EyeWrite
Visual Planning Software

1. Introduction and Overview

Visual Planning

Many learners and teachers will recognise that when they have to plan something they like to think visually. Such people will prefer a map to a set of written instructions, and a diagram rather than text for putting together a flat-pack wardrobe. This visual planning software provides such learners with the facility to plan a wide range of products with easy-to-use tools that can be mastered by children or adults in no more than a few minutes. Each function in EyeWrite has a video tutorial that takes new users through its operation.

So what can EyeWrite be used for?

Planning writing

Many learners find it difficult to plan an extended piece of writing but as students progress through the education system, their ability to do this becomes increasingly important in terms of internal assessment and external examinations. Young people in schools and colleges are faced with many of the following planning tasks:

Essays
Investigations
Evaluations
Research projects
Presentations
Talks

Many will not know where to start and may resort to copying large chunks of information from a variety of sources. The product will have little structure and wider or related issues may be ignored. EyeWrite starts with the words or key ideas that will be the foundation for the writing and takes learners through the process of thinking, identifying key headings, making connections and mapping. It enables them to import images and to make links to a range of multimedia sources relevant to the topic. It allows them to make key notes on words and ideas and then to export their plan as text and improve the document through editing and polishing. All of these steps are shown in the video tutorials.

Planning presentations or talks

EyeWrite can also be extremely useful in the planning of presentations or talks. Learners can plan in the same way as they would for writing: identifying key words or ideas, developing the thinking and the connections and producing a visual plan. The software now allows the learner to make links to images, fact sheets, video clips, PowerPoint pages, Flash files, the internet, music or sound effects. The Map of the talk or presentation is visible throughout for the audience to see and understand connections, but at the click of the mouse a full screen image or video will appear to enhance the point that is being made.

Lesson plans

Teachers and support staff can also use EyeWrite in the planning of lessons. The planning process will be the same with key words leading to the mapping of ideas and a range of connections. The ability to create hyperlinks allows the teacher to make instant links to existing resources of all kinds, introducing text files, images, photographs, digital video, internet pages, PowerPoint slides, music, sounds or Flash files all at the click of the mouse. Indeed, the whole project can be saved with its links intact – complete lesson plans on one page!

Schemes of work

The same process can be used to create whole schemes of work in EyeWrite format. The Map can include headings such as Learning Objectives, Assessment Criteria, Resources, Differentiation, Starters and Plenaries, Teaching Strategies and so on. The single Map of the topic is visible for all to see, but with a click of the mouse the detail is opened up for colleagues (or inspectors!) to view.

Diagrams

EyeWrite also includes a set of diagrams that can be imported as templates for planning and discussion. The key words can be dragged out from the WordHoard and placed on the diagrams and rotated if the users choose. It also allows users to import their own diagram or photograph (e.g. the skeleton) as a basis for the page and then to drag out words in a labelling exercise.

Other resources

The full network and single user version of EyeWrite also contains useful resources to support both learners and teachers.

Key word sets: 1000s of words in topic sets for importing ready to map.
A clip art library
Photograph library
Flash files
Dictionary
Video tutorials on all functions.

Home use

The single user licence version of EyeWrite has all the above functions and resources but can only be installed on one computer. Once the authorisation code has been used, it cannot be installed anywhere else. The single user version will allow learners and teachers to continue planning at home. They will be able to save the Concept Map Project to a memory stick and take it to school or college, or email the files as attachments for use at work.

There is also a downloadable version, payable with a credit card, that simply has the key functions, the key word sets and the dictionary but none of the additional resources such as clip art, photographs, Flash files or video tutorials. Purchasers of this licence will still be able to view the tutorials from the website.
Tutorial 1 Introduction

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