Elluminate and the Promethean IWB

A new idea I've stumbled upon this week - using my Elluminate vRoom with my Promethean IWB to collaborate with classrooms across the world. This occurred to me while working in Elluminate in one of my online courses for grad school, where I meet with my two group members once or twice a week and collaborate to complete our assignments. This is my first experience using a virtual meeting room, and I love it! First, we gather our ideas on Google Docs, then transfer to a Word document, which I can share with the other two members through Elluminate. We can actually watch as one person takes over another's computer (cool and scary!).

Anyway, let's get to the point of this blog. As I am watching other people take control of the Word document open on my computer, I begin to wonder how this might work with Activstudio, the software that comes with the purchase of a Promethean IWB. So later that evening, I decided to try it out. I signed into my vRoom from two separate computers, which were sitting right next to each other. I opened up a new flipchart, and shared it from my PC to my MAC.

It seemed to work at first, until I tried to find the main toolbar on the shared computer. Unfortunately, it was invisible (still looking into this!). Since the computers were side-by-side, I was able to look at the original computer to click on different tools and try them out. It worked! I was able to manipulate the flipchart from another computer. i was able to share control back and forth, experimenting with how two or three classrooms could literally take turns creating a flipchart from anywhere in the world. Of course, now my mission is to find out what was going on with the invisible toolbar - perhaps a compatibility issue between my MAC and PC versions??? Don't know, but am looking for the solution. I have since found one person who has used this idea successfully in the past, and she has been kind enough to offer to help me out.

Promethean IWBs are found throughout the nation and the world, so of course I am excited to find other teachers who would be willing to collaborate on a project integrating Activstudio and Elluminate. I would love to hear of any other success stories from teachers who have already tried this out. And of course, if anyone can help with the invisible toolbar problem, that would be great:)

My latest adventure is trying to introduce my school to social bookmarking. Using iKeepBookmarks.com, I am attempting to develop a comprehensive list of websites that the staff will find helpful in a variety of areas. I will introduce the idea at a training I am holding this summer. Our school has Promethean interactive whiteboards in every classroom, so I will be training several teachers on successfully integrating this resource into their curriculum. In our time-crunched profession, it isn't always possible to use the incredible Promethean software to create our own lessons, but there are already a wealth of resources out there on the web that work great with the IWB. My goal is to introduce the staff to the world of social bookmarking by showing them how we can find and share websites with the entire staff by simply clicking a button.

iKeepBookmarks is a great social bookmarking site for educators for a few reasons. First, it is very easy to use. You can bookmark websites with ease by adding a link right in your internet browser. When you see a site you like, click on the link and it will automatically bring up a pop-up window that will allow you to add the site to the correct folder in your iKeepBookmarks account. The use of folders allows us to bookmark the sites based upon categories and subcategories, making navigation fairly simple. Also, iKeepBookmarks allows you to share your bookmarks through the use of a URL. By navigating to the URL in any web browser, others will have access to your bookmarked websites. Finally, iKeepBookmarks has a feature where users can rate the different sites, so as we get more comfortable, we can use this feature to let other teachers know how successful a site was at meeting our curriculum needs.

I have begun to develop the site myself to give the teachers an idea of where we can take this. The account is already divided into folders and subfolders for each grade level and subject. There is a folder for each grade, kindergarten through fifth, and subject folders within each grade. The subjects included are reading, spelling, math, social studies, and science. More folders will be added as needed by the faculty and staff. I have already started developing my grade level's folder (2nd grade) by adding categories within the subjects to categorize the different skills covered in 2nd grade. For instance, in the reading folder, you will find folders for main idea, inferencing, author's purpose, cause and effect, following directions, compare and contrast, making predictions, narrative elements, noting details, and phonics. In each of these folders, I have bookmarked websites with activities covering these topics that are appropriate for use on the Promethean board.

This summer, I will be introducing the site to several members of the staff and I am hoping they will be as excited as I am to have a place to store and share resources. Also, it will give us all a chance to see some of the skills other grades are working on and find appropriate sites for those students who are working above or below our grade level to explore. As we all become more comfortable with social bookmarking, I would like to see teachers begin to develop their own accounts and begin using this great web 2.0 tool with their students as part of the research process. I am also envisioning using the site as a way for support staff to share resources, such as professional development opportunities.

Check it out - Fox Trail Elementary's iKeepBookmarks site!

Some other great social bookmarking sites you may want to try:

del.icio.us - I have a personal del.icio.us website, and I love using it to search for sites others have bookmarked through the use of tags.

digg - Resources are submitted by digg members and others vote on what they like best.