Teaching with an LCD Projector

My colleague and I led an afterschool workshop this week on teaching with an LCD projector. I’ve put the agenda for the workshop below in the hope that someone might find these notes helpful…I know that when I Googled “teaching with an LCD projector” I only found vendor websites and instructions for setting up specific labs in specific institutions. Please add to this list by leaving a comment below…let me know other ways you and your teachers are teaching with LCD projectors! Here was our outline for the workshop:

How to set up the projector:

• What equipment you’ll need
• How to reserve a projector
• Step-by-step hookup demonstration
• Troubleshooting
• You may check a projector out for multiple days and can get a tech coordinator to come with the projector to help them teach a lesson

What to prepare ahead of time on your laptop:

• Shortcut to the website or Word/PPT document with links
• Writing or visual prompt
• Use a KWL or Venn diagram template in Inspiration, PPT template, etc.

Hints about presenting with an LCD projector:

• How to change the view size in Internet browsers
• Word: Play with zoom and font sizes for easier viewing
• Inspiration: Setting default “look,” using fit-to-page, arrange and rapid fire
• Mac OS X Tiger: Using the zoom feature (Apple-Option-8, then Apple-Option-+)

Using an LCD projector to:

• Present student work (PPT, movies, etc.)
• Introduce a unit
• Introduce/reinforce writing skills (how to write a letter)
• Review tech skills
• Look at pertinent websites (virtual Japanese house)
• Watch DVDs

Other examples:

• Online math explorations
• Library of Congress images
• Volcano videos
• Constitutional Walking Tour of Philadelphia
• Google Earth

Show movies, movie clips and audio (don’t forget the speakers!)

• Listen to read-aloud audiobooks by the author in iTunes
• Play video/audio clips
• Poetry jukebox
• Prelinger film archives
• Listen to iTunes radio
• Listen to Talking History or foreign language podcasts
• Keep in mind “cognitive load” when using text, audio and graphics!

Using the LCD projector with a tablet:

• General
• If you write faster than you type, try inking a class discussion
• Pass tablet around the room to have different students fill things out
• Certain software and websites (KidPix, painting software, virtual manipulatives) lend themselves to using a stylus

• Microsoft Office
• Install the MS Office tablet feature, which lets you add ink annotations to Word, Excel and PowerPoint
• Create slideshow of pictures/photos to compare & contrast, then ink on them

• Journal and OneNote
• Go to Print menu and send any document or web page to Journal or OneNote.
• Once a file’s in OneNote you can write on top of diagrams, highlight text, circle sections of a map
• Send a copy of class notes to Outlook, OneNote or Journal
• OneNote allows you to add voice record feature to notes
• In OneNote, Windows-S does screen capture and adds to notes
• Notes can be shared, group edited, saved to server folder and/or Sharepoint