Read the instructions below or get started by clicking on the Next button at the bottom right of your screen.
Why Panner?
For complete instructions please open the attached PDF file and print it out.
Please note: You must have Adobe Reader installed for your browser.
Panner_Instructions.pdf
Getting Started :
By default, the first page has a layout of type 'Title'. The 'Title' layout has two fields. Type in the title of your activity in the top field. Optionally, type in your name or a subtitle in the lower field, and then read the instructions that follow, under 'Adding Pages'.
Adding Pages:
After configuring the first page, click on the 'add' button to add additional pages to your project (activity). With each page that is added you select a page layout from the drop down list. Some pages are for displaying text, some for images, and some are a combination of the two. In addition there are also a number of question layout options and menu layout options to select from.
The button pictured below enables you to add pages. The button is a blue button with a plus sign next to it.
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Please note: On each page you will notice a field labeled Page ID. This field is reserved for a future version of Panner that will support branching as does the Brancher template. Currently, this field is useful if an instructor wishes to convert the Panner activity into an eBook. Each page that has Page ID filled in with a title will be the start of a new chapter and will appear in the table of contents.
Page Types:
Here is a summary of the page types:
Title Page -- used for titles
Full Page Text -- used to display a full page of text.
Full Page Image -- used to display an image, animation or a video.
Col 1:Text | Col 2: Text -- used to display two columns of text
Col 1:Text | Col 2: Image -- used to display one column of text and one column of image
Row 1:Text | Row 2: Image -- used to display one row of text and one row of image
Question (Layout A) -- used to display a question with an image and text area.
Question (Layout B) -- used to display a question with an image.
Question (Layout Without Image) -- used to display a question without an image or supplemental text area.
Menu (Layout A) -- used to display a 4 item menu without images.
Please note: The current version of Panner only supports menu branches to external URLs.Menu (Layout B) -- used to display a 3 item menu with images.
Please note: The current version of Panner only supports menu branches to external URLs.Spacer -- image pages and/or text pages sometimes get scrunched together. This puts space between them.
Question Pages:
Questions can appear anywhere within the presentation.
There are three different layouts for questions. Question (Layout A) supports a chunk of formatted text to the left, an image to the right, a question stem and distractors.
This question layout can be used in different ways. The top text box can be used to display useful information. To the right of the top text box appears an image area. You can ignore this or import an image through the various means that lodeStar supports. The long box below the top text box and image area is for a short question. If more space is needed, the top text box can be used.
Below the short question area, you will find four boxes. Place the correct answer in one box and three distractors in the remaining boxes. Distractors are the options. Check off which distractors contain correct answers. More than one answer can be correct and the interface will utilize checkboxes rather than radio buttons.
Types Of Media:
Text
Text boxes come in two flavors. If the text box has no buttons above the text box that enable you to bold, italicize, and underline, this type of text box is for simple text entry. The text might be project title, a question or distractor. This type of text box doesn't allow you to bold, italicize, underline, align or do anything other than enter text.
The other type is a rich text box. You will notice the buttons for bold (or alt B), italic (alt I), underline (alt U). You can also align the text, change its color and size. LodeStar doesn't support different fonts because of end-user (student computer) issues with missing device fonts and file sizes.
You can also add a hyperlink to the rich text. The hyperlink button is found to the right of the font-size pull down menu.
Images
Caution: Before you use text, images or animations from a web page or some other copyrighted source, know the law. Review the TEACH Act. Go to
http://www.lodestarlearning.com/c_TeachAct.html
LodeStar is able to do more with images than meets the eye. LodeStar has a built in image editor and can also import simple Macromedia SWF files and small Flash Video Files (i.e. FLV files). lodeStar can also accept a pasted url to an external Flash Video. (Do this by following these steps: Copy url to clipboard, right-click on image area, and then select 'Paste'. Url must end in .flv)
There are numerous ways to import an image.
Method 1: The default Paste method
Right click on an image in an Internet browser and select Copy. Right click on the image area on a LodeStar page and select Paste.
If the image is larger than the designated image area, lodeStar will scale down the image so that it will properly fit inside the image area.
Method 2: The default Open method
Click on an image area in lodeStar. You will see the following:
You can then select your image and it will automatically import and automatically resize to fit the image area.
Method 3: The Paste-Manual Crop method
Copy an image to the clipboard from Internet Explorer. Then right-click on the image area inside lodeStar. Select Paste-Manual Crop.
If the image is larger than the image area, you will see vertical and horizontal slider bars. Position the image the way you want to view the image. The image will be automatically cropped once you save.
Method 4: The Edit/Open method
Right-click on the image area. Select Edit/Open. The following image dialog appears:
You can use the tools at the top of the dialog box to do the following:
Browse – find an image on the hard drive
Acquire – (not implemented yet)
Web – type in a URL of an image located on the web
Crop - Select and then drag your cursor over the area you wish to crop.
(Very important: You must click on Crop again to crop the image)
Rotate – rotate image by specified number of degrees
Flip – flip image on its horizontal or vertical axis
Scale – automatically scale down an image to whatever size you specify
Important Note: Once you've edited your image, click on the button titled ‘Use it', and then wait. lodeStar will process the image and then display both the image and the message “Image is Ready”.
Important Tip: You cannot paste directly into the Image Dialog (the editor that was shown above). You can, however, paste into the image area by right clicking and choosing Paste – Manual Crop. Once you have pasted the image, right click and select Open. You can now resize or crop the original image.
Hypertext Links:
Hypertext links can now be easily added by using the link button in the rich text toolbar. Once the icon is clicked, you will be prompted to enter a label and the Internet address (URL) of the resource you would like to link to. These resources will be presented in a separate browser window when the user clicks the link.
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A note about the behavior of hyperlinks. When previewing locally, the flash activity will cause two windows to open. This behavior doesn't happen once you post the activity to the web or to a learning management system.
The behavior of pop-up windows is affected by pop-up blocker settings, and the browser settings. Students should pay attention to their tabbed browser settings. Some browsers are set to launch a new window. Some are set to create a new tab and tuck the new page under the tab. The student must know what to expect. Sometimes, a new blank window appears but the right page appears also, in its own window. Students should be shown what to look for.
Adding Music or Narration:
Each page has the option of adding an mp3 asset. When an mp3 file is used a media controller is displayed on screen to allow the user to control the volume as well as play, pause, and rewind control.
Adding Math Equations:
Any place that allows an image to be displayed can also display a math equation. lodeStar has a built in Latex math editor. To access the editor, right click on an image area and select Equation Editor from the menu. After you have entered an equation, click the Render button to see how it will be displayed. Click the Use It button to apply it to your image area.
Adding FLV Movies:
Any place that allows an image to be displayed can also display an FLV Movie. These are movies that have been created specifically for playback within Flash activities.
There are two ways to add FLV Movies to your Brancher project.
Option 1: Embedding the FLV Movie
The first way is just like adding a jpg image except in the dialog box change the filtetype from "*.jpg" to "*.flv". Browse your computer to find the file and click the "Open" button. A copy of your FLV Movie will be placed inside your project. This is not a recommended good practice. FLV files are huge and your Learning Management System may not be provisioned to handle large file sizes. Use this option sparingly for small files.
Option 2: Referencing the FLV Movie
If the movie you want to use is already accessible on the internet by a known web address (URL) then the URL can be pasted into the image area. To do this, copy the url onto your clipboard and then right click the image area and select "Stream in FLV movie from URL " from the submenu. This option will not make a copy of the FLV Movie but will load it by reference.Do not use this technique for YouTube videos. YouTube videos don't readily display the true web address where the video is located. See LodeStar's web journal for more details.
Please Note:
Some Themes (found under Tools > Themes) contain swf file backgrounds; others contain bitmap backgrounds. Panner treats each of these differently.
If Panner detects a bitmap background it will appropriately tile the background and cause it to pan at a different rate than the foreground.
If Panner detects a swf background it will not load the swf as a background. Instead it will choose the inner background color of the theme as its default background.