Jonesieblog

In part 1, we set up the user database to store all your classes. Now it’s time to actually do some voting!

Labelling the devices

Your voting pads will have numbers 1 to 32 on them somewhere. Take the time to write these numbers on the top with indelible marker pen. Trust me, you’ll be sorry if you don’t.

Setting up a flipchart for voting with a class

• Open your flipchart
• Go to ACTIVote/session
• Click on “Named Mode”
• If the pupils in the list don’t match your class, click on “Users…” then select your class from the dialogue that appears

Classroom routines

Pupils will need to know which device is attached to their name. I would start by having the user database screen showing on the first lesson with ACTIVote. Ask pupils to take the device with the number beside their name, then to make a note of that number in their jotter/planner. In subsequent lessons, establish the routine that if the box is open at the front of the room, they take their device on the way in. This saves a bit of time.

At the end of the lesson, take the time to develop the good routine that the devices go back into the box in the right order, ready for the next class. If I can manage this level of organisation, anyone can!

Running ad-hoc votes the terror-free way

So, we’re finally ready to vote! Electronic voting systems allow every pupil to communicate directly with the teacher simultaneously and confidentially. That’s amazingly powerful, so we need to be careful not to mess it up!

• DON’T EVER DISPLAY RESULTS WITH PUPIL NAMES ON THE WHITEBOARD

If you need convincing of this, read my cautionary tale here.

When it comes to it, the process of running a vote is very simple:

• Take a fresh flipchart page (votes are stored on a one-per-page basis)
• Write up a question on the board
• Ask the class to work out the answer and write it down ( I find this works better than just giving them the choices from the start)
• Once they have answers, write up or reveal your multiple choices and click on the voting pad icon in your toolbar

You’ll now see a banner across the top of the screen with each pupil’s name on it. As the pupils vote, their names turn yellow.

Once everyone has voted, click again on the voting pad icon. If everyone has voted, you’ll be shown the summary screen. If not, you’ll be asked whether or not you want to give the slow turtles a chance to vote.

The summary screen is pretty self explanatory:

Option B is highlighted as correct here because I clicked on it – the system is not that clever! This screen and the right/wrong summary are the only screens you should show your class. Clicking on who answered what brings up the full vote results (different vote – no names here because I’m writing this at home on a machine that does not have my user database on it):

This “who answered what” screen is very useful – view it once you have frozen or switched the board to “no show”!

The picture above shows an example of a couple of pupils voting for F, when options A to D were only given. This will almost certainly happen in every class, but once they realise that you know who voted what, and that you will not allow them to take part in voting unless they take it seriously, they will soon stop.

Pre-prepared votes

Promethean have this excellent pair of flash animations showing how to use question master:

• Question Master Part 1
• Question Master Part 2

Formative Assessment with ACTIVote

This is the most important bit, so I’ll put it into a separate post…..

Stumble it!

At my visit to Musselburgh Grammar this morning, I spoke to some of the maths department about using Activote. They were enthusiastic about the potential of the technology, but said something like “it looks easy as you stand there and explain it, but we’ll forget everything you’ve said by the time we next come to use it”.

So…. to provide a bit of backup, here’s a step by step guide to using Activote with your class.

The following assumes that the voting pads have been registered with your PC. If not, chase up IT!

Setting up the User Database

You’ll want your pupil names to be stored in the system, so that their names appear at the top of the screen when you run a vote. Here’s how….

In East Lothian, we have a problem – we don’t have write-access to the place on the C drive where the user database is stored! To get around this, we need to copy the default user database to somewhere that is writeable, then tell ACTIVStudio that we’ve done so:

• In ACTIVStudio, go to ACTIVote/user database. You should see this (click image to enlarge):

• Go to File/Save as and save the user database into subjects/maths/staff
• Go to Activote/Settings, and change the ACTIVote User Database to the file you just copied

Importing Pupils into the User Database

Before you can import pupils into your user database, you need to export them from whatever electronic record you currently use. This is relatively easy from either Excel or Filemaker:

• export the following columns to a “CSV” file: first name, surname, register class
• In ACTIVStudio, go back into ACTIVote/user database.
• Go to File/import and choose the CVS file that you just made. This dialogue will appear:

• By clicking on the red headings, you can tell ACTIVote which fields are which, then import

The newly imported pupils appear at the bottom of the left hand side scrolling window.

• Double click on folder to change them to teacher names
• Double click on sub folders to change them to class names
• Drag over the pupils and click on the arrow to move them into the classes

You now have a user database that all staff in the department can access.  Just make sure that everyone changes their ACTIVote settings to point to the new user database.

The importing section of what we just did is covered excellently here at PrometheanPlanet.

Coming in Part Two…..

• Setting up a flipchart to vote with a particular class
• Classroom routines
• Running adhoc votes (my favourite!) the terror-free way
• Creating pre-prepared votes
• Using ACTIVote for formative assessment (the whole point of the exercise!)

Stumble it!