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Tablet PC Techniques :: Blog :: Archives

February 2008

February 01, 2008

Today the second graders created an ABC Penguins class book.  Each child was assigned two letters of the alphabet.  They had to write a sentence to include a fact about penguins that related to their assigned letters.  Using the Windows Journal program, they wrote the fact and created a picture to go with their sentence.  We printed them out to have laminated and bound into a book to add to our classroom library. My class is doing great when we use the tablets.  They are careful and remember the rules we have when using the tablets.  I am impressed by how much they remember from the last time we used the tablets.  Many of them are able to navigate in the program with little help from me. 

My only frustration that I continue to experience is saving their work to their files.  Due to the limited fine motor skills, they tend to "gobble up" other files as they are locating their own file.  It is a "now you see it, now you don't!" issue.  When they drag the pen on the tablet, files combine and appear "lost" to them.  It is difficult to locate them at times.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Marty, who was visiting our school to learn about tablet usage, seemed to be quite impressed with my class's skills and how well the kids worked while using the technology. 

Posted by Lori Hosler @ Tablet PC Techniques | 3 comment(s)

I am so happy to report that I am now wireless!  I had a blast teaching my math lesson with the kids at their desks and me walking around the room.  No more leash for me and my tablet!

Posted by Lori Hosler @ Tablet PC Techniques | 1 comment(s)

February 12, 2008

For better or worse, I do like PowerPoint, or any presentation program, for that matter. I like that I don't have to be at the board writing notes down and also like being able to annotate or quickly flip to a website. Being able to walk around the classroom interacting with each of the students is also a huge plus. In short, I like the flexibility and opportunities that it creates.

So, one component of the 7th grade science fair is for the students to create a PowerPoint presentation. In doing so, we discussed some techniques and tools for making effective presentations. One of these included creating a presentation that speaks to your audience. To that end, I gave them the challenge that their audience was the entire school community, therefore including a range of people from those who could not read yet (4 and 5 year olds) to those who could be their grandparents. 

Creating a PowerPoint that would speak to the latter, was not too challenging - they could mostly go with what they know and use a combination of text and pictures from the internet. Speaking to the Kindergarten aged child was hard. So, I asked them to create a picture that captured the essence of their science experiment so that when they came to that slide, the Kindergarten student would be interested in learning about the picture.

We used Ink Art and the tablets to create the pictures. These were then exported as a JPG file and inserted into the PowerPoint presentation. I was really pleased with the results and the PowerPoint presentations are so much more interesting now. I am looking forward to the night of the science fair to see how it goes over.

Keywords: powerpoint, tablet, tablet pc

Posted by Christopher Ros @ Tablet PC Techniques | 1 comment(s)