Tech Tips for the Week of September 9 - Inspiration

First, let me introduce myself to those of you who may not know me. My name is Cal Deobald, an Elearning Catalyst teacher with Chinook School Division. My primary assignment is working with the schools in the southwest area of the division, but this year I have also assumed duties for leading and organizing professional development provided by the Elearning team.

In this second capacity, I have committed to providing tech tips via regular emails to all teachers in the division. My goal is to accomplish this weekly. We'll see how that goes. ;-)

The goal of my first tech tip is to ensure that all teachers in the division are aware of Inspiration and its possibilities within the classroom.



Inspiration is a powerful concept mapping software which is geared toward use in the classroom. Next to a word processor, it is perhaps the second most useful software tool for the classroom teacher and student. Inspiration can:

• create concept maps, mind maps, webs, cycles and many other graphical representations of ideas, organizations or processes,
  
• gather, plan and organize ideas and material that will ultimately be presented in text, audio, video, or multimedia form,
  
• be used as a visual or multimedia presentation tool
• communicate processes, organizational structures and inter-relationships visually
  
• switch between visual (concept map) and literal (outline) representations of the same ideas with one mouse click,
  
• easily export both the graphical and/or outline representations into Microsoft Word with two mouse clicks.
• aid students who are primarily visual learners
• serve as a study mechanism for students, either through a visual map or text outline.

Inspiration can be used with students from grades three to twelve across a number of curricula. With adaptations, it can even be used with younger students.

If you are unfamiliar with Inspiration and you would like to learn more about its potential, you have several options:

• Visit Elearning's set of online video tutorials, which will walk you and/or your students through most of the facilities within Inspiration. (When prompted for a username and password, just click on the "Login as guest" button.) Youtube access is required.
  
• Book a session with your Elearning Catalyst Teacher (Cal, Lisa, Rob, Shelby) and have him/her work with you and your class on a project using Inspiration.
  
• Attend either of the two Inspiration sessions the Elearning team will be conducting at Convention on October 13th.

Just in case you are annoyed by the idea of receiving these weekly emails, you don't need to contact me. Next week's Tech Tip will cover how to create automated filters for dealing with unwanted emails from some nerd in Elearning. Stay tuned. ;-)

Until next week ...