ActivStudio - making good flipcharts

Inspire fabulous ideas rather than generating repeated groans of 'let me just write that down' or 'I'll never remember all this' or 'this is great but where will i get the time to do it?'.

What we want is cheers of eureka and hallelujah - at last someone has shown me the path to ICTlightenment...

Flipcharts - most teachers are using them.

Building them slow and building them quick according to how busy you are. But we're ALL very busy aren't we - it's the nature of the job! :o(

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As a teacher it is important to learn that building the resource quickly is an essential skill. Once you have got the ideas for delivering the content, you must be able to make it lesson-worthy in minutes.

But what makes a good flipchart?

This wiki looks to break it down into bite size, non-technical pointers to help you understand what makes a fabulous flipchart fast.

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If we asked all teachers what should be in a flipchart for every lesson we might get a list that looks like the following:

1. Learning objectives - what we're going to do today
2. Activities - usually one page per activity
3. Homework
4. Text + Diagram + Hyperlink
5. OR maybe Choice + Feedback + Challenges?? Watch the presentation below:

| View | Upload your own

Original link to slideshow: http://teachr20.blogspot.com/2008/05/iwbs-in-secondary-where-is-interaction.html

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It's how you think about the flipchart that makes it work for the pupils...

First of all we need to understand that IWBs, and by implication flipcharts, are all about hooking the audience. Cast your HOOK over the class!
How do you get them interested? When you are the audience, what hooks you in?
Maybe...

What turns you ON?	What turns you OFF?
Short snappy content	Reading what the presenter is saying
Something to do; an activity of thought or action	Lots of text in bullet points
Images: relevant, eye-catching, provocative	Things you can't see properly; text or image
Audio: music or speech	Bad colour contrast choices
Videos: short but stimulating
Visual representation of content; mind map, flowchart
Fontclear style, not fancy
Opportunity to contribute to the communal board

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Practical tips & ideas:

1. Images: find a relevant stimulating image. Put it on the flipchart page. Type your learning objectives (or whatever tells the pupils what they are going to do for the lesson). Stretch the picture full screen over the top.
2. Interaction - see presentation above about the finer points of making something interactive.
3. Make the flipchart for pupil's to use.

The tricks...

spotlight tool	hyperlink to a webpage	ActiVote - who wants to be a millionaire in your classroom
reveal tool	link to a video	get pupil's to use the board
countdown timer	tickertape - run it at the top of your screen	put standalone notes on the board
colour	roll the dice to see who answers next	write big and shrink your text
rub it out & bring it back	automatically convert your handwriting to text	camera tool takes quick pictures of whatever is on your desktop
hide things by changing the order	make magic by pulling the answers from nowhere	make small things bigger - enlarge a stamp sized image to full screen

Teachertube has loads (100+) of promethean videos on it showing actual teachers building flipcharts. From easy stuff to complicated stuff. It's great so have a look:

http://www.teachertube.com/

OR check this one out: