Archive for Helping students

Creating a Text Embedded Interactive Worksheet with a Livescribe Smartpen

September 20, 2011 education, Helping students, Interactive Projects, Livescribe, Livescribe, Math Projects, Mathcast, Pulse smartpen, Teaching, Teaching Online, Technology, writing 19 comments

EMBEDDING TEXT BEHIND A LIVESCRIBE PENCAST PDF

Recently I learned how to embed text behind a Livescribe pencast and it has changed everything!

I created a short interactive worksheet to show what can be created with this process.   The following is a screenshot of the text embedded pencast because I cannot embed a PDF file (yet) into a website.   A link to the actual pencast PDF is below the screenshot.

Pencast PDF with text in the background
(you must have Adobe Reader 10.0 or higher to view this interactive PDF)

If that does not work, I put a link on my website for you to click on OUTSIDE of WordPress
(I have some issues with opening PDFs inside WordPress – if anyone can help me to embed
a PDF in WordPress or a website I would really appreciate it!)

As listed in the pencast, the steps to embed the text in the pencast PDF are as follows:

1.  Print off the text file onto Livescribe dot paper (I used college-ruled dot paper in my printer)

2.  Record a pencast on top of dot paper that has the text printed on it (the text shows you where to write!)

(sorry about the poor photo quality)

3.  Connect your smartpen and upload your pencast as a PDF (use the “Computer” connector)

As you can see in this screen shot, the pencast looks pretty strange without the text behind it!

4.  Save the original text document as a .jpg (image file) – to do this you must first save it as a PDF and then you can use Adobe Acrobat Pro or the free online utility Zamzar (www.zamzar.com) to save your PDF as a .jpg file

5.  Open the pencast PDF in Adobe Acrobat Pro or PDF Pro (http://epapyrus.com/en/)  so that you can add a watermark to the PDF file

6.  Add your .jpg text file as a watermark to your pencast PDF and re-save the PDF

7.  The new pencast PDF can be viewed by anyone with Adobe Reader 10.0 or higher

 

Please add comments on this blog if you know of other free ways to save a text document as an image file and also if you know of other (especially FREE) programs that allow the user to edit a PDF.

Please send me the projects you make – I would love to see them!

 

 

Update1 on “Help For My Autistic Great Nephew”

September 3, 2011 Assistive Technology, Autism, education, Helping students, iPad applications, Livescribe, Livescribe, Livescribe Pencast Player, livescribe smartpen, Teaching 2 comments

Help For My Autistic Great Nephew – update 1

A couple months ago I purchased a Livescribe smartpen (click for links within my blog) for my niece to use with her autistic son (I think that makes him my great-nephew?)    I showed her how to use it during a family reunion in the Outer Banks over the summer. (Here is a link to the previous article)

Ethan’s mom sent me the following “first impression” of using the Livescribe smartpen with her son, and gave me permission to post it.  Her autistic son Ethan is 9 years old:

Every child learns differently. Part of Ethan’s struggle has been that he does not learn by the same standardized methods that most children are able to use for learning.  He is great with technology, likes repetitiveness and although he does enjoy social interaction he does not like to “perform” when someone is trying to teach him something.  The smart pen allows us to combine and functionally utilize these traits.

Ethan does well with his iPad but unlike the pre-programmed educational apps, with the smart pen we can create our own learning material specific to his needs. For instance if he is struggling with the letter “A” he can sit down with his iPad on his own (in his own space) and replay (over and over) the note session that shows how to write “A” as well as hearing the sound.  It also allows me to focus on topics of interest for him. He loves baseball so we can practice spelling and writing sentences all tailored around “Ethan playing baseball.”

The sound stickers are also really cool.  We are able to record each page of a book on them so that Ethan is then able to “read” books to himself.  He enjoys reading books but at his age most kids are able to read to themselves. This allows Ethan to read/listen to his books independently when I am not available.  It also is great in that he is able to repeatedly hear the words in connection with seeing them over and over. ..because let’s face it, as a parent you can only read the same book over and over in one day before you lose your mind.

Ethan’s mom is using the Livescribe smarpen (click to go to the main Livescribe website) to write out the lessons she wants her son to learn, then uploading them to his iPad for him to interact with by hearing and watching the lesson.    She is using the sound (dot) stickers to record herself reading each page of his favorite books.  She then places a sticker on each page for  him to “read” the book by himself.  By tapping the sticker with his smartpen, he can hear the words on the page being read to him by his mother! 

I will continue keeping updates in this blog on how his first IEP meeting goes this year at school, and how his learning progresses with the use of the Livescribe smartpen.

Livescribe now has a website for solutions for teaching students with learning disabilities:
http://www.livescribe.com/en-us/solutions/learningdisabilities/

 

Getting Organized

August 13, 2011 Algebra, Camtasia, education, eInstruction Interwrite Workspace, Flash, Flash, Helping students, Interactive Projects, Livescribe, Livescribe, Lumens DC265 Ladibug document camera, Math Projects, Mathcast, Mobi, MyScript, Teaching, Teaching Online, TechFriends(Geeks), Technology, Training, videos Comments Off on Getting Organized

ADDING MY VIDEOS TO THIS BLOG

I have heard from several people that they would like to see some of the educational videos I have created.  I realize there was a pull down menu at the top of my blog for it, but I never actually organized the content I have created in the past.

In the past 6 months I have had to wipe both my Mac and my Windows machine (long stories), so some of my videos are now “lost’, but luckily YouTube still has a small collection.

I finally got organized today and separated my videos into categories.  If you look along the top of my blog, you will see a category called “Animations/Videos” :



Most of my videos fall in to four categories of  “How-To” videos, “Educational Teaching Videos”, “Flash Animated Tutorials”, and “Livescribe pencasts”.  I will be adding some Animationish videos after this Fall when I have my students creating some.

I created the “How-To” videos to teach others how to use software or hardware.  Here are the categories I have in that section:

I plan on adding more videos to this section in the near future, so some of the categories do not have any links yet.

The next main category I have been creating videos for is in “Educational Teaching Videos”.  These are short videos I have created for my students to introduce a topic we are studying in the class.

As you can see when you look through the Educational Teaching videos, I was trying out several types of hardware/software to see what worked best.   I used the eInstruction Workspace software for a “whiteboard” in some videos, and recorded and edited with Camtasia studio.  In other videos I used a Lumens HD Ladibug document camera.  I found the document camera to be better for me when I am actually needing to record working with actual objects like base ten blocks and fraction circles.   I will hopefully be making more videos using these this semester. I will try to keep up with posting them here so I don’t lose them again!!

Most of the tutorials/lessons I have created for my students in the past year are Livescribe pencasts, but I find when I need the lesson to be more visual, a video is better.    My livescribe pencasts are organized by topic on THIS PAGE.  I have quite a few pencasts collected there.   When I had to wipe my computers, I lost all the original pencasts, so for now I cannot change any of those pencasts into PDF’s to download.

Lastly, about six years ago I started created Flash animated tutorials to help my students in my Math For Elementary Teachers classes better visualize the math they will be teaching. I strongly believe visualization is key to understanding!

The Flash animated tutorials are housed on a separate area (outside of my blog).   They are organized by arithmetic topic:

For example, clicking on the “1/3” would take you to the fraction tutorials, and the “2” will take you to the multidigit whole number operations.  This type of tutorial takes me a lot longer to create, so I do not have many in some areas (like decimals).   Instead, I am starting to create more interactive tutorials using Hyperstudio.  To see a few of those interactive tutorials, CLICK HERE.

These are still a work in progress, but I promise to continue adding here so check back!

 

 

Screencaptures by TechSmith for the iPad!

July 26, 2011 education, Helping students, iPad, iPad applications, Mathcast, ScreenChomp, Teaching Online, TechFriends(Geeks), Technology Comments Off on Screencaptures by TechSmith for the iPad!

While reading through posts on Google+, Facebook and Twitter by my PLN, I came across this valuable new FREE app for the iPad!   I use TechSmith products (Camtasia, Snagit and Jing) all the time on my laptops, but always wanted to have the same functionality for my iPad.  Not only did TechSmith follow through, but they made it FREE!

Opening up the ScreenChomp app, you see a blank whiteboard.

They have given us 12 colors to choose from (but I would like to see a slider for SIZE of the pen at some point in the near future!), an eraser and a record button – yes ScreenChomp will record a video of you writing and speaking at the same time!

When you save your file you have the option of saving it to the “cloud” by hitting the ScreenChomp.com button or sharing it on Facebook.

After saving your screencast, you have three options for sharing:   You can copy the link, email it or Tweet it!  Here is a link to the actual video I just made.   I need to find a way to embed the video without having to go through another application. Suggestions?

I think this will be a GREAT way to answer student questions from my iPad!  I just have to create a quick screencast on my iPad and then send it to them.   Can’t wait to try it out!

 

 

 

Story Boards for Kids…and Adults!

May 30, 2011 education, Livescribe, Livescribe, story boards, TechFriends(Geeks), writing Comments Off on Story Boards for Kids…and Adults!

A recent trip to San Francisco connected me to some really fantastic teachers with amazing energy and enthusiasm!  Zoe is one such person.    To get to know her better, here is her website:

https://sites.google.com/site/zoebraniganpipe/

She also writes a  blog about smartpen uses:  http://livewithlivescribe.edublogs.org/*
*This site was developed as part of a joint Ministry of education and Ontario Teacher Federation funded project with a focus on teacher learning and professional development. In this project, teachers collaborate and discuss the uses of the Livescribe pen in the classroom.

Her family was lucky enough to make the trip to San Francisco with her, and her 8 year old son created this wonderful storyboard about his adventures in San Francisco using a Livescribe smartpen.  (Thank you Zoe for letting me share your son’s wonderful pencast!)

I think this is a fantastic idea for teachers to use with students who feel like they are not good writers, or don’t know how to get started!   If you have your students make pencasts, please share them with me at tech4mathed.sg@gmail.com

 

1-Subject A5 Notebook 4 p. 50 (click on this link if you cannot see the pencast below)
brought to you by Livescribe
 

Making Math More Accessible For ALL Students

April 25, 2011 Assistive Technology, bluetooth headset, Dragon NaturallySpeaking, Droid, education, flexT9, Helping students, learning styles, Livescribe, Mathcast, taking notes, Teaching, Teaching Online, TechFriends(Geeks), Technology 5 comments

Reaching Different Learning Styles Through Technology

As you can probably tell, I have 2 passions that drive my teaching….technology and helping students.

My latest journey has been traveling down a path to find ways to help reach the different learning styles of my students. In turn this will help make my math courses more accessible to students who require either text, speech or visual aids because of physical or learning disabilities.

I started with the Livescribe smartpen to turn student notes into animated text with sound.  Then I tried to transcribe the text from the pencast using Dragon Naturally Speaking ,which works GREAT if I am speaking into my computer, but the student pencasts don’t pick up my speaking as well because I am walking around the room, so I am not near the pen most of the time.

Since Dragon cannot transcribe the text WHILE I am teaching from the Mobi software, then I needed to find a way to record my speaking during class and then download it into my computer so Dragon can create the transcript.  I spent some time today looking for options that would not require me purchasing a hand-held recorder.

I have a Plantronics Discovery 975 bluetooth headset that pairs with both my computer and also with my Droid X cell phone.   I use it with my computer and Dragon to ‘speak text’ into many programs on my computer, including Word and email (I still need to try it with MathType!).

I thought I found the perfect mobile solution…to be able to walk around the room and teach while wearing the bluetooth headset, but have the audio transcribe directly onto my phone!  I purchased the Droid version of Dragon called flexT9 …great idea and it works perfectly…except flexT9 does NOT support bluetooth headsets yet.   I can still use it for transcribing speech to text on my phone, but I have to be close to the phone mic.  It is an amazing app for $4.99!

I started looking for a voice recording app for my Droid that would support bluetooth.

I found Voice2Do (FREE).  It is the ONLY voice recorder I found that supports bluetooth.  I recorded a short message from my bluetooth headset to my Droid X (which was across the room) and then emailed it to my computer (to email the .wav file you must purchase the professional version).    Finally, I had Dragon transcribe the audio file and it worked GREAT!

I plan on playing with it for a couple more days and then trying it out in my classes.   My goal is to have the Livescribe pencast student notes and the Workspace board notes for visual learners, but then take the audio for the lesson and create a written transcript, which can also be read out loud by most computers, for students whose learning styles require reading or hearing the information.

I will post a link when I get it all put together.

 

Writing Math in Windows 7!

April 21, 2011 Algebra, Assistive Technology, education, handwriting math, Helping students, Math Input Panel, Math Projects, Teaching, Teaching Online, TechFriends(Geeks), Technology, Windows7 2 comments

I was so excited to see a new window show up when I upgraded to Windows 7…it is called the Math Input Panel.  With a name like that I had to be excited before even trying it out!

 

I immediately started playing with it and was surprised and VERY happy to see how easy it was to handwrite math and have it insert the typed version into my Word document!  It does not always pick the correct letter or number, but you can easily edit an individual symbol.

 

I have tried writing some algebra, and it does a great job with that as well!


 

I am excited to see more tools for my students to be able to use to ‘write” math on their computers as well.   Although Word comes with Equation Editor, my students do not know how to use it.    Now, students can easily handwrite their math problems and have them typed up!

For students with disabilities – or anyone who wants to have the math read out loud to them, Word can then take the file that has the math equations embedded  and be saved as a MathXL document.   MathPlayer should then be able to read the math out loud….I will try that next and see how it works out!

 

Off To A Great Semester With Technology!

January 22, 2011 Algebra, education, eInstruction Interwrite Workspace, Helping students, Livescribe, Livescribe, Mathcast, Mobi, Pulse smartpen, SnagIt, Student participation, Teaching, Teaching Online, TechFriends(Geeks) One comment

A new semester has begun and I have added a few new ways to help my students succeed.

  1. I borrowed my colleague’s idea to have 2 students take notes during every class using a Livescribe smartpen.  I then upload the notes to their class website, and post a link  in the calendar on the day the notes were taken.

I created a webpage to house the daily notes for each chapter, starting with our first chapter:  Chapter 9

2.  I use a Mobi (from eInstruction) to present the lesson from anywhere in the room.   An especially nice feature of the Mobi software, called Workspace, is that I can save the board notes and export them to a PDF file.  I place on link in the calendar to the board lesson on the day the lesson was given.

*to see the actual board notes, you must go to the calendar and click on “board notes”, since they are an attached PDF file, I cannot link to it here.

3.  The students use an online program to do their homework, which sends me a screen shot when they need help on a particular problem.  Instead of trying to type back a response to them, I fully explain their solution using a Livescribe smartpen.  I then send them the link to the pencast, and I also created a webpage to house all solutions to student homework questions.

*here is the link to the page that contains all the homework solutions

Here is one of the solutions I wrote to my students just today:

SimplyNegativeExponentsEx2
brought to you by Livescribe
…
This is just the first week of class, and the students have shown a positive reaction to these extra support features I have included on my website for them.   I look forward to seeing how the semester progresses!
…
*To see more of my college website go to:  Glascoe College Website .  I built the website using Dreamweaver.
…
*All screenshots were taken using TechSmith Snagit
…

 

New Opportunities for Growth

December 9, 2010 AMATYC, Bio, Helping students, Livescribe, Livescribe, Mobi, Pulse smartpen, Teaching, Teaching Online, Technology, Training 3 comments

I have not blogged much about my own teaching with technology in the past couple months.  Instead, I have tried to write about others who I admire and what they are doing to help move mathematics education into the 21st century……This is because I have been on medical leave for a broken foot.  I was successful for a short while teaching with the Mobi from a stationary spot in each classroom, but I was still having to walk to three different buildings and my foot was not healing.   My doctor advised me to go on medical leave and let it heal.   I have missed my students terribly, and am disappointed not to be able to try the new online projects I had planned for the semester.  It was hard not being able to do any training this past semester as well.    I have been given a doctor’s release to go back to teaching again in the spring, and I am excited to dig my heels back into teaching and learning with technology!

I do have other exciting news to share as well (besides getting to start teaching again in the spring):  AMATYC Project ACCCESS invited me to serve as a Consulting Colleague (mentor) for the 2011-12 Project ACCCESS Fellows!   They even sent me the contact information for the Fellow I will be directly advising on her project so I can get started today!  It will be amazing to be in a cohort of established teachers who will be mentoring, along with Fellows who are new teachers wanting to learn more about the scholarship of teaching at a 2 year college.   The Fellow I am mentoring is working on a project to include technology, like the Livescribe smartpen, into her Hybrid college courses to help her students.   I feel so honored to be chosen to assist in guiding her progress, and help her to evaluate her project.

To learn more about the AMATYC ACCCESS program, go to the link: AMATYC  Project ACCCESS .
to learn more about the American Mathematical Association of Two Year Colleges, go to:  AMATYC

I can’t wait to get started and to share the experiences I have  in working as a Consulting Colleague in this amazing program!

 

My Customer-Story Video for Livescribe

November 17, 2010 Bio, Helping students, Livescribe, Livescribe, Mathcast, published articles, Teaching Online, Technology 2 comments

I was asked by Livescribe if I would give my testimonial as a college instructor using the Livescribe pen for my math classes.   I had so much fun making the video with the team!

Amazing how they can shrink 2 hours of  “discussion” (with many retakes I might add!) into a minute and a half of produced video!

They interviewed 7 people in different professions to show how each of us enhances our work with the help of our Livescribe smartpen.

To see all 7 videos, go to the Livescribe Home Page and click on my photo on the bottom of the page.  (OK, I share the photo with three other people, but I made the home page!)

I still own my original 1 GB Pulse and now the new Echo smartpen, and I am so thankful for having such great technology to teach with!  I am also finding great ways to use my smarpens in  everyday life, too!

Here is my Livescribe Story posted on YouTube:


Clip to Evernote

 
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