If you are looking to run a training session or workshop on Autograph, then hopefully the materials on this page will help you. These are the kind of things I use when delivering my training sessions. If you have any materials you wish share, then please let me know in the Comments below 🙂
Videos
More and more I find allowing delegates to view training videos as opposed to hard copies of training documents to be the most useful and the most popular. Videos can be paused and rewound, watched as many times as needed, allowing delegates to learn at their own pace. Crucially videos are less prone to mistakes as each of the steps (and the results!) can be witnessed on the screen.
However, be aware that delegates will need their own set of headphones (otherwise the session is likely to be noisy!) and a decent internet connection.
For my list of video tutorials, click here
For Douglas Butler’s “From Beginner to Advanced” series, click here
For Simon Woodhead’s tutorial series, click here
Creating Videos
Creating tutorial videos yourself has got so much easier and so much cheaper over the last few years as fantastic screen-casting tools have started to appear. If you have a laptop, you are pretty much good to go. I even find that the internal microphone on my laptop ensures reasonable sound quality, although purchasing a microphone might be the way forward if you start to make a few videos.
Jing is a wonderful, free piece of software for creating videos. You are limited to 5 minutes, but that is not necessarily a bad thing as it keeps your videos focussed. They are very easy to share and download for offline use.
BB Flashback Express is a really nice free tool. It is really easy to use, and I particularly like the one-touch uploading to YouTube, which is probably going to be the easiest way to share you video tutorials.
SnagIt is the next version up from Jing. You have to pay a little bit for it, but for the extra features, I find it is worth it. Unlimited recording time, easy to export to YouTube, very user friendly controls, to name but a few.
Paper Tutorials
Some delegates (and trainers) still like paper tutorials as they find them easier to follow. Crucially, there is no risk of a poor internet connection or a lack of headphones derailing your training session.
My paper tutorials:
4. Autograph Tools for Calculus
5. Entering Equations into Autograph
8. Whiteboard Mode and Keyboard
Here is the Official 2013 Autograph Training Material pack, put together using activities and ideas from myself, Alan Catley, Simon Woodhead and Douglas Butler
And here are the materials from a Autograph and Technology in the Maths Classroom session delivered by Daniel Rodriguez-Clark of www.interactive-maths.com
You might also find this page of images of Autograph Buttons useful for adapting or creating your own paper tutorials
Autograph Activities for the Classroom
Giving delegates some practical lesson ideas is always a good way to win them over and keep them engaged.
My free online Autograph Activities have loads of practical lesson ideas that can be used in class to demonstrate key concepts, or used by the students at home to investigate topics further. These use the free Autograph Player, so do not require a full version of Autograph 🙂
Alan Catley’s Autograph Resources are a wonderful source of (free!) outstanding lesson ideas and resources.
Other Autograph Materials
For my Autograph newsletters, click here
For the Daily Autograph Challenge website, click here
For my A Level Autograph textbooks, click here
Tips for Running a Training Session
1) Just like a good lesson, be prepared to be flexible. If something isn’t going down well, ditch and move on. Likewise, be prepared to spend longer on a given topic than you intended if the crowd seem to like it!
2) Have plenty of practical lesson activities in there, not just guides how to draw and create things. Teachers love to know how they can use things straight away in the classroom
3) Open up with something to hook them in. Even something simple like creating graph paper, or producing a number line will get the most reluctant on board.
4) Don’t go past the scheduled finish time. They will hate you for it! 🙂