Finnberry does Ed-Tech

The last few weeks at work have been very exciting! After what feels like months of planning, the first phase of my project, the replacement of our IT infrastructure, has actually happened. There were moments when I thought it wouldn't happen, or that something would go seriously wrong, but all the planning paid off and the actual installation went really well. Promethean ActivPanels This isn't the whole thing but one of the most exciting bits of this new kit, for me, is the replacement of our various makes and models of interactive whiteboards with these modern ActivPanels. I can't wait to deliver the training sessions for our tutors and other staff in a couple of weeks, as I'm sure everyone will love the ease of use and the look and feel of these. I've used Promethean products for years now but have largely stuck to ActivInspire as my preferred software. I remember being very excited a few years ago, when my eldest son won a set of 32 ActivExpressions (vo...

Last week, I joined a regional group, that are meeting to discuss new best practices in FE. One aspect of this is new technologies. We were discussing quizzing tools and I heard about Plickers, which I definitely want to try out. Once I've given it a go, I'll post about it. One quizzing tool that I really like and use a fair bit, is Socrative . It's free but you have to register and create an account. Then you log in as a teacher, create your quizzes and save them. Once in a classroom or training situation, participants can use their mobile devices or a PC to access the student app. I usually project the teacher view onto the board. Once registered, you have a room number allocated and students just log in to that room to join in the quiz. Questions You can create multiple choice, true/false or short answer questions. Just click on the type you want and then use the interface to add questions, answers and correct responses. Multiple choice questions can have one...