Inspiration

I recently had the opportunity to attend a PD on the software program Inspiration. I thought it was an exciting new way of allowing students to make their thinking visable using ICT. Inspiration allows students to make mindmaps and graphic organisers. It is fairly easy to use and can allow for "rapid fire" writing that organises the writing as you type so that you don't have to pause but can just get everything down first. I felt this was helpful as I am one of those people that needs to get everything out quickly befor I forget and fix it up later. You are able to use symbols and colours to visually organise information and group them how you want. It also create for you a written organiser that sets out what is in the visual presentation in an additional written hierachy. This allows both the written and visual parts to be compined to create a better understanding of the concepts. This would be an excelent tool for starting a topic and having students brainstorm or to revise on the connections and information on a topic studied. I also found that a new product called webspiration classroom allows students to have accounts where they and the teacher log on and can invite others to comment or give feedback as they work so that they can use it for drafting.  Students can even collaborate live with a chat function that allows them to discuss and see changes as they happen. This is a new tool that I am excited to try out in my classroom to see how the students will respond to it. I think it will be very helpful in engaging students with the concepts and making their thinking visable.