Whole group extended writing on the Activboard

I have used low cost, portable student devices like the Alphasmart™ with students for years and it is likely there may be some in your school or class.

Generally I has used them for independent writing activities, but the problem of organisation of the resulting information so that the valuable review and feedback could be done, made such lessons a logistical challenge and a distraction from a busy programme of study.

When I discovered that I could make the the devices work with the Activboard seamlessly - it was a revelation.  At its simplest you can go to Activstudio or Activprimary, create a text box and then get each group or individual to “send” their words instantly from the device to automatically and magically fill the text box with the words…. no USB sticks, logging into networks to locate a shared folder, etc. - simple plug and play!  Technology has moved on and you can use Promethean Expression to do similar today for a lot lower cost per child - but for very long passages of text such as articles and reviews you may find these devices are given a whole new lease of life in your Activclassroom.

It certainly transformed constructing something such as a school newspaper from a full afternoon exercise to something I could do on the fly in a literacy lesson!