Spotlight

[Alison]

When you start a topic, or even if you've just put a letter on the board that you're learning to sound, put the spotlight on and ask the children to direct it. What can they tell you about what is behind?

[simongreen]

Hi all,

Really enjoyed the recent posts on the tickertapes thread. Thanks to everyone who has contributed....!

I was hoping people could pool their tips on using the Spotlight tool here...

What about the solid spotlights and the square spotlights...?

Any tips appreciated!
Simon

[davidlloyd]

I tend to use the 'spyglass' technique because I like to have part of the page clear to write on - great for brainstorming vocabulary.

[Selda Ziya]

It's great that in version3 you can now right click on the spotlight tool and it will take a camera capture. Has anyone used this in the classroom yet? If so in what context?

Selda

[LouB]

My favourite game using the spotlight tool is guess the shape or number.

Put a selection of different coloured shapes or numbers on the flipchart page, then using the spotlight tool start looking for a shape/number. Look at a small part of it. What could it be? Why do you think that? What else should we see if it is ...?

Ohh I am excited just writing about it! [clap]
So much so, I have attached a flipchart!
Lou +wave+

[markrobinson]

It has been mentioned elsewhere but in V3 - if you edit the page properties (double click on a clear area of the flipchart) you can "set" a spotlight or blind tool to be ready when you arrive at that page in the lesson using the Properties > Tools option

This is really useful and means you can plan for its application in advance.

The guess the shape idea is great...

There are setting that let you alter the colour and tranparency of these tools too - so that it less of a complete mask - and more of a mobile highlighter.

[LouB]

To do this in AP 3 you need to be in design mode. Double click on a balnk bit of the page, then go to properties, tools etc

[Margaret Allen]

Something I realised this week, is that if you do decide to set the spotlight or reveal tool to appear on the page, you do need to make sure that on the next page, you set it to not appear. Otherwise you are "lumbered" with it for subsequent pages until you click it off....+wave+

[Vicky-d]

It's great that in version3 you can now right click on the spotlight tool and it will take a camera capture. Has anyone used this in the classroom yet? If so in what context?

Selda

Hi Selda

I think this would be good in English or Art lessons with a photo or picture behind the spotlight, as you could illustrate how the picture tells a story by capturing pieces of it, then you could arrange the snapshots you have taken in storyboard fashion on the next page!

[Dug]

I've used it to focus children's attention on a small detail or part of a picture/painting displayed on the IWB.

[markrobinson]

I had a big picture of a glacial landscape in AS3 ... I then snapped pictures using the spotlight of things such as terminal moraine, hanging valley, arete, cirque, crevasse, etc.

These appeared as a stack of clips over the original image.

These were then used moments later after deleting the original image to confirm that they had remembered them by making the mini-snaphots into elements of Activote question on the fly.

I could also have asked them to add captions or notes about the "features" I had "deconstructed from the original context"...

I could also have linked them with lines describing the relationship - e.g. "The U shaped valley is caused by the glacier"...

It is also a quick way of making a quasi-jumbled up picture or jigsaw .... just take snap shots using the spotlight (a bit quicker than the camera tool) and then delete the orginal...

Move around the stack of snapshots you have made - instant puzzle!

Another idea - If you have a class photo - you can very quickly scan across the faces using the circular spotlight - to make a class set in a few seconds.

Then they can live in the library and be dragged to boxes as another way of showing groups/pairings, etc.

[Dug]

Similarly with the class photo:
"You can go out to play. Now you lot, now you, now you two... etc"
Saves a mass exodus.

[markrobinson]

Similarly with the class photo:
"You can go out to play. Now you lot, now you, now you two... etc"
Saves a mass exodus.

Or you could "fade them away"..... using the transparency slider...and "beam" them out of class like Star Trek - or with suitable sounds of "I'm melting...I'm melting..... ahhhh, " if you are in an Wizard of Oz mood...

Or attach an action to them all to make them double their size if you click them...

Or attach a sound to each one recorded by each child... such as a personal quote or their name, etc. If you group the sound icon with the pic you can drag them around and play the sounds

[davidlloyd]

I think this would be good in English or Art lessons with a photo or picture behind the spotlight, as you could illustrate how the picture tells a story by capturing pieces of it, then you could arrange the snapshots you have taken in storyboard fashion on the next page!

A lovely idea Vicky.

[simongreen]

Lots of useful ideas here... thanks everyone...

One idea I liked was a teacher who got their students to describe what they saw on the interactive whiteboard as the teacher slowly moved and enlarged a spotlight over a huge image..

In the image, one person looking at something became a crowd looking at something as the spotlight was enlarged.

The "something" turned out to be a house".
Students had to guess why the crowd was gathering and looking at the house...

And as the image was fully revealled, it turned out they were looking at a house falling off the edge of a cliff...

I really enjoyed this idea of using the spotlight to help students build up a narrative...

No ideas yet about the square spotlights and solid spotlights...??

Simon

[Vicky-d]

You could use the square solid spotlights together with grids in maths lessons to explain area by enlarging and reducing the spotlight to cover specific numbers of squares on the grid.

[Selda Ziya]

Thanks for the tips. I have also used the inverse rectangular spotlight to cover part of a hundred square. I have then captured the area, this has given me a pink rectangle which I can then write the children's answers on.

[clap]

Selda

[davidlloyd]

Thanks for the tips. I have also used the inverse rectangular spotlight to cover part of a hundred square. I have then captured the area, this has given me a pink rectangle which I can then write the children's answers on.

[clap]

Selda

Oooh that's a nice idea! [clap]

[markrobinson]

My children have just been using the spotlight tool to pretend to be Howard Carter looking into the tomb of Tutankhamen for the first time with a light.

They described each of the "Wonderful Things" that he saw... as they were picked out with the spotlight.... bread baskets, a statue, a table, etc..

The picture was scanned from a book and a thick black pen and black background was used round the edges to suggest it was a hole in the sealed wall.

We used the page tools setting to ensure the tool was preset...