Learning Clip – Numeracy

Thanks again to Simon from Wiltshire for information about Learning clips

The Numeracy Activities from Learning Clip come highly recommended. Each activity is linked to an objective from the Renewed Framework for Numeracy and, once you have registered, are free to use during the trial stage . All they ask in return is that if you have any feed back, positive or negative, you let them know.

Each clip comprises a short introductory video, an interactive activity and a set of notes. 

New clips are being added to the site every week so keep checking for the latest releases.

http://www.learningclip.co.uk/index.aspx

 

SMART Notebook 10

SMART have just released the latest version of SMART Notebook. This is quite a major upgrade from previous versions and is well worth downloading, which you can do from this link.

There are a host of new features and great tools in the new version – too many to list here. Click the link to see an overview of them all and also to watch video demonstrations.

Some of my favourites so far are:

The table tool – it’s surprising that it’s taken IWB software so long to have this tool which has been a mainstay of other presentation software for so long. The tables you can create in Notebook can be interactive – cells can be hidden and revealed with a modified screenshade.

The Magic Pen – this is three tools in one. The Spotlight, the Magnifier and a new fading marker have been integrated into one tool. It takes a bit of getting used to (you draw a circle to get the spotlight, rectangle to get the magnifier) but once you’ve mastered it, it’s great!

Animation – you can now add basic animation effects to shapes and objects on the page. It is not quite up to the sophisticated animation effects you can achieve in PowerPoint, but it’s a start and a great way to keep your pages interesting and more interactive.

Other great new features are the alignment tools to get objects to line up, themes to make your pages have a consistent look, shape recognition to turn your freehand shapes into neat polygons and the ability to group pages to create lesson ‘chapters’.

SMART Learning Marketplace (the online content subscription service) has been totally integrated into Notebook. Also the fantastic Toolkit to make your own Flash based interactive content is now available in the Gallery. A series of tricks and tips for the Toolkit can be found here.

One major change is that you will need to register your software using a serial number taken from your SMART hardware (i.e. the serial number on your board). There are instructions on where to find this number and the same number can be used to register multiple installations of the software. Upgrade today!

SMARTBoard Toolkit

SMART have released a Beta version of what it is calling its Lesson Activity Toolkit. Once installed this toolkit adds customisable interactive Flash content to your Gallery. It’s full of tools and templates that you can use to create professional-looking lessons with all the appeal and interactive power that comes with good IWB lesson content. For example, you can now drag onto your page sorting activities, quizzes, wordlists etc which you can then edit to suit your lesson. Check it out by clicking here.

Also, you might like to know that SMARTNotebook Version 10 is due to be released in the Spring of 2008.