Kevin Abel
07-04-2006, 11:38 PM
I teach Design Technology in a rural secondary school in West Wales where I have been using an ACTIVboard since 2004 and ACTIVote since 2005.
After a slow start getting to grips with ACTIVote, I found the Online Tutorials taught me all I needed to know about setting up the User Database, Registering Devices and creating flipcharts using Question Master.
I now teach all my lessons using flipcharts, set homework printed from flipcharts and test using ACTIVote at the start and finish of every lesson.
My pupils enter the class, pick up their designated pods, register and are ready and waiting for the test in the time it takes me to do the register. There are groans of disappointment if we don’t use ACTIVote. I always use Named Mode, Display Names and Question Timeout to create an atmosphere of healthy competition.
Allocating numbered pods has two advantages; ease of administration and students are warned that they are responsible for any damage to their pod. Twelve months on and they are all still in mint condition.
The beauty of using ACTIVote is that having spent hours producing flipcharts; this investment is now paying dividends as no time is wasted photocopying, handing out question papers, finding pens, repeating questions and collecting papers. More importantly, there is no marking to do; I simply export the results of tests to Excel and print a copy of the spreadsheet for my records.
My classes are regularly achieving between 60 and 100% in tests and when every pupil fails to answer the same question I can see where I have failed to put the topic across.
My advice to the uninitiated is; get hold of a kit, run through the Online Tutorials and give it a try. If you lack confidence download a flipchart from the Resource Centre.
A final word of warning, before trying out ACTIVote on the pupils or worse still demonstrating it to the SMT, have a dry run with your colleagues.
Good Luck
Kevin
+wave+
After a slow start getting to grips with ACTIVote, I found the Online Tutorials taught me all I needed to know about setting up the User Database, Registering Devices and creating flipcharts using Question Master.
I now teach all my lessons using flipcharts, set homework printed from flipcharts and test using ACTIVote at the start and finish of every lesson.
My pupils enter the class, pick up their designated pods, register and are ready and waiting for the test in the time it takes me to do the register. There are groans of disappointment if we don’t use ACTIVote. I always use Named Mode, Display Names and Question Timeout to create an atmosphere of healthy competition.
Allocating numbered pods has two advantages; ease of administration and students are warned that they are responsible for any damage to their pod. Twelve months on and they are all still in mint condition.
The beauty of using ACTIVote is that having spent hours producing flipcharts; this investment is now paying dividends as no time is wasted photocopying, handing out question papers, finding pens, repeating questions and collecting papers. More importantly, there is no marking to do; I simply export the results of tests to Excel and print a copy of the spreadsheet for my records.
My classes are regularly achieving between 60 and 100% in tests and when every pupil fails to answer the same question I can see where I have failed to put the topic across.
My advice to the uninitiated is; get hold of a kit, run through the Online Tutorials and give it a try. If you lack confidence download a flipchart from the Resource Centre.
A final word of warning, before trying out ACTIVote on the pupils or worse still demonstrating it to the SMT, have a dry run with your colleagues.
Good Luck
Kevin
+wave+