QuestionMaster vs. PowerPoint plugin

[stephenmcnutt]

I think ACTIVstudio should attempt to partner with Microsoft and replace QuestionMaster with a PowerPoint plugin. Another company has a product like this called PowerSomething (can't remember). It enables you to make your flipcharts in PowerPoint, which most people already know how to use and which is many times more user-friendly than QuestionMaster. You just insert a question on any PowerPoint slide just like you'd insert a picture or a text box. It's a much better idea, and something ACTIVstudio should be moving toward.

[michele.horsburgh]

An interesting point of view. Were you aware that you could also write an ACTIVote question on a flipchart page without using the Question master wizard ? If you input some text the flipchart page features has the ability to pick up the questions. Your can also drag on pictures, video clips and sound files. I have attached a word.doc that illustrates this feature of the software.

The purpose of the question master for users is to quickly create summative type testing senarios however the power of ACTIVote is in its ability to easily facilitate formative assessment opportunties. If we were to develop a powerpoint style interface I suspect we would loose the capacity to ask spontaneous questions. Without any preparation I can write a question on the board and record the results instantly. I can verbally ask the question and also record the results. :) Is this possible in a powerpoint style interface?

As ACTIVote is part of the ACTIVstudio2 and ACTIVprimary2 teaching and learning software suites the teacher isn't just getting an assessment package but teaching tools and resources to help support pupil learning.

[daveb]

I have used a number of different voting systems and those that integrate with PowerPoint have a definite edge. Why? Many teachers have PowerPoint skills, but few have exposure to the rather clunky (sorry!) interface of the flipchart tool. We are very busy people and I for one resent having to learn yet another software package.

I create all my resources in PowerPoint - and as an advocate of open source, it pains me to say it, but it is a superb presentation tool. I don't want to have two versions of my resources. And yes I have tried the PowerPoint import into a flipchart, but it only goes so far...

What I want to be able to do is click a button on a PowerPoint slide, have the voting progress ribbon appear and then have the opportunity to save the results on the slide - just as you can on the flipchart. That doesn't seem too unreasonable to me, nor particularly difficult from an implementation viewpoint.

I accept what you say about adhoc questions. Writing on a flipchart by just picking up a pen is altogether a different matter to preparing presentation slides, and I would be quite happy to ALT+Tab to an Activ flipchart to pose on the fly questions.

I am sure the QuestionMaster plug-in has its place, and is probably indispensible to some teachers, but personally I would forgo all its features for simpler integration with the most common presentation tool in the education world.

[Margaret Allen]

With all due respect to your point of view Dave :eek: and at the risk of sounding defensive :eek: I feel you are saying it all by your statement :

I create all my resources in PowerPoint - and as an advocate of open source, it pains me to say it, but it is a superb presentation tool.


When teaching becomes presenting then I will agree with you. The whole point about Activstudio and Activprimary is that they are not a presentation set of tools but they are pieces of software which allow teachers to truly engage with the teaching and learning not just standing up in front of a class presenting a set of slides.

Maybe it is more appropriate at Secondary level, but to my mind Powerpoint should remain in the Boardroom for which it was originally intended!

Getting your head around another piece of software as you put it is also about just using a pen and a few pictures to engage your audience, whoops I mean students! +wave+

[daveb]

I agree that we teach, we do not present, but we can still use presentation tools to achieve that. If you casually dismiss PowerPoint as only fit for the Boardroom you are doing a great disservice to all those teachers and academics who produce superb resources with it. And I don't mean bullet-pointed lists.

The flipcharts are great for class interaction; pick up the pen write on the board, touch a shape and move it. Fantastic! I am a great believer in student involvement and this is a fine tool for the job.

But I am also a pragmatist and to produce professional, engaging, teaching slides (yes, for secondary, FE and HE) takes less time in PowerPoint than it does in in ActivStudio.

I ought to say that we don't use Promethean boards and so rarely use the flipchart tool. We happen to think that another board type better suits our purposes. On the other hand the voting system design (and this was a voting system thread) is superb and so we use that exclusively, but really can't use it to its full advantage because our teachers don't want to use YASP (yet another software package).

I think you are being defensive. I have raised the question before at various education shows about better integration of the voting system with PowerPoint and have never received a convincing answer. I am not suggesting that you throw away what you have, I am suggesting that you make it an even better product with a wider appeal by integrating the voting system with the most common 'presentation' tool there is!

Be brave! Make the voting system a more standalone tool rather than trying to tie it in so closely with your own board software.

[daverosthorn]

PLEASE DON'T INTEGRATE ACTIVOTE WITH POWERPOINT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

With all respect to Dave, but if you start mucking around doing that then you're going to end up giving people the wrong end of the stick with what Promethean products are all about. From what I've seen, the majority of people who use PowerPoint for "teaching" really have no clue how to engage their learners properly.

Margaret was not being defensive, btw. She made a very good point, as always.

[daveb]

<quote>From what I've seen, the majority of people who use PowerPoint for "teaching" really have no clue how to engage their learners properly.</quote>

It's OK, I won't take that personally ;). But rather a blanket statement I think. What about "Interactive whiteboards make bad teaching look good"? (Educational Guardian at http://education.guardian.co.uk/getonboard/story/0,,1679891,00.html)

We have all sat through appalling PowerPoint sessions. The worst I have seen have been in business and training environments; the teachers I know and work with have sufficient professionalism to use the tool appropriately in an educational setting.

Anyone can take a good tool and misuse it. That is no argument for restricting choice.

All I am suggesting is that the facility is made available so that those of us who are already skilled in using a popular tool to enhance learning are able to make full use of the voting system. Other voting systems (which are not nearly as well designed as the Promethean 'eggs') do so, so it can't be that difficult (and I'm speaking as an ex-programmer here).

[daverosthorn]

I said MOST! I really don't think integrating ACTIVote with PowerPoint would benefit Promethean's customers as a whole.

[Alison]

Can I jump in from a Primary point of view? +wave+ I would say that in a very large school of over 50 staff (believe me, for Primary, that's huge! :eek: ) there are perhaps 2 people who are confident in powerpoint. To them that is the YASP. I see where you're coming from though, you'd like to see activote being more flexible.

Maybe AP is different to AS, but I can ad hoc vote with AP in desktop mode and then insert the results using copy & paste to pretty much any program I choose. Is that the sort of thing you'd be after? I know it would be easier if you could do it from within the program, but you can't expect all the companies to join up together.

[daverosthorn]

Maybe AP is different to AS, but I can ad hoc vote with AP in desktop mode and then insert the results using copy & paste to pretty much any program I choose. Is that the sort of thing you'd be after? I know it would be easier if you could do it from within the program, but you can't expect all the companies to join up together.

Same in AS2 as far as I'm aware :)

[daveb]

I ran some voting in a session today (22 students) and used the copy and paste technique suggested by Alison. It works, but it was a PITA (all the charts have different scales for example) and as a summary for the students I ended up creating the response charts in PowerPoint directly.

So...

OK. Collectively you have convinced me. Your enthusiasm shows that the AV Studio package is great for your teaching environments.

I am also now convinced that good though the physical design of Activote is, it is not ideal as a standalone system - as it was sold to us - and we have reasons why we prefer a different board technology to Promothean.

Like it or loathe it, use it or abuse it, PowerPoint is the tool of choice for most of those involved in teaching here (university environment). My demos of the voting system here are enthusiastically received (I am responsible for promoting the use of educational technology), and my experience (and the research) atests to its benefits. But I can't recommend a tool that requires another package when there are others that don't.

Horses for courses, as they say.

[michele.horsburgh]

A very interesting debate is emerging. In the end what raises attainment and makes students make progress is engaging lessons with inspiring teachers that make students open their minds to new possibilties.

I admire your passion for using one particular teaching medium ,powerpoint. Have you explored Activstudio or Activprimary haven't you ever wondered why Promethean technology has been so successful, surely it must be to do with the software!

Promethean are open minded and flexible and has produced a product called Presentavote designed for other markets outside education e,g armed services, health etc. This is a powerpoint plug in. It is a standalone product that does not benefit from the range of integrated teaching tools, that our Education Activsoftware range offers. This might better suit your needs if you want to stick with using powerpoint.

[daveb]

I don't doubt that ActivStudio and ActivPrimary are great products - if you have a Promethean board. I have explored the package, but on the whole all the board manufacturers' software offer similar features, just in different ways. In those teaching rooms where we have digital boards we do make use of the interactivity they bring to the learning, using the software supplied. And BTW I'm sure there are licencing issues about using rival software on other boards.

But my interest here is with the voting system.

The PresentaVote system sounds really interesting. I was not told of it when we bought ActiVote (9 months ago). A search of the Promethean website doesn't return any results for it, and I can't see it in the product list. Can you post a URL to details?

Can I use the PowerPoint plug-in for PresentaVote with the ActiVote system - in which case my problem solved!

If not, can I swap out ActiVote for PresentaVote ;)

[Ian Ed]

Dave

As it's not particularly targeted at schools, Presentavote is a product only available via our reseller partners some of whom specialise is selling interactive presentation solutions to other markets. As such, it forms part of a different range of products and is on a different web-site : http://www.prometheanworld.com/distribution/html/products/interactive/vote.shtml . From here, you can download brochure, view a flash presentation and, now, follow a brief interactive demonstration.

Note - there are no curriculum questions supplied with Presentavote unlike with Activote, which remains our flagship voting solution for schools.

Whilst it is true that you could interchange the voting handsets (as they are the same but in red & black), you would still need the Presentavote receiver (which looks the same but is different - not just in colour) and the software (which is not sold separately). So, in effect, you'd have to purchase a new Presentavote system - available with 12, 24, 44 or 64 handsets.

If you feel that you are in the market for a new system and would like a demonstration or quotation of Presentavote, we can arrange this in conjunction with one of our reseller partners.

Please contact Promethean AV on 01254 676921. +wave+

Ian Edmundson
AV Business Support Manager

[daveb]

PresentaVote is what I want! Pity I wasn't told about it before.

I'll be in touch to talk technicalities...

[saliu]

Activote error :runtime error 9, subscript out of range
any help ?

[michele.horsburgh]

Hi

The quickest way is to ring technical support or email them your query. Here is the link.

http://www.prometheanworld.com/uk/html/customer_care/contact.shtml

[Damian3279]

I have looked at you word.doc but think this is in Activ Studio. As an Activ primary user is there a similar tool which will pick up the questions from a flipchart page without me having to use question master. I like to create slides/pages direct and give them a graphic appearance which I don't feel is acheived through the preset layouts in Question master. I realise that I could create the questions and flipchart through question master and then alter and stylise the pages but this can be a bit cumbersome. Especially altering text sizes and fonts.

Can I link the pages I have already created to a question file which will pick up the number of answers and correct answers without me having to start from scratch in question master?
Or
Is there a way of creating my own templates/layouts to connect to question master? (for example setting up a 'who wants to be a millionaire layout)

Any help would be appreciated.

Sorry guys. Have just solved this by reading another entry. I didn't realise there was a right click option which picks up the questions - FANTASTIC Tool.

[LisaD]

Promethean Planet (US website) has a short video that explains how to turn any page into a question page by using the right click option.

You may want to check it out.

http://www.Prometheanplanet.com/us/server/show/nav.1253

Lisa

[clap]

[Mike Dawson]

I find that one of the most powerful tool within the Question Master software is the abiility to save questions to a database. This allows you to use the questions in many different ways; as informal assessment, formal, as well as review and reteaching, without having to retype the questions, copy and paste, etc. I not sure how you would do that with powerpoint.