Making a Powerpoint or PDF into an Interactive Flipchart

Interested in starting to create flipcharts to make some aspects of your lessons more interactive? Have you been a Powerpoint or Google Slides user and think it's too late to switch over to ActivInspire? It's easy to import Powerpoints or PDF files into a flipchart and make it into an interactive white board lesson.

Open the Powerpoint presentation. Go to File and choose Save As.

In the next dialogue box, select the place you want to save it (I always choose Desktop for projects like this.). Then in the Format drop down menu, select PDF.

Then open ActivInspire and create new flipchart. Go to File and select Import, then PDF. Choose the PDF of the Powerpoint from your desktop.

Then select the file from your desktop and click Open.

Your PDF file will now appear in ActivInspire as pages of a new flipchart. Be sure to name and save this new flipchart.

Do you have resources that are PDF files? (Ex. practice pages you have scanned, basal resources in digital form, project ideas & templates you've downloaded from the web) You can also import those and make them into interactive activities.

Open the PDF file. If it has multiple pages, click the menu icon from the top left, then select Thumbnails.  Hold the Command key and click the thumbnail images to select the page/pages you want to add to a flipchart. Drag the thumbnail images to your desktop. 

You will see an icon like this .

Open a new flipchart. Click import and select the file from your desktop.

Consider making a page of text interactive by turning it into a cloze activity. Use the pen tool to color over a word. Students can use context clues to determine the meaning of the word, then a student can erase the coloring to reveal the word. This can also be accomplished with a small rectangle box placed over the desired word. Students can simply slide the box aside to reveal the word.

A vocabulary page can be displayed on a flipchart in order for the teacher to model the steps for completion. It can also be a shared activity. Just make a text box with each vocabulary word. Students can take turns moving the word to the sentence.

Discovering Webmixes on Symbaloo

Many teachers know they can collect and share web links by creating their own Symbaloos, but many aren't familiar with the capability to browse and add public webmixes created by other teachers. Here's how to do it:

Click the icon on the left of the screen to open the menu, then choose Gallery.

From the gallery, you can search for a specific topic in the search bar, or browse through the pages of public webmixes.

Once you find a webmix you want to add, select Add this webmix.

The new webmix will appear as a tab on your Symbaloo page. If you have a webmix embedded on a school website, you will want to add that webmix as a tile. Find the URL address of the public webmix and add it as a tile.

Click the share button, then webmix details. Highlight and copy the URL address of this webmix.

Now add a new tile to your webmix and paste the address. Choose an icon to represent the topic of the webmix and add text to describe it.

The public webmix you discovered now appears on your webmix as a tile.

Sharing Web Resources with Early Primary Grade Students

When I was first grade teacher, I loved using technology with my students, but struggled for a good way to share specific bookmarked web resources with my students. Like many schools, classes in my school shared a cart of laptop computers. I found typing in web addresses to be too difficult for most young children. Manually adding bookmarks to each site was very time intensive and had to be repeated with each new site I found. in addition, early readers had a difficult time identifying the names of the sites without an identifying icon.

Working as a technology integration coach this year afforded a bit more time to consider the possibilities for k-1 teachers in my district. Recently, I found a solution that is working well.

I created a very simple website with a page on the site for each teacher in the building. I marked this website as the homepage for each computer in the cart. As a precaution, I also set it as a bookmark, and deleted all other default Apple bookmarks to clear away any confusing text.

Each teacher can create a Symbaloo (or comparable web page including links) containing the sites they desire for their class. Teachers send me the embed code for their site or Symbaloo webmix and I add it to the site. Any time a teacher finds a new site to use, they simply add it to their account. Once the changes are saved, it will be updated on all student computers instantly.

Students find the icons on Symbaloo easy to identify. They are able to click and find the desired website independently, which maximizes their learning time and simplifies the process for teachers!

Sharing Links with Students

Managing bookmarks and web links for students to use is always a challenge, especially for young students who aren't as proficient with typing in a url address.  Some teachers find themselves adding bookmarks and links manually to each device their students use. This is unnecessarily time-consuming and may prevent teachers from updating sites and trying new web resources. 

Symbaloo is a neat tool to save, organize visually, and share a collection of bookmarks with students. A teacher can add bookmarks to his/her account, and they can be displayed on all student devices (computers or ipads) Once a collection of bookmarks (a webmix) is created, teachers can share that webmix with older students or parents by sharing the url address. The feature I love is the embed function. Teachers can copy and paste the embed code in their class website for students to access. Once it's embedded, the webmix will update automatically each time the teacher adds a bookmark (tile) to their Symbaloo.

Here are some great resources to get you started setting up your account and making your first Symbaloo:

http://www.slideshare.net/mobile/fionabeal/get-started-with-symbaloo

http://www.symbalooedu.com/wp-content/uploads/Symbaloo-Manual-2014.pdf