New eBeam Software

Just a quick one...

eBeam software has been updated with some bug fixes - namely sound.
Please go to www.luidia.com and download the new eBeam interact software.

Links to Universities using TurningPoint ARS

This comes from my colleague over in Sydney. Several universities are using TurningPoint extensively in their courses to get engagement from their students.

here is some more information about HOW they are using it

The following links have information about TurningPoint:

University of SA: Macromedia vodcast on preparation and use of TP Keypads in lectures:
http://breeze.unisa.edu.au/ars

University of Sydney: Faculty information on how to set up receivers on lecture room equipment. (out of date – TP 2006)
http://www.usyd.edu.au/ict/audiovisual/elearning/interactive_technology.shtml

Macquarie University: General interest site on TurningPoint (largely reference to US site)
http://www.mq.edu.au/learningandteachingcentre/blog/2008/10/03/turningpoint-student-respons
e-system/

Farming from the blogosphere

I claim no credit for finding these - all farmed from other peoples blogs....

http://www.playcrafter.com/ Make your own flash games

http://animoto.com/ Converts your music and photos into a awesome music video

http://preezo.com/ Create presentations and online collaboration

http://www.lessonwriter.com/ English automatic lesson writer – awesome

http://www.whiteboardmeeting.com/ Whiteboarding software to use with Skype

http://www.turboirc.com/tplot/ Graph plotter in 3D if you need it.

http://www.wpclipart.com/index.html Free public domain clipart

http://www.golemgame.com/ 3D Phun with more

http://www.wunderworks.com/home/ Multiple Mice on your computer – jusT add more USB mouses.

http://www.freeprintable.net/ good for backgrounds and ebeam

http://www.hellopdf.com/download.php PDF to work converter.

http://www.printablepaper.net Printable paper – good for backgrounds with ebeam

http://www.virtualbox.org/ A bit advanced – allows you to run other operating systems within windows (eg linux)

http://teamviewer.com/index.aspx shared desktop

http://www.exploratree.org.uk/ thinking templates

http://quizshow.sourceforge.net/index.html who wants to be a millionaire

http://www.debugmode.com/wink/ - wink screen capture and tutorial maker

http://www.blockposters.com/ - print really large pictures

http://zencub3d.com/ - ez 3d animations

Dance and Sing

Do you like to dance and sing - of course you do!

I've just found two open source projects that let you do just that.

Stepmania - If you have ever been to Japan or walked past a Timezone (for those of you who live in Perth) you would have seen the "Dance Dance Revolution" coin-op game that is really popular - this is an open source version which is insane. Imagine this on a projector in your in your classroom and all the kids stepping out to the beat- you can hook up an inexpensive playstation mat and have one student leading them all. This is great for fitness, co-ordination and music (moving to a beat).

UltraStarDeluxe - Karaoke (empty orchestra) This is similar to the PS2 Singing program "sing star" - This allows you to create your own karaoke track or download them from the website - sing along and try and mach the pitch and timing of the song. Great for music/singing classes and making them more interactive and involving technology.

The great thing is as these are open source so you can give copies to your students without falling foul of the copyright police.

on screen keyboards

While I was at the AASE conference last years someone asked me about different type of on screen keyboard for use with an interactive whiteboard.

I just came across this little gem - Click and Type. It has many fuctions of a expensive on screen V keyboad - but is free.

http://www.lakefolks.org/cnt/

New Year - New Stuff part 2

OK - Pushing the employer barrow today -

New software has been released for TurningPoint products - woohoo!

TurningPoint2008 (the one that works with powerpoint) now has some new gaming capabilities which includes graphical leader boards and wager slides... can't wait to try them out.

We now have animated charts - that will prove to be a bit more eye catching plus there a host of other improvements.

TestingPoint 2008 has also been upgraded - with more options to customise your tests including a randomise function.

New mac software for TurningPoint Anywhere has been released (they have been busy over there).

All of this TurningPoint Goodness can be found here: www.turningtechnologies.com