SMARTBoards and Pop My Balloon Please

[James Hollis]

I provide a lot of support for teachers using the new version of SMART Notebook and I'm often asked to explain how to use the wonderful tools found in the Lesson Activity Toolkit.

One of the newest tools is the Balloon Pop tool. The Balloon Pop tool is a flash object that looks like a balloon and makes a popping noise and disappears when it's touched. This is useful for displaying information hidden behind the Balloon Pop object. You can use it to reveal positive and negative feedback, correct answers, or any type of information you want to hide until the balloon is popped.

Here's a short tutorial that demonstrates how to use the Balloon Pop tool with your SMARTBoard interactive whiteboard.



















If you have a good idea for how to use the Balloon Pop object, please share it by leaving a comment!

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From September 16 post on Teachers Love SMART Boards

[James Hollis]

Here's an updated tutorial on using the Balloon Pop flash object.

[Obe Hostetter]

I should also mention that the Balloon Pop is found in the Lesson Activity Toolkit gallery. On MACs sometimes, this gallery needs installed separately. It can be installed from http://education.smarttech.com/ste/en-US/Ed+Resource/Lesson+resourc...

[Obe Hostetter]

Download the latest Notebook 10 for MAC 10.4 from http://www2.smarttech.com/st/en-US/Support/Downloads/SBS/Mac/NBSv10... Update your gallery by clicking on the gallery tab-wrench icon-update.

[mickey Brown]

I'm using an older version of notebook because the upgrade wont work on my computer its a imac g3 running mac os x 10.4.11 and it says the system settings are wrong and to re install i downloaded the installer 3 times and it wouldn't work this is also a disadvantage at school because i have to run it off my FD so the files are compatible with my home computer

[James Hollis]

The Balloon Pop is in the Notebook Gallery. Just do a search on "balloon" and you should find it in the INteractive and Multimedia folder.

Cheers,

Jim

[mickey Brown]

where can i download the balloon pop from?

[James Hollis]

Obe had a truly inspiring idea but unfortunately, I couldn't get it to work with Balloon Pop. I agree that this is very frustrating. I use three techniques when objects cannot be reset back to their original state:

1. Open the Notebook file again without saving changes. You'll have to do a File / New (do not save) and then File / Open to get Notebook to reset the file from the beginning.
2. Clone the same page multiple times so you can simply go to a new page.
3. Save the page in your Gallery and then start a new page and select the page from the Gallery. To save a page to your Gallery, click on the Page tab, right-click on the page you want to save, and select Add Page to Gallery. When you do this, it will store the page in the Gallery in your My Content area inside the Notebook File and Pages folder.

As for increasing text size inside the balloon, the only way was to increase the physical size of the balloon by dragging the handle in the bottom right. However, this did not dramatically increase the size. I did discover that you do not need to click on the bottom left handle to enter text, instead, you can create a text object and then drag the text onto the balloon.


I have put in a request for Smart to include a reset feature in their menu so users can reset a page to it's original condition.

Sharing is Caring!

[Obe Hostetter]

I use the page recording to create a reset button for any notebook page. However, I haven't tried this with the Lesson Activity Toolkit flash objects so I am not sure if this will work or not.
1. Create the notebook page exactly the way you like it
2. Click on an object and then click on the properties tab-page recording
3. Click record for 1 second and then hit stop/record button to stop
4. The page recording will put flash controls at the bottom of the page. Any time you want to reset the page, click on the play button.

[Patti Harju]

I did just watch the tutorial and I have two questions:
1. Can you change the size of the text on the balloon? It is hard to read for my little ones. That was why I typed the sutdents' names on top of the balloon, and the name remained after they popped.
2. Is there a re-set button? I ended up cloning the page a couple times (we re-set by going to another page if needed) and I never save the changes.
Thanks!

[Patti Harju]

I used the balloon pop for morning attendance. The kids came in and popped their balloons to show that they are here. There were a few glitches as the balloons pop easy, and I couldn't figure out a reset. I typed their names a second time on top of the balloon so it would stay after the balloon is popped. (I will watch your tutorial and probably learn a few more things about how balloon pop works.) They also figured out if they keep their finger going the pop sound repeats. (a bit noisy!)
But the kids LOVE it, and it is one of the favorite things about our new (brand new!) SMARTboard. I am glad to join this ning and learn more about using this wonderful tool.