Last modified: August 21, 2007
Inspiration 8 Introduction and Tutorial
Inspiration (http://www.inspiration.com/) is a software program that allows students and teachers to create graphic organizers and expand topics into writing. Since Inspiration relies on visual representations, students see how ideas are connected and realize how information can be grouped and organized. Students can use diagrams to display large amounts of information in ways that are easy to understand. Inspiration is used on the secondary level, and the company has a primary version of the software called Kidspiration (http://www.inspiration.com/productinfo/kidspiration/index.cfm).
Meeting the Maryland Teacher & Student Technology Standards
The state of Maryland recently drafted and passed technology standards for students and teachers. For detailed information regarding the standards, you can view the teacher standards (http://www.mttsonline.org/standards/) online or get a printable copy (http://www.mttsonline.org/standards/MDTchrTechStdsMTTS.pdf) of the standards and indicators. Here is a link for the student technology standards (http://www.mcps.k12.md.us/departments/techlit/). Look in the second column and click on a link to see a particular grade level’s standards. Below are the student and teacher standards that are met when using this program with students in class and for students during instruction.
· Maryland Teacher Technology Standards:
o Standard 2- Communication:
§ A. Use technology effectively and appropriately to interact electronically.
§ B. Use technology to communicate information in a variety of formats.
o Standard 3- Legal, Social and Ethical Issues: Demonstrate an understanding of the legal, social and ethical issues related to technology use.
o Standard 4- Assessment for Administration and Instruction: Use technology to analyze problems and develop data-driven solutions for instructional and school improvement.
o Standard 5- Integrating Technology into the Curriculum and Instruction: Design, implement and assess learning experiences that incorporate use of technology in a curriculum-related instructional activity to support understanding, inquiry, problem solving, communication and/or collaboration.
o Standard 6- Assistive Technology: Understand human, equity and developmental issues surrounding the use of assistive technology to enhance student learning performance and apply that understanding to practice.
o Standard 7- Professional Growth: Develop professional practices that support continual learning and professional growth in technology.
· Maryland Technology Literacy Standards for Students:
o Standard 2- Digital Citizenship: Demonstrate an understanding of the history of technology and its impact on society, and practice ethical, legal, and responsible use of technology to assure safety.
o Standard 3- Technology for Learning and Collaboration: Use a variety of technologies for learning and collaboration.
o Standard 4- Technology for Communication and Expression: Use technology to communicate information and express ideas using various media formats.
o Standard 5- Technology for Information Use and Management: Use technology to locate, evaluate, gather, and organize information and data.
What is Inspiration, and why would I use it?
As previously mentioned, Inspiration is a program that allows students to create visual webs and graphic organizers that can then be turned into writing. The process of linking ideas to each other helps students to plan, organize, evaluate, comprehend and analyze their ideas, which leads to improved written proficiency.
What are ways that you can use Inspiration in your classroom? See the chart below:
Social Studies:· Cause effect
· Compare contrast cultures and events
· Research webs
· Timelines
· Conflict resolution / Reading:
· Story Maps
· Character Analysis
· Venn Diagrams
· Main idea/detail
· Vocabulary webs
· Factual paragraph webs
· Parts of speech
Science:
· Food chains/webs
· Illustrate a cycle or a process
· Concept maps
· Classification
· Scientific methods / Math: (primary)
· Story problems
· Shapes
· Counting coins
Before we begin…
Keep in mind that there are several ways to access the same command in Inspiration. Since people work in different ways, the user has the option using toolbar buttons, menu commands, and keyboard shortcuts. For the purposes of this tutorial, all manners in which to access a task will not be covered in hopes of making the program easier to learn. In this tutorial, you will be following basic commands to create a visual representation that Inspiration refers to as a “diagram”.
Using Inspiration
When you open Inspiration, you will see the “Inspiration Starter” window which will give you the option to create a diagram, start an outline, open a file or template, or go to tutorials. The “Learn to Use” button will take you to a PDF file that shows you how to do basic and advanced features. For now, you will click on “Diagram” to begin this tutorial and this screen will appear:
· The Main Toolbar refers to the top menu and the shortcut icons directly below.
· The Symbol Palette refers to the pop-up window on the left-hand side of the screen. This is where you will go to change the shapes on your diagrams or insert clip art or photographs within the program.
· The Bottom Toolbar refers to the shortcut icons at the bottom of the screen. There are several formatting buttons here to change the font, color, and appearance of your text.
Using RapidFire tool
1. You’ll see the main idea symbol appear in a green oval. Since “main idea” is already highlighted, just type into the oval to insert a main idea. Type “summer vacation destinations” into the oval.
2. RapidFire allows you to quickly enter text that is especially useful when brainstorming ideas in front of class or group of people. With this feature, you can concentrate on adding ideas to your diagram rather than on the visual display.
3. Let’s add linked symbols to the main idea. Click on “Summer Vacation destinations” if it is not selected. On the main menu, click the RapidFire button (it looks like a lightning bolt). A red lightning bolt appears after “summer vacation destinations” to let you know the tool has been selected.
4. Type “Hawaii” and press Return.
5. Type “Niagara Falls” and press Return.
6. Type “California” and press Return.
7. Type “North Carolina” and press Return.
8. Click the RapidFire button again or click onto the empty background space to turn off the feature.
Notice how you now have a main idea with four subtopics on your diagram. There is a small arrow next to the main idea to show there are subtopics available. By clicking this arrow, the subtopics will hide or show.
Creating symbols without links
1. You can also use RapidFire without links if you prefer. Just click RapidFire button and select Without Links. You will still generate ideas quickly, but they will not have arrow to connect to the main idea.
2. Another way to create an unlinked symbol is to simply click anywhere in the empty workspace and start typing. A new symbol will automatically appear.
3. Try it: click in the empty space and type “Virginia”.
4. Click in another empty space and type “Texas”.
Editing text on a symbol
If you make a mistake on one of your symbols, you can always go back and edit the text just like you can in Microsoft Word.
1. To add or delete changes in a symbol, click on the symbols and type to add text or click backspace to edit.
2. To change the color, size, and font, you can select the text and click on the Text option from the main toolbar (see first figure below).
You can also access the same commands on the menu buttons at the bottom of your screen by selecting the text and clicking a command. (See figure below)
1: Font style
2: Bold, underline, italics
3: Font color
4: Line thickness (of your symbol)
5: Symbol background color and line color of the symbol
Using the Create button to make symbols
You can also add a linked symbol in any direction using the Create button on the main toolbar.
1. Click on the symbol “Niagara Falls” so that it is selected.
2. On the main toolbar, move the cursor to the very bottom point on the button. When you roll over a point on the Create button, it is highlighted to show the direction in which the new symbol will be placed.
3. Click the bottom point (it will highlight in green). A new linked symbol will appear directly below the “Niagara Falls” symbol.
4. Click on the new symbol and type “Maid of the Mist”.
Inserting images from the Symbol Palette
Inspiration has a bank of clip art and photos for you to use in its “symbol palette” which is located in the pop-up window on the left hand side of your screen when you open the program. You can add pictures to your diagram by clicking on a picture on the symbol palette. If you have a symbol selected, your oval will turn into the picture you have selected. If you do not have a symbol selected, the picture will be randomly added to the empty space near your diagram. Let’s try it.
1. Click on the symbol named “Texas”.
2. In the search box at the bottom of the symbol palette, type the word “desert” and press Return. (Inspiration will find all images in its bank containing your keyword.)
3. Click the first symbol on the left that appears in your symbol palette. Notice that since “Texas” was selected, that symbol now changes into a picture of the desert, but is still labeled as “Texas”. (See below)
4. To browse the images in the symbol palette, click on the “library” tab on the palette and then the arrow at the bottom. This will allow you to scroll through libraries of images to see what is available.
5. You can also drag and drop images from the symbol palette. Just click on any picture, drag it into the empty space in the diagram, and release the mouse.
Using the Link tool to connect symbols
The links (arrows) in Inspiration show relationships between symbols. When you used RapidFire, links were created automatically, but you can also add them manually. Let’s try linking “Texas” and “Virginia” to the main symbol in your diagram called “summer vacation destinations”.
1. Click the symbol “summer vacation destinations” to select it.
2. Click the Link button on the main toolbar. (The cursor will change to show an arrow with two small loops under it.)
3. Click the “Texas” symbol. A link appears between the two symbols. The link feature is still active (notice the cursor still has the loops under it), so let’s continue to link.
4. Click “summer vacation destinations” and then click on “Virginia”. Notice the two symbols are now linked with an arrow.
5. Click the Link symbol again or click in the empty space in the background to turn off the link feature.
6. This is what the diagram now looks like:
Labeling your links
Every link on your diagram has a text box that will appear if you click on the link. By labeling links and adding text, you can give additional information to your diagram and help clarify the relationship of your symbols. But since our links are rather short right now, let’s move the symbols away from the main idea to lengthen our links before adding text.
1. Click on “Virginia”. Drag the symbol to the right so it is farther away from the main idea.
2. Click on “Hawaii”. Drag the symbol to the bottom right so it is farther away from the main idea. Now we have more room to add text to the link.
3. Select the link between “summer vacation destinations” and “Virginia”.
4. Type “from June 25-30”.
5. Select the link between “summer vacation destinations” and “Hawaii”.
6. Type “from July 7-19”.
Adding a note
You can add a note to each symbol in the diagram to type additional information. It looks very much like a yellow sticky note and can be hidden so that it doesn’t take up space on your diagram. Let’s add a note to the “Hawaii” symbol.
1. Click on “Hawaii”.
2. Click on the Note button on the main toolbar. A small yellow box appears next to it.
3. Inside the note box, type “Remember to rent flippers, snorkel, and mask from Snorkel Bob’s in Kona.”
4. You can move your note anywhere in your document by clicking the note and dragging it to another area.
5. When you click the note symbol next to “Hawaii”, the note will be hidden from view. If you click the note symbol a second time, the note reappears where you last saw it.
Quitting the program
1. To save a diagram, click on the file menu and select save.
2. Name your document and click save.
3. To quit Inspiration, click the file menu, and select exit. You may also click the red “x” at the top right-hand corner to quit the program as well.
Additional resources
Here are some additional resources you can use to become more proficient with Inspiration:
· Open Inspiration and choose “Learn to Use” from the Inspiration Starter window. This will take you to visual, step-by-step tutorials for basic and advanced features. (You can access the same tutorial once you are in the program by clicking Help on the main toolbar and selecting “Learn to Use”.)
· Inspiration’s Learning Community http://www.inspiredlearningcommunity.com/. You can find and share ideas about Inspiration and Kidspiration. If you join the website, you may also download or share lesson plans that integrate Inspiration into the curriculum.
· Inspiration’s Educator Resource Page http://www.inspiration.com/edresources/index.cfm. Learn about the Inspired Teacher Grant or sign up for “Flashes”, a free online newsletter highlighting program tips and best practices.
Frederick County Public Schools- Technology Services
Instructions and Use- Page 1 of 9