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Ask the Tech Ninja #2: PowerPoint to Notebook

Another frequently asked question is how to get PowerPoint files into SMART Notebook. The easy answer is to do a Smart Print Capture. First open your PowerPoint file and go to File and then choose Print. In the drop down menu tha allows you to choose which printer you want to use, select Smart Print Capture. [...]

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Jeopardy Template

I like to look for fun and interactive ways to review concepts before a test. One of those ways was using a Jeopardy style game. There are several PowerPoint versions of Jeopardy games but I wanted one I Notebook...

Quick Tips

• Google Docs is a very cool online Office suite of apps. It includes a word processor, a spreadsheet, presentation software (like PowerPoint), and a online form creator. The form creator will allow you to create an online survey or even an online quiz for students to take. And that's not all that Google Docs can do. As a bonus, it is all free! There are several video tutorials on how to create these forms. Here is one on how to create a quiz. A video tutorial that I like even better is this one that even teaches you how to set-up your spreadsheet to grade quizzes for you. Happy quizzing. #
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• Two websites that I like to use for storytelling/story writing are Kerpoof and Big Universe. The first, Kerpoof, will allow students to choose a scene and then add characters to the scene. You can add motions and effects to the characters making for a really cool little "movie making" lite experience. The other allows students to create online books. Students can write story and then add illustrations from thier vast collection of clip-arty type pictures. Like with any other experience, the Ninja does the writing part first, this is just a way to publish student work. The Ninja has collected these links from one of his favorite blogs  Teachers Love Smartboards. Jim has a wonderful collection of resources and ideasfor the SmartBoard using Ninja. Check him out! #
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• Smart has just released a new piece of software. The Ninja is installing it now. The new software is called SMART Notebook Student Edition (SE). The program is only in BETA right now which means if you don't feel comfortable playing around with what could be flakey software, you shouldn't install it. BETA is a version before it is officially released. Just a warning. The student edition appears to be just the same as Notebook but it does add a few features. I will leave those for a larger post.  Coming soon. #
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• One of the Tech Ninja's issues with Notebook 10 was the floating toolbar in both the Mac and Windows versions. I politely complained over at the Smart Exchange in the thread entitled Floating Tools Won't Go Away. There has been much discussion and several suggestions on fixing the annoyance. The cool part is Smart actually listened to the Ninja. Recently Smart released Service Pack 1 for Notebook. One of the features in this new release is it allows you to choose which side of the screen you want the Floating Toolbar to appear. A huge boon for those of us Mac users who keep our Dock on the left side. In the Windows version, it even lets you choose if you want the toolbar to even start-up. Unfortunately, the feature didn't make it into the Mac version because of time, but it is suggested that this option will appear in Service Pack 2. Kudos to Smart! Now my only issue is my computer doesn't always remember which side of the screen I want my toolbar to be on. #
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• The Ninja's favorite new video sharing site is edublogs.tv. Created by the same people who created edublogs, this is a site similar to TeacherTube or YouTube that allows teacher share their educationally related videos with the Internets. Bonus, there is no advertising on the site and if you embed the video into a blog, when the video is played, there isn't a selection of other videos you might like, it just ends. The Ninja likes that. Try it out! #
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