Here are the key takeaways from Wednesday’s sessions (no need to remember them all…just pick and choose what applies to you):

LEVERAGING EXISTING CONTENT:

§       Importing PowerPoint – This is as easy as opening DyKnow and 1) browsing for your PPT document and clicking OPEN, 2) setting your PPT Show Properties (optimize for images if you have them), and 3) saving your DyKnow document.

§       Incorporating non-DyKnow and non-PPT files – You can do this via the DyKnow Notebook Writer that should be installed on each of your machines.  Simply open your document (basically any Windows-based application), go to FILE > PRINT, select the ‘DyKnow Notebook Writer’ from the printer list, and click ‘OK’.  You will eventually be prompted to save the resulting DyKnow notebook and can modify the way it is saved by clicking on the OPTIONS button over on the left of the ‘Save’ dialog.  This should remind you that setting up your page prior to printing it into DyKnow in landscape might be beneficial in some cases.

§       Using the ‘Insert’ menu – As in other programs, DyKnow’s ‘INSERT’ menu gives you the ability to import images, insert links, embed live web-pages, screen grab sections of a screen, or insert backgrounds.

STARTING A DYKNOW VISION SESSION:

§       Follow the easy steps on the DyKnow Cheat Sheet posted on Michael’s DyKnow page – Go to this URL www.auburnschools.org/ajhs/msmith and click on the ‘DyKnow’ link at the bottom of the menu on the left.       
 

INCORPORATING INTERACTIVITY:

§       Private Ink – This feature is very beneficial when using a projector or SmartBoard during a live DyKnow Vision session because it allows you to write or type on your panel during a session and not transmit that ink or text to the students’ panels.  This prevents annotation “collisions” (i.e. your annotations covering up theirs), while also encouraging the students to take notes.

§       Replay – Particularly in the Math discipline, replaying a panel gives both the teacher and student insight into the thought process behind solving a problem as opposed to just the final result.  You can find this feature under the VIEW > REPLAY PANEL menu.

§       Polling – Although raising the hand, verbally yelling answers, and tabulating results manually is still effective, the SESSION > POLLING feature allows you to quickly and anonymously get polling type feedback from your class (multiple choice, true/false, yes/no).  You can either prepare to do a poll before class by writing/typing a question on your prepared panel or on-the-fly by verbally asking the question and pushing out the response dialog.

§       Panel Management – Located under the SESSION > PANEL MANAGEMENT menu, this feature allows you to quickly collect or manage submitted panels from the students.  To keep this simple, forget the technology for a second and answer this question: Do you want the students to hand in (SUBMIT) their work to you or do you intend to walk around and pick-up (COLLECT) their work?  There's not necessarily a reason to do both so pick one and stick with that.  The students can easily submit their work to you by going to SESSION > PANEL SUBMISSION and you can see their work by going to SESSION > PANEL MANAGEMENT.  If your desire is to collect their panels, the process is to go to FILE > PANEL MANAGEMENT and click on the COLLECT PANELS tab.  Decide what panels you intend to collect and who you are collecting from (I assume it is everyone) and then select 'New Notebook' from the drop-down box (TIP: If you already have an empty notebook prepared and open where you want to put this work it makes things a little easier to manage).  Now hit RETRIEVE and all the students' work will be put into the new notebook.

§       Participant Control – Much like having the student come to the board or grouping students up to work on a single activity, you can go to the SESSION > PARTICIPANT CONTROL menu and give control of the panel to one or more students.  Now whatever they write will show up on everyone’s panel.  If you assign panels to different groups of students, you can have various groups working on an activity in DyKnow.

In summary, practice, consistency, and confidence will determine how well your DyKnow sessions go.  Keep in mind that in its simplest form DyKnow allows you to use a white space and pen to present your content directly to the students.  At that point, it is up to you to decide how interactive you would like to make it (using fill in the blanks, panel submission/retrieval, participant control, etc) and how much you would like to enhance it (using images, backgrounds, web pages, polling questions, etc).  If you keep this in mind, I’m confident you all will do great with DyKnow in the classroom.