BOARDMAKER
FOR MAC: BEYOND THE BASICS
Presenter(s)
Lisa Petit
Mayer-Johnson, LLC
1237 Devonshire Curve
Bloomington, MN 55431
Day Phone: 952-884-3198
Fax: 952-884-3198
Email: lisa@mayer-johnson.com
Presenter #2
Lori Geist
Mayer-Johnson, LLC
Day Phone: 412-951-8223
Email: lori@mayer-johnson.com
The new version of Boardmaker
Mac is in many people’s hands and for the most part foundation skills will
translate over to the newer version. Once these beginning skills are acquired
it is time to really get to know this newer version. This session will assume
foundation skills are in place and will spend the majority of the session exploring
the program at a more in depth level. Becoming a more advanced Boardmaker user means learning and using more advanced
skills as well as broadening the way you use the program. This session will
address each of these components by combining a skills-based approach with
creative, end-product creation for each skill taught.
The session will begin with a foundation skills
review activity. Attendees will be give an activity to design that includes
several different elements. This activity will allow presenters to troubleshoot
if any participants are lacking foundation skills and will allow for a quick
review of any such skills. Participants will receive a foundation skills
checklist that they can work through or use as a guide to teach colleagues or
others foundation skills on Boardmaker.
With foundation skills in place, this session
will move forward. The next three skills that will be taught include
customizing to create new symbols, strategies for adapting text and symbols and
importing digital images. These skills have been identified as important skills
for the following reasons: allow users to drastically increase the number of
symbols they have, provide alternate means to target literacy skills with
modifications of text adaptation, and provide access to digital images for
those users unable to identify and gain meaning from symbols. These three
skills will be reviewed using clearly defined tutorials and the presenters’
guided instruction. Once the skills have been reviewed, participants will be given
a challenge activity to design that will incorporate these three skills into a
creative end-product.
To conclude this session, presenters will share
a collection of tips and tricks that make creating activities on Boardmaker more time-efficient. Although each of these
tricks can save a bit of time individually, when you put them together they can
significantly change the way one uses Boardmaker.
Tips include: creating one’s own templates for repeated use, using the My
Symbols Category, copying and pasting between boards and more.
Once these tips have been shared presenters will
share the idea of broadening the use of Boardmaker. Boardmaker has been used for years to create simple
communication boards. For the more advanced Boardmaker
user, it is time to make new and unique activities of varying formats with Boardmaker. A simple activity will be completed where
participants are given a worksheet with several types of activities including:
game board, graph, file folder, book, worksheet, and more. Participants will
have to complete this worksheet with ideas of activities to create with Boardmaker specific to a theme or unity they are targeting
with their students or clients.
To conclude this session, participants will be
given a challenge activity that combines the skills and tricks they have
learned in this session. The activity will be an interactive book. Participants
will create the template for the book, add new symbols, decide the strategy
they will use for adapting text with symbols and create the book. Participants
will be encouraged to create a book that includes the required skills, targets
a specific theme or unit, and shows creativity.
This session is a wonderful opportunity for
participants to gain additional skills, learn tips and tricks, and broaden
their use of Boardmaker. Through a skills-based and
end-product approach, participants will leave this session with a new found
confidence in using Boardmaker for Mac and a renewed
enthusiasm for the many creative uses Boardmaker has.
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