Ask a Master

Question:

Can I create a slide show in Mimio with animations or is the best way to create in PowerPoint and use Mimio tools when showing?

• Submitted By:

  Derek McEwen

• Date:

  Oct. 11, 2011

Answer:

Thank you so much for your recent submission to Ask a Master. We are so glad to have you as part of our wonderful online community of educators! You are wondering about using PowerPoint slide shows with Mimio. You can always import your PowerPoint document into MimioNotebook. Just remember that when you import a PowerPoint into Mimio it becomes a static file, meaning that only the content will be brought in losing all interactivity you had in the file (such as hyperlinks, transitions and other flash animation). The good news is that you can now add your own interactivity to your file in a new way using the Mimio Software! Try using Screen Annotation or the many wonderful reveals you can find right in the Gallery to get your students involved in your lesson. If you have any specific file that you would like to add to your lesson (picture, audio, flash, video) you can easily insert it right into Mimio Notebook by using the “INSERT FILE” button located on your toolbar. I hope you have found this helpful and please let me know if there is anything else you may need as we are always here to help. Have a wonderful weekend!

Mimio Master:

Cameron.Nichols   

Question:

How can I share a lesson with a group after I have already uploaded it to MimioConnect?

• Submitted By:

  Stephanie C.

• Date:

  Oct. 2, 2011

Answer:

This is a question that has a fairly simple fix. What you will need to do is click on your “View profile” next to your picture. From there, choose “Lesson Plans and Activities.” A list of the lessons that you’ve uploaded will appear to the left. Click on the lesson you need to modify. Once the lesson comes up, you should have a few tabs across the top, one of which allows you to “edit.” Click on that tab. Scroll through the form that you originally filled out but this time when you come to “Groups,” which is right below the “file attachment,” choose the group you’d like to add it to as well. Lastly, scroll to the bottom of this page and click on “Update.” Now it’s been added to the group. Don't forget to read through the other Ask a Master questions and answers for additional tips and suggestions!

Mimio Master:

Tracy Tishion    

Question:

How can I incorporate an eBook into a Mimio lesson?

• Submitted By:

  Elizabeth L.

• Date:

  Aug. 16, 2011

Answer:

There are many good quality eBooks on the Internet and they add so much to your Mimio interactive teaching in your classroom when used effectively. Depending upon your objectives, there are a couple of things that you can do to incorporate eBooks. If you want to project the pages of the eBook for classroom use, such as marking them up, then you could project them on your board, outside of a Mimio notebook page but have the toolbar on the screen. Click the annotation button on the toolbar (last icon in lower right hand side of toolbar) and the screen will freeze to allow you to mark up the page. This would allow you to highlight text, analyze paragraphs, isolate vocabulary, determine author’s style, study images, etc. To leave annotation mode, click the button to the left of this button (called the mouse). This will “unfreeze” the page so you can move onto additional pages and continue the process. All annotations get saved in your gallery for future use or reference in the "Screen annotations" folder. Many of the above mentioned uses can also be accomplished through another feature called “screen clipping.” The screen clip method allows you to be more precise with particulare images or text that you want to concentrate on instead of whole pages at a time. Screen clips actually get placed right into your notebook page. Let's say no illustrations are used in the book. You could create/add your own to the pages to bring the words of the eBook to life that you choose to screenclip into the notebook. Students can even draw their own sketches of what certain parts of the book means to them and add them to the pages in the Mimio Notebook file instead of using the ones that may have been provided by the book as well. The possibilities are limitless. Get creative and let your imagination carry you into new ways at instructing interactively and engaging your students! As always, we encourage you to check out the other posts on Ask a Master for many more tips and suugestions.

Mimio Master:

Tracy Tishion    

Question:

I don't understand the process of how to put lesson content that is posted by Teachers’ Domain into my gallery. When I've downloaded these lessons, they come zipped. I do what is necessary to "unzip" them but then I don't know what to do with the various parts. Could you please help?

• Submitted By:

  Gloria H.

• Date:

  Aug. 8, 2011

Answer:

Thank you for asking such a pertinent question. It is one that many users are interested in learning more about. You had asked about the process of utilizing the Teachers Domain content into your Mimio notebook and gallery.
1.The process starts with you downloading the content that you selected, from their site, into a folder you designate on your computer. I personally have created a folder in my own "My documents" called Teachers Domain to download content from their website.
2.Open this folder which should have a "zipped" folder. Click on that to unzip or extract the individual files for the content. Depending upon what was downloaded, you'll have single images, video clips (usually in mp4 format) and/or interactive "flash" content (usually in .swf format).
3.The next step should be to open a notebook page and the gallery. I usually create a new folder in my gallery before I insert the new content topics, (using a name from that content to identify it).The new folder icon for the gallery is the first icon at the top of the gallery.
4.Now, from the icon choices across the top of the gallery, with your newly created folder open/highlighted in the gallery list, click on the 2nd icon (insert file). It will instruct you to browse for the content to open. Locate the files on your computer, choose them and click on open. Subfolders will be created in your folder depending upon what you are opening. Pictures are placed into an image folder and interactive or video content is placed in a multimedia folder in your gallery.
If you run into problems inserting videos, like getting an "invalid file format" message, you may need to install a K-Lite Codec Pack to allow you to view the clips. Here is the link to the MimioConnect post which directs you to that site for installing: http://www.mimioconnect.com/content/lesson/video_codec_pack_windows.
There are also some good converter websites (www.zamzar.com) that will convert your video clip to a file such as (.avi) to be inserted into your gallery if you still experience difficulties.
There are many good resources found on MimioConnect from the Teachers Domain site to use in your classroom. I encourage you to browse the wide variety to enhance your instruction and student learning.

Mimio Master:

Tracy Tishion