Interactive Boardmaker

Marcia ObukowiczCesa 9

marciao@newnorth.nethttp://marciaoat.wikispaces.com/

715-453-2141

Successful visual tools must be:

Easily recognized

Easily understood

Accessible

Easy right!

Let’s take a little quiz

What common words/phrases/pictures do these symbols represent?

Answers to “Picture Symbols are Easy” Quiz

1. Like2. Again3. Show me4. Whole5. Past 6. Fast7. Correct8. Short9. Tomorrow10. Word11. Communication12. That’s crazy!

Remember to LABEL your pictures and teach any symbol you use.

Visuals can support

• Communication:• English Language Learner: visual cues language• Organization: labels, schedules, calendars• Behavior: Social stories and cue cards• Curriculum support: reading, writing, math, social

studies and science• Centers and class activities such as games,

songs and stories• And much more…

A little chat about behavior

http://www.endabuse.org/newsletter/2women.jpg

Here are some quick examples

• Communication: • Max has trouble cueing up the words he

wants to say. When the teacher asks him a question, he freezes. Early in the lesson the teacher shared a picture board with the class about animals that live in the forest. This board triggers a memory Max has about his dog meeting a skunk. He tentatively raises his hand…..

Who lives in the forest?

Communication

• Cara uses symbols to communicate. She likes to play in the various centers but needs a way to communicate her play.

Communication canbe tricky. Considera typical conversation.Have comment optionsthat make sense for thesituation.

• Jose’s family recently moved to town. He’s 4 and this is his first educational experience in English. He’s doing an art project and needs orange paint. So he says “naranja por favor.”

• Using a board with the names of art supplies in Spanish and English the teacher asks him to point to what he needs. He points to the orange paint symbol. “ah naranja is orange.” Jose smiles as he carries the paint back to his desk.

Boardmaker has at least 44 languages to choose from.

• Jason has trouble remembering his schedule and is upset by unexpected transitions. There are several therapies and specials each week. He hates making mistakes and can get pretty upset if he does.

• His teacher decides to make him a picture schedule with clock faces by each activity so he can anticipate what time each change will occur. He checks a box as he finishes each activity so he knows where he is at and what will come next.

• Alice has trouble waiting at the door. She is 4 and in EC. She rushes to get her coat on and if not watched will open the door that goes outside to playground that doubles as a bus pick up spot at the end of the day.

• Her teacher decides to put a “stop” and “wait” symbols on the door at Alice’s eye level to help remind her to stop and wait for her teacher

• Stu is included in 1st grade, working at his desk on his writer’s workshop project. He has trouble writing but he knows what words he wants to use if a picture is with them.

• His teacher made simple sentence boards with pictures that can be added to make a sentence.

• Stu “writes” about the blue bird he saw in a tree using the pictures to convey his story.

• Matt is working on his math. He does much better with manipulatives when he is counting. Today he is using “popcorn” for his math activity

• Joan’s teacher has started circle time. Soon it will be time to pick a song. Joan is excited because there are so many fun songs to sing. She is shy about talking when the teacher calls on her but she knows which song she will pick from the board.

• Brian finds social situations difficult to navigate. His speech therapist is helping him learn how to take turns when playing a game by using a social story.

• Since Brian has trouble reading print she used pictures and symbols to convey what the story says.

• They read it before playing a game and Brian is starting to wait his turn.

Using social stories to explain change and expectations

• Lindsey has used pictures to support her reading. She is getting older now and is starting to read some sight words and wean herself from the full picture supported reading she had been using.

Use symbolate as picture supported reading. You can add

pictures or change/delete symbols

Grinch in symbolateYou can Edit symbolsInSymbolatemode

• Kelsey is in art class. She is quite good at painting, finding that other kids admire her work. She has Down’s Syndrome learning sign language and pictures to communicate. Her family speaks Hmong at home. She is very social but her speech is unintelligible and a lot of her classmates don’t know signs. She is new to the district and the IEP team thinks she may need a communication system to support her at lunch, in the classes she attends in regular education and ventures out into the community.

Art Mat

Symbol area

Working a category search: Can help fill a topic board quickly.

Working with Boardmaker

• Silly Man vs. Mouse mode

• Toolbar

• Adding pictures

Using Your Digital Pictures

• Navigating in Boardmaker– Working in symbol vs. arrow mode– Editing pictures selected

• Importing pictures right to the board (Arrow Mode)

• Import for symbol use (Symbol mode)

• Adding 2 pictures in one symbol

Importing a picture to symbol library

• Choose silly man mode• Paste item onto board• Symbol library definer will

open• Name (1) and categorize (2)

the symbol • Hit ok. (3)

12 3

Scanning Pictures

• When would you want to scan a picture? Stories

Characters in a story

Adapting text

• Issue: Copyright

Boards that use pictures

• Classmates• Class Activities• Sequencing experiences (dressing, routines, fieldtrips)• Pictures match real places• Backgrounds

– Send to back or anchor to back important• Story boards/props• Choice boards• Social Stories

Editing Digital Pictures• On the Board• Adding as a symbol• Combining 2 pictures• Jpegs and Bitmaps

(more of an issue in Ver. 5)

Save the symbol made:

a) hold shift and select all

b) Copy

c) shift to symbol mode and paste

d) symbol adder will pop up.

Shuffling: Select all buttons to be shuffled,select edit menu, shuffle button

Saving Time

• Use premade activities

• Use premade templates

• Make your own template

• Make reusable activities

• Don’t beat yourself

• Too much too fast …

is too confusing

Premade activities to download: www.boardmakershare.com/

• To Add Background Scenes to a board:– R click on picture on the board– Send to back or anchor to back important

Making a “my category”

• Take the pictures you want to add to the symbol library

• Put Boardmaker into “silly man” mode

• Go to “File” – “import”

• Select picture and when it comes in to the symbol making screen select “assign categories” “my categories” and name.

Symbolating a song

Lyrics for Monster Mash song athttp://www.songlyrics.com/misfits/monster-mash-lyrics/

http://media.photobucket.com/image/mad%20scientist%20lab%20gif/drcatz27/mad_scientist.gif

Combining text for one symbol in symbolate

• Click symbolate mode

• Hold “ALT” key

• Highlight text under symbol and type new combo

• Release “Alt”

Mr. GrinchMail carrier

Adding voice to buttons or symbolate

• Double click on button or symbolate box

• Select basic tab

• Choose how you want sound to come back:– Read it– Read and Highlight (option only in symbolate)– Record the song

Interactive Board DesignConsiderations

• What is the end goal for this activity?• Will this be individual or a set? • Will we need a main board?..\..\0910 Trainings\Bugs\The Color Books• Do we need spoken previews or button actions?• Navigate between pages?• Will buttons be moved?• Will we be writing with this board?• Do we need pop up support?• Will quick changes need to be made on the fly?

Building a main board: When linking start at bottom level and

move up to main

Main Board

Start hereLinks between board aremanaged through button actionschange boards or launch application

U and D modes

• D mode is for Design

• U mode is for Use.

• Activities will not “play” in D mode

• Activities can not be changed in U mode unless quick actions are applied.

Moveable Button Tool

• Add this tool to your BM toolbar– Dynamic board to– Show– Moveable button tool

Creating Moveable Buttons

• Click on moveable button tool• Name button click ok• Click and drag button to its “destination”

and drop it.• Enter a name for the destination• You can add a speak message to the

symbol when it arrives at the correct spot by assigning a speak message action to the destination

Using moveable buttons/ snapback• Chose the duck on the toolbar• Click on a button, name it, do this

for all buttons down below.• Drag one of the green buttons to

the green button on the sentence bar, name this, it should be red, a destination button. Do this for each of the buttons.

• Go to mouse mode• R click and chose moveable

button properties, choose snap back or clone, hit ok

• The button properties will come up hit ok and yes.

Snap Back and Clones1) R click on the moveable button

2) Select Moveable button properties

3)Check the boxes for snap back and clone

Moveable Button: Clones

Working with Moveable Buttons Example

• popcorn counter plus.bm2

Main Page:Make a folder:Open itMake a content folder.

Levels: When navigating betweenlevels go to button action, cool stuff.Hold down shift key and clickLaunch applicationThis gives you a search box.

Decide what buttons need to do:Spoken PreviewRead TextNavigateor…….

Think Template: Color Books

Button Action

Button Actions• Basics: Most commonly used actions, such as Speak Message,

Type Message, Change Board, etc.

• Messages: Actions that control the function of a Message Display.

• Board Change: Actions that link buttons to other boards or PopUps.

• Text & Cursor: Actions that perform cursor movements and text selections.

• Message Files: Actions that open and save text and picture documents.

• Settings: Actions that allow a user to change access and preference settings.

• Variables: Actions that are used to create conditional button responses, such as If, Else, Otherwise, etc.

• Quick Actions: Actions used to create buttons that can be edited in Use mode.

• Cool Stuff: Assorted useful actions, such as Random, Launch Application, and Set Picture.

Which text will you use?

Type text you want it to say

Uses text from the buttonRecord is also anoption.

The three main tabs

• Basic: Voice, spoken preview, recorded messages

• Board Change:Navigation

• Cool Stuff: Launch movies and applications, random

Playing Movies

• Create a button• Double Click on

button• Select “Cool stuff”• Click “Play Movie”• Remember the movie

works in use mode not design mode. Find a symbol to represent your movie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGzrFVagzxw

Random Name Generator

Voice change: duck pond alt voice.bm2

Talking Book Template

Directions are at my wiki: http://marciaoat.wikispaces.com/Marcia%27s+Handouts

Another Sample

..\..\My Boards\The Mitten

Beginning Design

• A simple talking book• Make a folder called simple book template• Save each Boardmaker page to it• Animate with “U” and check • Make a new folder copy and name • Select all (ctrl a)• Copy simple book template into the new

folder to build the new story

A simple interactive board

Typing Boards

• Create a message display button which can receive text and type it from a “board”

• Select “Message display” from Dynamic Buttons and a message box will appear

• Create typing board, giving each symbols the action of typing text to the message display.

• Remember to space after each phrase….

Open Message BoardButtons that will type to the board are “taught” to do this in “button actions”

A simple message board

template

Code to “Say message”in buttonaction tab messages

If you want a picture with word, select basic tab in Button actions, choose Picture button, two choices will be given. Make sure to add what to say in the button speak tab orcheck “use button text”

Other Features to Explore

• Pop up windows ( Add choices without messing up the main board look)

• Quick Action buttons ( Board adapted on the fly)

• Launcher feature can launch other programs on the computer

• Variable buttons that can respond differently depending on…..

Pop Ups: Corn Bread

• Make a folder for activity: pop ups are separate boards from the activity board. Folder keeps all the parts together.

• Create activity board• Form pop up boards right over the

top of activity board• assign all functions and select all

buttons for the pop up board with shift key.

• Reposition to where you want them. Make one button the change board back button. (Apply this through button actions under board change)

• Go to dynamic boards, select create Popup Board, save in activity file you created!!!!!

• Go back to original board, select cell, connect to popup through button actions, board change “Go to popupboard”

• Pick board and click ok.Used to conserve space

Quick Actions: Changes in Use Mode

Tip for multiple board viewing

• Use tile view to look at the boards you are building for an interactive page.

Printing Boards

• To decrease frustration check print set up

• Choose landscape or portrait

• Change page perimeters to match

Online Supports

• Boardmaker’s updated learning materials site

http://www.boardmakershare.com/Downloads/ideas

www.mayer-johnson.com • Yahoo User group

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/boardmaker/ • Florida school user group exchange

– Click under workshops and find Boardmaker Ax exchange

http://teachers.ocps.net/atteam/