTE: You have two views to select from when searching the library. List View shows your results in a text list. Icon View offers a more visual representation of the search returns. (See the purple arrow above for the toggle location.) List view gives you the ability to sort your returns by clicking on the column headers. Switching back to Icon view will retain that selection of sorting criteria. In the Preview mode (see below for an example of a Build-a-Book lesson in Preview), you can see the entire page layout, and click on any audio, video or popup icons to see and hear what is in them. Note that there will more often than not be a scroll bar on the right side of the screen to let you see the entire lesson (longer lessons will not fit all on one screen). For now though, go ahead and click on the Play button on the bottom of the screen, so you can see exactly what a student would experience when they play an activity. The big yellow arrow below points to where you ll click: When you have finished playing the entire lesson, click on the Close button in the upper right, and you ll be returned back to Share, where you can enter your next ID number. (Note: If you want to exit earlier, click on the Exit/Options button in the upper left of the screen. You will be asked for your password [the same one you used to log in works here]. Clicking Exit Lesson in the upper left will return you back to the main Share search page.) As you begin to explore on your own, you can type any word into the search field (e.g. a subject like math, or a specific subject matter like sight words, or a lesson type like matching, or a keyword like clean try whatever comes to mind!) Once your initial 6

7 search has returned results, you can either run another search using a different word, or further filter your returns using the advanced search options (click on the arrow to the left of Advanced Options just under the search field to reveal the various ways you can further refine your search). If you prefer, you can find activities in Share using the filters. Use the dropdown menus to select either a subject (along with a category and a sub-category if you like), and/or a gradelevel, and/or a lesson type. You can further refine your results by using any of the Advanced Search features (click on the Advanced Search arrow to see your options), or start a new search by clicking the Share Home button in the upper right, which takes you back to the initial search page. Note: Don t forget to return to the initial Share search page (by clicking the Start New Search button) if you want to begin a fresh search of the entire library contents. Otherwise, the search will just further filter your initial returns. In a list view of the returns from your search, you can click on any of the titles along the top of the return to sort the list. For instance, clicking on Name will sort the activities alphabetically by title. Clicking on Lesson ID will sort by the lessons ID numbers. Clicking on Lesson Type will group them into lesson types, etc. Whatever sorting method you choose will also control the icon view if you switch back to that style of presentation. When you click on an activity in your search results, the Activity Summary appears on the right side of the screen. As you become familiar with the terms and descriptions, you ll find that it gives enough information about the activity to make an informed decision as to whether it is appropriate for your needs and worth a look in preview. In the displayed information, you will see the ID#--every activity in the library has a unique number. You can use this ID number to search for that specific activity. Each Activity Summary will also show you the Name, an icon that shows what type of activity it is, Subject classifications, Grade level, whether the lesson is text-based (i.e. you must be able to read to use it), the creator s info, and a short description. (Currently information on whether the lesson contains quizzes, video or audio is found in the description. In current development is a feature that will automatically turn on the toggles by those words in the Summary to more visually give you that information but for the moment, those do not accurately reflect the lessons content.) NOTE: The ID# assigned to the activity in your personal folder will be different than the ID# of the same activity after you submit it to Share for the library. The activity in the library is a separate copy, and therefore has its own unique number. To edit an activity from the shared library, or to save it for easy access later, or to run it from a student folder so the play data is tracked, drag it into a folder in your file cabinet on the left hand side of the screen. First make sure your file cabinet is open by clicking on it (the little red icon in the upper left of the screen). When it is open you ll see all your folders. Simply drag- 7

8 and-drop the lesson to the folder. When you see a plus sign appear over the folder name you are aiming for, you can drop the lesson in. If a Ø appears, you are not in position to drop. II. TEACH Your file cabinet is located in Teach. Teach is where you will store all your stuff. You can also launch activities for your students and make PLAYLISTS to launch multiple lessons here. (You can think of a PLAYLIST as a virtual set of TEACCH bins ). You will manage student data metrics and reporting from Teach as well. For a video tour of the basic features and functions of Teach, click on the Learn button directly under the green Teach button on the middle-left hand side of the Landing Page. Enter Teach by clicking on the big green Teach on the landing page (or by clicking on the Teach icon on the top navigation bar from elsewhere in the program). If it isn t already open, click on the red file cabinet next to My VizZle in the upper left of the screen and click open the My Lessons folder. You will see its pre-loaded contents on your screen. These lessons and tools (all with the word VizZle in the title) are a quick and easy way to see the features and uses of the various lesson types in VizZle. Note that the screen is, by default, in an Icon View. If you prefer a list view, click the List button (see the red arrow in the image below). Here is what your open folder looks like: 8

9 When you click on a lesson, Activity Summary information appears on the right side of the screen (see example, below) telling you more about the lesson. At the top of the Lesson Summary, click on the Edit button to start customizing the lesson in Create. Clicking Play will begin the play experience. The screenshot below shows the My Lesson folder open in the List view in Teach. The red arrows point to the Edit and Play buttons: Just under the main navigation bar (the gray bar to the right of the VizZle logo), you ll see buttons for creating a New Folder, Delete Folder, Create Media, and Import Media (where you ll click to upload personal pictures into your folders although it is much easier and faster to just drag and drop images in from the desktop directly to your lessons). To use any of these buttons, you need to be in the file cabinet or the folder where you want to place the new item. Give your playlist a name, description, and a few keywords you might want to use later to search for it. You can then immediately launch it by clicking on Play in the upper right of the screen. Or you can save it for later by clicking on Save. STUDENT ACCOUNT FOLDERS: To take advantage of all the features and enhanced sharing available in VizZle, you can easily create Student Account folders for each of the kids you work with. First, click on My Profile in your red file cabinet. Here is what you will see: 9

10 Click on the + button, and a popup window will ask for the pertinent information about the student you want to add. When you have added each of the students you would like to, click the Save Students button. (VizZle will ask you to restart the program for the changes to take effect). These folders are the best way to share information with the teaching team and parents about that student. (To find out how to link other VizZle users to the student you have created, please see the VizZle Help page (http://monarchteachtech.zendesk.com/home) for details.) Note: If you are part of a school/district that has purchased VizZle, check with your administrator before creating a student folder. (It may have already been created, in which case your account should have been automatically linked to the full student list). Each student folder has a Student Profile. In the Student Profile, you import that student s personal pictures and favorite things to use with Magic Media. These can be used to quickly and easily customize a lesson for that student. Here is an example of the Student Profile page (filled with a student s pictures): 10

11 Each student folder also has a sub-folder called Student Data and a Goal Creator. Use these to load the student s IEP goals, and to generate reports using the student metrics you gather during VizZle play. Visit http://monarchteachtech.zendesk.com/home for the latest info on how to use the student tracking and reporting features. TEACH HINTS AND TIPS: Within your personal file cabinet, create and customize your own folders to organize materials in whatever way makes sense to you. We ve started you off with some default folders to help you organize (My Lessons, My Tools and My Assets) that need to stay there because they are used as defaults in other parts of the program, but don t feel you have to use those. Name and organize your folders however you like. For example, you might want to create folders for each of the subject areas you are working on, or group by age level, or make folders for groups of imported pictures. Do whatever works for you. You can then save lessons to the appropriate folder by dragging and dropping onto the folder name. (Have you noticed yet that dragging-and-dropping will become your best friend in this program? When in doubt, try to drag-and-drop!) 11

12 III. CREATE Formerly called Lesson Builder, Create is your own virtual visual language lab. Here is where you create from scratch using easy to edit templates, or customize any lesson for any content or skill level. Math problems, language comprehension, science, social studies, reading you name it, you can create a lesson for it. If it is a question with an answer, you can make a Matching Board to teach it. Need to tell a story or convey specific content? Build-a-Book is the way to go. Want to make a table-top worksheet using the same images? Open Pix-to-Go. Have information you want to review in a fun way for a group? Create a Game! The content is as simple or as complicated as you choose to make it: add visuals (including video clips) and audio (including text-to-speech) to support comprehension and language development, customize prompts and distracters, and choose the best reward for task completion. You can create for any and every age level, from early learning to adults. Click on the blue Create on the Landing Page, or find the chubby pencil icon on the top horizontal navigation bar (a more concise way of saying the line of buttons across the top of the screen that take you someplace else ) and click to enter Create. This is what you will see: 12

13 Notice the three tabbed sections at the bottom of the screen: Lessons, Tools and VizZle Labs. Click on the tab to reveal the templates within each section of Create. When you click on a template type, you ll see a brief description of what it s used for and a short video tutorial off to the right of the screen ready to walk you through creating that kind of lesson. These tutorials are a quick, easy and convenient way to get yourself comfortable with all the tools at your command in Create. When you are ready to make a lesson, highlight the lesson type by clicking on it, and then click on the Get Started button. The basic unit of creation throughout Create is the tile. Below on the left is a blank basic tile. On the right is an edited tile with an image, text, audio and video added: The top half of the tile can either be filled with an image, or you can click on it and type in text. The bottom section of the tile is for text only. By clicking on the blue add sound button on the lower left, you can record text-to-speech of the text with a click of the mouse, or record your own voice with just three clicks (a little speaker icon appears when you have successfully added sound). You can also drag-and-drop a sound bite directly to that area, and it will automatically load. Drag-and-drop a video clip (either from VizZle s database or from your computer) to the add video button on the right (it will save automatically into you re my Media folder for later use). Or you can click on it to import a video from your computer and save it to a specific folder or rename it. A little film strip icon will appear when you have successfully loaded the video. NOTE: If you want a text only tile, first click on the Add/Drag message in the top of the tile. Remove the default text, and then type in your text (using the popup editing bar to make it look as you want it). Then click on the text box in the bottom of the tile and remove the words Edit label. Et voila! 13

14 To add images or find audio and video clips from the VizZle database, you can search for Media in the upper right hand corner of any creation experience. Simply type in a word and click on Search. (Don t forget to click the search button it s how you begin the search.) Your results will show up in a column on the left hand side of the screen. Scroll through that box to see what the search came up with, then drag and drop the image that will work best for your student into the lesson. NOTE: Search functions while you are in Teach as well the returns populate the main center screen instead of the lower left panel. And don t forget that you can always use the pictures you have imported into your various folders as well! You can get them by opening the folder where you have them stored, or by typing the name into the search box. If you search for a word that you associated with your image as a name or keyword when you saved it, the image will also automatically appear whenever and wherever you run search. In the example below, I typed horse into the search box (on the upper right of the screen) while in the creation experience of Matching Board. As you will see, photographs, line drawings, audio clips and video clips from the image library come up for you to scroll through and choose from: 14

15 Each lesson type or tool has different features but dragging-and-dropping images works the same way in any part of Create. Click and hold the mouse on the item you want from the search, then drag it to the place you want it. Note: You can also drag and drop pictures or video clips from your desktop directly into your creation tiles! Click on the text to edit content or style with a pop up editing bar. Below shows an image dragged and dropped into a Build-A-Book page, and the purple arrow highlights the pop-up text editor ready to change the color, font, size or style of text: Each lesson template type has more than one tab in the upper left of the creation screen. When you enter the creation experience, you land on the main tab, usually called Manage or Create. Almost every lesson type also has an Options tab, usually with more than one page of options that allow you to control reinforcers, ending celebrations, audio, and board specific features. And most have an Overview and Print tab as well, which allows you to preview, play, or 15

16 print the lesson (see the red arrow above). Some of these tabs have second and third pages to them look for button-type tabs at the top of the gray box of information for the toggle that lets you move between pages (see below). 16

17 SECTION 3. IMPORTANT TIPS: Make sure you Save boards when you are creating them. Clicking Save will save over the existing lesson. Clicking Save As will create a new lesson and allow you to change the lesson name or keywords. You must click on Save As or Save for the file to be saved into one of your folders. You will see question marks located throughout the program. These mark contextual Help click on a? and a popup with a description of the adjacent feature and helpful tips and tricks will display. If you have a general question or need support while working in the program, click on the?help button on the top horizontal navigation bar (in between the Share button and the Search box). When you type your question in the interactive support box, VizZle electronic support will comb our archives for similar questions (which get you immediate answers). If no question comes up that is exactly what you need, email us at support@monarchteachtech.com. We promise you ll be contacted within a business day to pursue a solution. If you d like more in depth training on VizZle, sign up for a free, live, interactive tutorial via Webex through the www.monarchtt.com website. The webinars are offered at different times throughout the week. If none of the scheduled times work for you, don t hesitate to contact support@monarchteachtech.com, and we ll be happy to set up a one-on-one tutorial to get you up and running. HAVE FUN! It feels great when you see your student s face light up when they play a lesson you have created. They will be getting the visual content they need to really understand a concept in a way that is fun and engaging for them, and easy for you. It s a winning combination! 17