Kidspiration Tools Part 2

Some Kidspiration Tools explained - Part 2

This page looks at the Teacher's Menu and some very useful and time saving settings available from the Activity Wizard.

Click here to find out more about Picture View, Writing View, the Symbols Palette and the Symbol Maker as described in Part 1.

The Teacher menu is accessed from the main menu bar and has to be switched on to be active and, if needed, can be protected by choosing the Password Option.

A full explanation is provided in Chapter 10 of the Kidspiration User Guide therefore this page will focus on a few very useful features, suggesting how they may be set to suit young chidren.

Once an object is placed on the screen it may be selected before entering the Teacher menu from where it may be made a Locked Item.

This is a very useful setting when you wish to create areas which users cannot move. An example being the boxes in the Balanced Diet file included in this website.

The teacher also has control over the default settings. The procedure is similar to that set out below for the Activity Wizard but is more general. For example, if you select the Save Default Settings option it is possible to move through the screens only choosing the features you want to reset. Therefore, if the only change is to choose an appropriate default font it is possible to do so as shown.

If this is the only change just move through the Next boxes until the end and you will be rewarded with the message:

There is a wide range of Application options available.

A very useful feature is the option to Hide the Desktop which provides a uniform background rather than the often confusing and distracting Windows desktop into which the mouse may easily stray!

Try running the program a few times with different option settings to decide which combination best suits the intended audience. For example, you might decide that offering a correct spelling option will confuse certain children so it could be switched off.

Using the Activity Wizard

The Activity Wizard offers the teacher a wide range of settings to match the learning style being used and the users' language level.

A worked example follows. Please take the time to look at the selections made and the final outcome.

The theme chosen is Healthy Diet.

First of all a new Picture View is opened from the Starter Menu.

The background is created, for example a set table and various boxes added to represent food groups.

These boxes are selected and locked using the Teacher Menu - Locked Item path.

Next, the Activity Wizard is selected and choices made from each dialogue pane.

A thumb print of the picture screen is included in the Wizard.

Only three relevant libraries are selected to match the theme. These being two from Food and Health and one from People.

Various permutations are available such as switching off the caption to reduce screen clutter which may also suit the reading ability of the intended users.

A personal, yet critical choice concerning the default font. Comic Sans MS and other similar fonts suit the younger user, especially if the computer being used has a font to match the handwriting style taught in the school.

Switching to the Writing View may be set at a variety of levels. Here the symbols are retained in the Writing View but only the Topic and Notes set-up is intended to be sent to the default word processor.

There are six Writing View options two of which are to set the text in AlphaNumerals layout or as a Bullet list.

Placing the activity in the correct category helps future recall and helps track the different curricular areas covered.

In our sample Healthy Diet or Healthy Eating are pertinent activity names.

Now the the file is ready to be opened from the Science Activity menu and is ready for use, thus reducing the number of menu choices required of the users.

Choose the Science collection and scroll down to find Healthy Diet (the activities are set in alphabetical order).

It is perfectly acceptable to open an existing template and modify it as shown above and save it in the appropriate category under a new Activity Name. It might be that only one or two of the selection pages are modified in keeping with the way the file will be used in future. For example, a larger font size or a restricted symbol palette.