Powerpoint

Ulrika R

PowerPoint
Something that I think is useful and makes the English lessons more interesting is PowerPoint. This is a program that helps you make presentations with both text and pictures and even sound. You can on your own decide how advanced the presentation would be, you can also decide how long the pages should be shown and on which way they will show up on the screen in front of the class. It functions like a slideshow of digital papers on the screen. This is a few examples on what you can do in PowerPoint.

• Tables
• Diagrams
• Use your own pictures

Today in school pupils are well known with computers and know how to use them, often before their parents and teachers, so why should we not take advantage of this. Often is computer a way to make conversation between both teacher and pupils and between pupils. If the computer is something that a pupil is good at, let him/her take advantage of that!

From which age can pupils be able to work with this program? Well, since the pupils shall learn English the most common age are from the third class and older. Of course we teach younger pupils English but before year three the most common English lesson consists of few words and phrases. I think that pupils from third class can begin to make their own PowerPoint as they learn more English and if you like they can work in groups. The reason why I think it is appropriate from year three in school is because pupils have to be able to read and write, if they can´t do this on their own the lessons could be problematic and even make the pupils not want to study the new language.

I have seen pupils in year four made brilliant presentations by using Powerpoint. They have by them selfes made this presentation and are very proud of it, they also think that they have learned a lot both about the program and about the subject.

When the pupils have done their first PowerPoint they probably want to do another because this is a stimulating way to learn English and work with ICT at the same time!

//Ulrika R      

Papershow

http://www.papershowforteachers.com

This is a fantastic resource for teachers and their pupils. It is a combination of the oldfashioned way of teaching with pencil and paper and the new way of teaching using technology.

What you need
To use this resource you need a computer. If you want to use the resource the best way you also need a projector. Then, of course, you need to buy the hard- and software called "Papershow". The price is about £ 195 for the "all- in one" starter kit, if you buy it over internet. Then you just install the program and the pen, there are instructions on the company's webbsite showing how to work it out, and it is ready to use.

How it works
You use a special kind of paper that follows with the program, and you write or draw with a special pen that incorporates a small camera. On the paper ther are a few symbols. If you touch them with the pen you can do different things as editing the text you write, make different kinds of symbols, lines and arrows, moving texts or objects and erasing written or drawn objects. When you draw or write on the special paper the camera in the pen registers the location of the line on the paper, and the program shows it on the computerscreen. You can also print pictures from the computer on the special paper, and the picture shows on the screen. Then you can draw or write on that picture. If you then project whats shown on the computerscreen to the wall or whiteboard, the class gets a good general view. One negative thing is you need to buy more special paper when you have used all the sheets that follows the start kit. Worth noticing though is you can use every sheet several times, until you no longer are able to see what you write or draw.

How the resource can be used by teachers

You can get your lessons more concentrated by preparing your lessons in advance. You can prepare texts, pictures and exercises on the papersheets. The pupils can start to work immediately instead of waiting while you write or draw on the whiteboard. If you write while you are teaching, you can sit or stand turned to the class. You are also able to let the pupils take notes from the lesson or making mindmaps together and then save the notes in two different formats, pdf or powerpoint. You also can e- mail the notes if, for example, a pupil don’t attend to the lesson for some reason.

How the resource can be used by pupils

The first and very important thing is that the pupils try to do their very best when they know everyone else in the class are able to see their writing. The second important thing is you increase the oral communication between the pupils when they write together. For example the class can write a story together by circulating the paper and pen in the class so everyone can write one sentence each. Everyone immediately see what is written and you can talk about spellings, synonyms and how to use written words in different situations or how to continue the written story. It is easy and fun for pupils to use the magic pen and to watch their writing on the screen. You can get the pupils involved in a much easier way and then save the notes for later use.

I think this as a complement to the internet and a much cheaper investment than buying a interactive whiteboard. It don’t have all the fancy functions, but it really increases the pupils interest of writing and talking and to do it as well as possible!

Yours,

Malin Marklund

Jihad Khalil

 SMART BOARD

ICT (Information and communication technology/ies) is something related to any kind of communication technology in which we humans can communicate, some of the common known ICT are any communication devices and applications such as Satellite, Radio, TVs, cellular phones, computers, networks, hardware and softwares.4

Accordingly, there are some common ICT resources, in which we always use whenever, talk about ICT. These kinds of recourses include Internet, Emails and word-process. But if I describe an ICT resource which is available to me or my students, I can say it is Smart board

 Smart board or a computer screen?

However, as you may see the name itself, it has been designed to work with computer and projector, without computer and projector it doesn’t work.  Together with the projector and computer, Smart board enables us to gently and smoothly write something, click on it, drag an object on in it, move an object on it, close, minimize, maximize and even open a software program, instead of sitting with the computer and using mouse all the time which is very hard work.

Technical accessories

A Smart Board installation contains a pen tray on the front of the interactive whiteboard that holds two to four plastic pen tools and an eraser. The pen tools have neither electronic components nor ink - the technology is in the pen tray, but how it works?

When a pen tool is removed from its slot in the tray, an optical sensor stills be aware that the pen I question is missing (on use) as a result Smart Board software reaction processes the next contact with the interactive whiteboard surface as a pen action from the pen tool that resides in the corresponding slot.

Whenever a pen tool is removed from its slot, you can be able to write in the selected color with that pen tool you have already chosen You can even as a result use your finger or any other object to write with as the sensors understood this action as an writing action as long as the pen is missing from its slot.  Similarly, when the eraser is removed from its position in the pen tray, the software processes the next contact with the screen as an erasing action as long as the eraser is missing from the slot.

When pens will in any reason miss their original locations from the slot, than the color in use will be only the missing one on the slot and not the one you have in your hand.

Smart board is a useful digital pedagogic instrument

Smart board has become a necessity and a useful device when it comes to modern education and learning processes.

This new IT-innovation has made things better and improved the planning of teaching. All about information and mediation of science, literature and teaching in all disciplines a school may have in its yearly or semester learning programmes.

We all know that Smart board can be expensive device as well as also new technology which need special kind of treatment. I would like to justify that for me I only focus and concentrate how use full is Smart board both teachers and students.

Smart Board has come to stay, this is an irreversible technical and digital way of teaching in all levels, most practice, fast, easy, modern, above all the most audio-visual innovation ever made. As per the technology designed to full fill the needs of the teachers, Smart board is very friendly device which was designed to as touch screen, when teachers want to use it they can just point their finger by pointing on Smart board rather than by clicking and using mouse which is sometimes difficulty. Teachers use smart board when they want to show a move, clips and games to their students in a very smart and simple manner than projector.

Students also find very useful by using Smart board, when they are going to present a presentation or group assignment, they use just like teachers, and they can explain something on it by clarifying on the Smart board. Students enjoy this new technology as they are themselves IT-generation in many cases they master the new technique better than their own teachers!

Smart board, an affair that pays off

Smart board is an effective, profitable, practice and modern device for all actors: students, schools and institutions, tax payers etc... It can minimize the cost and maximise the profit, because whenever we use smart board we don’t need to purchase white boards, flipcharts and pens, which may cost too much. Smart board minimizes costs because we use to purchase white board and other completing belonging things like flipcharts, white boards every year.

New digital technology

Smart board is a necessity for all of us, this technical innovation has digitalised all our disciplines in schools and enhanced the teachers ´roll and made the mediation of many school disciplines easily.

You can talk about maths, biology, geography, maps, geometry, physics, chemistry, or whatever, like documentaries, entertainment, live sending music, companies´ and political meeting, news of different horns of the world or simply reading newspapers and listening to music or film sequences of different origins.

Smart Board is not only smart, but magic and a new world for schoolteachers and students alike!

About Blogs

Well, you've made it so far! Blogs can be very useful for teachers and pupils because you have a channel of communication you can use for each other - and for the parents.

When you set a blog up you can also choose to make it entirely open and accessible (like this one) or more or less hide it altogether, so that only the people you've invited to read it can even find it. It'd be a bit of a pain at the start of the term, but let's say you've got 20 pupils in your class, each of whom has a school e-mail address and each of whose parents have one mail address between them.

That'd involve you in sending a list of 20 addresses to Blogger to be listed as authors and another 20 addresses to be listed as readers. Once you've got the list, it takes no more than a couple of seconds (it's getting the accurate list which takes time). Then you'd have a blog which the pupils can write in and their parents can read which is only accessible to them (and you).

If you wanted to create another blog for the general public, it'd also be possible, perhaps with just you as the author. Let's say you wanted to circulate a particularly good post from the private blog. You just click on the Dashboard link (the B in an orange box), click on View Posts and Edit Post, copy everything from the private post … and go over to the public blog, create a new post and paste the private post into it.

If your school uses a course management system (like Moodle or Blackboard), there'll be a blog function in that. The only problem is that the parents might not have access to it … and it'll be an even bigger pain negotiating with your IT Department to give them access. The parents would probably have to use a different e-mail address than their ordinary one to log on to it too.

The Blog Task

Welcome to Beths group. 1. The Blog Post - this is what you have to do:

Describe an ICT resource which is available to you, as a teacher, or to your pupils, paying particular attention to how it works and how it can be used. Looking forward to your contributions. Beth

How to make a post on the course blog

This is how to make a post on the course blog:

1. You need to make sure that you've logged on to Blogger as the person who has the permission to make posts (i.e. using the ID you used when you accepted the invitation to become an author).

2. Then when you access the blog, you'll see a link (in small, light-blue letters) at the top of the page called 'New Post'. Click on that link and you'll see a text box that looks like this:

I'm in the 'Compose' function right now, but if you wanted to do fancy things with html, you'd click on the 'Edit HTML' tab instead. 'Compose' works fine for most of the things you might want to do.

3. You can either write directly into the text box, or copy and paste your text from, say, a Word document.

The tools in the bar at the top of the text box are fairly standard - you use them to change the formatting of your text after it's in the text box.

4. Blogger saves your draft text automatically at fairly short intervals (the Save Now button goes dark when everything's been saved). When you're ready, though, you could click on the Preview button for a last check on what it looks like … and then you click Publish Post when you're ready.

5. If you notice something you want to change even after you've posted your Blog Post, you've always got the 'Edit Posts' option at the top of the page, or, if you click on the little pen at the bottom of your post in the blog, you come straight back to this Edit page.

Don't forget to add your name to your Blog Post!

Welcome to the Course Blog

This is the blog for Beth's Group on the 1EN131 course at Linnaeus University during Autumn Term 2011. This is the place where you'll be able to post your Blog Posts and make your Blog Comments (see the Business Pages of the course web site for more details of these).

As soon as the course gets underway, you'll receive an invitation from this blog to become an author on it (you need this status to be able to do more than just read it). Remember to accept it! (If you forget this, just get in touch and I'll send you another invitation.)

David Richardson

Kalmar