INSTALLATION AND USER GUIDE
Contents
1. to the mouse Move the mouse around until the object is in the required new position then click press and release a second time to drop the object Some younger children find this method easier Choosing a face If Users is enabled see Teacher options Managing users on page 11 children must log in by name when they start using the software They will see a number of buttons each with a face on it and a name underneath There will be one button for each member of the user group plus one for the teacher While almost all children can recognise their own name some may take a while to find their name if there are a lot of children in the user group The software therefore allows them to customise the face that appears on their log in button to make it easier for them to find We recommend that when young children use the software for the first time they should be helped to log in and then should f TES be encouraged to customise their log in face immediately To es start this process they should click on the Change face button in the main menu shown in diagram Driving 2 Note that this button does not appear when the teacher uses the software the Driving 2 Teacher options button appears instead changing face As well as being an entertaining activity in its own right this face changing serves two very useful purposes It allows children to become familiar with using the software with clickin2. INSTALLATION AND USER GUIDE for the PM GEMS Software Magenta Red Yellow Blue and Green levels In this PDF version of the manual links are shown in blue Contents Essential information THOMSON 4 NELSON SOFTWARE PM Gems Software Magenta Red Yellow Blue and Green levels First published 2007 jointly by Thomson Learning Australia Greygum Software Level 7 80 Dorcas Street 13 Davies Road South Melbourne Ashgrove Victoria 3205 Queensland 4060 Australia Australia 2007 All aspects of this software package are subject to copyright Software design and programming Steve Luckett and David Smith Story text Beverley Randell Annette Smith and Jenny Giles Artwork from PM Gems Nelson Australia Pty Ltd Other artwork Greygum Software Pty Ltd or Nelson Australia Pty Ltd Sound recordings by Setches Studios with the voices of Colin Setches and Mary O Carroll Software artwork by Phil Wharton JPG decompression uses FreeImage Floris van den Berg Printed by ABC Printing Milton Queensland All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced without the prior written permission of the publishers with the sole exception that you may photocopy small sections of this manual for use within the purchasing institution This manual is also available on the CD in PDF format For technical support please contact Greygum Software Email support greygum com au Web site
3. questions On for READING only age Only for clicking on WORDS Printing and activities DR Ee Hearing sentences heating C Only when WRITING sentences ON C Always ENABLED DEMAND means If you set hearing when reading 1 when the hear to be On demand Automatic amp on demand button is clicked Control Panel the computer speaks On demand AUTOMATIC Users can move the panel Disabled M ETE C Panel always at the LEFT the text when the computer also Panel always at the RIGHT student clicks on the when writing speaks the text i On demand when it is first Log in face Hear button If you Disabled displayed Changing face ENABLED t PS In WRITING Change face ONCE ONLY choose Automatic in questions and attiicial computer Changing face DISABLED the computer speaks activities ad al Users can always Phonic pronunciation Automatic amp on demand SRM the text when it 1s On demand ieri iet Conventional voiced F fuh first displayed and pisabled on the word E AStnen phone asm will speak it again if Finished Settings apply to everyone in this user group The default settings D D nein are marked with a star Please read the manual for more details the Hear button is clicked Teacher 7 settings Click here for the Contents page 15 You can also disabl
4. www greygum com au For information about the PM Gems books please contact Nelson Australia Email nelson thomsonlearning com au Web site www thomsonlearning com au Mac and Macintosh are registered in the USA and other countries by Apple Computer Inc Windows and Microsoft are registered in USA and other countries by Microsoft Corporation Contents Essential information 22 005 1 Essential informations 1d vno ai eed een tat waa doe ahs 1 OVErVIEW PP iai aa i Denari a bie bira eE 2 What is the PM Gems Software llllllsllllelss 2 Users and user groupS iussisse 3 What are users and user QroupS 2 2 0 cee eee 3 Public use without a user list 0 000 eee ee 3 Having a single list of named users 00000 02 eee 3 Having many groups of users 4 Installation sten ERR EEE LA REA x a Pay 5 Copyrightand licensing x xs oc exse rc E E Re ERE Y dn 5 System requirements 00 0 c cee eee eee 6 Installing the software ssi bees pp besa RR eee es 6 ROGISIAUON scio kae eds ao Ree eS SRR Oks d Rn atn 7 Installing on a network 2532 x tets dente vette dee ewia ds 7 How to start the software 2 22 ee 8 Text to speech engineS 0 00 c eee eee 9 Teacher options sssssssesees 10 How to access Teacher options 000 e eee eee 10 The main Teacher options menu 62 eee ee
5. To Speech installed open your System Preferences and see if there is a Speech control panel If so select the appropriate voice Click here for the Contents page 10 Teacher options How to access Teacher options Enter Teacher options by clicking on the Teacher options button which is just below the Exit button in the main menu as shown in diagram Teacher 1 on the right If the users facility is enabled users are asked to log in by name when starting the software The Teacher options button is available only if you log in using the TEACHER identity If a password has been set you will be asked to give the password before you are allowed access to the main Teacher options menu Remember that each user group has its own separate teacher password If you have forgotten the password and the user group contains students whose data you do not want to lose please contact Greygum Software for help The main Teacher options menu All teacher options are available fmm via the menu shown in diagram X Exit Teacher options Teacher 1 buttons Teacher 2 on the right Password Click here to create or alter the password needed to gain access to Teacher Options Each of the buttons leads to Use this to enable disable having users log in by name further options described in and when enabled to add or remove users from the list the following secti
6. and the Start in folder If it is launched by directly running the executable it will not be able to find its data files The Target field of all shortcuts should point to PM_Red EXE or similar names for other colours in the installation folder i e where you elected to put the program files when you installed the software For a particular user group Fred s class add the command line argument group Fred s class so that the full target of the shortcut might be server Greygum PmRed PM_Red EXE group Fred s class The Start in field of the shortcut should point to the folder that contains for Red level the User_PGR folder i e where you elected during installation to put the data files to which the software writes If you need to alter the location of the data files move the entire User_PGR folder to a new location and alter all shortcuts so that the Start in field points to this new location Macintosh The software should be launched via a data file rather than by directly starting the executable So to launch the software without using an alias navigate to the User_PGR folder for Red level and double click on the required data file An alias to the relevant data file is created on the desktop when the software is installed and optionally when each new user group is created The network supervisor should create similar aliases on other workstations as required and we recommend that th
7. can choose between the strict phonic sound fff and the conventional voiced sound fuh While purists may prefer the fff sound because it more exactly indicates the sound most often made by the letter F many teachers prefer the voiced fuh sound because it is easier to hear particularly when played through poor quality speakers or at low volumes Click here for the Contents page 17 Printing By default printing is disabled because uncontrolled printing can waste a lot of ink and paper To enable printing for a particular user group go into Teacher options click on Settings see diagram Teacher 2 on page 10 and look for the Printing section see diagram Teacher 7 You can choose to enable printing only when students are writing their own stories or you can choose Always enabled which will permit printing during reading writing questions and activities Whenever printing is enabled the software allows you to print the contents of the PM Gems window omitting the control panel To print click on the File menu then click on the Print menu item When young children are using the software it is recommended that a teacher or other adult should do this rather than the student Note that if printing is disabled but you wish to enable it to print a particular student s work you can enable printing without losing this work by on a Windows or Macintosh network starting
8. menu About PM Gems Software shows the version number of the software and provides various useful web and email addresses Manual as PDF file allows the Installation and user guide provided in printed form with the software to be viewed at the computer as a pdf file This requires the public domain software Acrobat Reader Click here for the Contents page 25 Special needs The PM Gems Software is in all situations other than the Teacher options and Writing controlled by the mouse In all menu screens choosing a log in face and during Reading and Questions users drive the software by clicking on control buttons In Activities users also click on objects and drag them around the screen Any special needs device that emulates these mouse functions can therefore be used to drive these sections of the software Touch screens All aspects of the PM Gems Software with the exception of the Teacher options and Writing can be controlled using a touch screen To activate any button just touch the button To hear a word touch the word In Activities drag an object by touching the object to pick it up then touching again where you wish to drop the object Double switch devices The Windows version of the PM Gems Software allows limited keyboard control Hitting the TAB key will cause the mouse pointer to move to one of the control buttons highlighting
9. the PM Gems Software on another computer or on a stand alone Windows machine starting a second copy of the PM Gems Software use this other copy of the software to log in as the teacher and alter the printing settings Then quit this second copy of the software and go back to the software that the student is using In general landscape orientation prints a slightly larger version of the screen which therefore gives better quality The diagram Teacher 10 shows the result of printing in both portrait and landscape orientation using Anne s version of a page from Holiday Time Es Then Mum drove us all back home E Then Mum drove us all back home Teacher 10 the same printout in portrait and landscape Click here for the Contents page 18 Creating a new user group The remaining option is available via the button in the Advanced options section of the Teacher options menu see diagram Teacher 2 on page 10 It is different from the other options for two reasons 1 It affects all users of the software package not just the members of one particular user group 2 Using this option involves creating files and folders so on a network only the network supervisor should use this option If you are not yet sure what user groups are all about please start by reading the chapter Users and user groups on page 3 To create a new user group click on the Crea
10. 10 Teacher Password oe vers cass eaves riu Rex e E ER ORE RR 11 Managing USCIS usb RR bei peewee ERE Eee Eee 11 Inspecting progress exidaces ce rie dees ee EEG RO ARR XR CR REGE 12 SeltidgS nre higed dece e piR Re EXPERS quc eR EQER eee UE EH 14 ilie e cT 17 Creating a new user group sss nee 18 Creating shortculs s cet aacacd sue px eed Ru e EX Ra 19 Driving the software LLuuuuuuuusususssusuee 21 The main controls he awe ed eee ee ex dE eee ad 21 Dragging with the mouse 000 e eee eee 21 Choosing a face se ed netaat RID II E ph REPRE ES DU eS 22 Menu eme x rweke ume bk tm aad EUR OR REOR wads S RS RR d 23 Special needs xcu cerdo d ace Re ec Ra ce ENRE 25 This manual deals with the Magenta Red Yellow Blue and Green levels of the PM Gems Software and with both the Windows and Macintosh versions Examples are taken from the Red level and illustrations show the Windows version running under XP In the PDF version of the manual links such Contents are shown in blue Contact details For technical support please contact Greygum Software Email support greygum com au Web site www greygum com au For information about the PM Gems books please contact Nelson Australia Email nelson thomsonlearning com au Web site www thomsonlearning com au Essential information Installation Details are given in the Installation chapter page 5 which contains
11. Setup for choosing the page orientation File gt Hear whole book This menu item is intended chiefly for use by the teacher It is enabled only during reading and writing and it causes the computer to work through an entire book showing each page in turn speaking the text of each page as it is displayed This facility can be very useful when a teacher wishes to read through a book with the whole class before they tackle the questions and activities or to show the class a story written by a student The computer will start by reading the text of the page currently being displayed which would generally be the first page It will then automatically turn to the next page read the text for that page and so on through to the end of the book If you want to stop the process before the last page is reached click on the Menu button or the Back button When used with writing rather than reading the computer will speak using any artificial text to speech engine that is available see page 9 Click here for the Contents page 24 File gt Open Load original story Save Save As These menu items are relevant only when students are writing their own version of a story The Open Save and Save As items behave as in any other software and allow the text that the student has written to be saved or opened The text is saved as straight text so that the saved file can be also be loaded into any text edit
12. _PGR folder Macintosh This folder will by default be found in the installation folder though you may choose to move it somewhere else For the Red level when the software is installed there is just one data file default dat for Windows or PM Red for Macintosh and the corresponding shortcut is PM Red For each new user group that is created such as Fred s class there will be a new shortcut PM Red for Fred s class and a new data file in the User_PGR folder with the same name PM Red for Fred s class on Macintosh computers but on Windows computers it will have an abbreviated name and the dat extension such as FREDS 36 DAT To delete a user group remove all its shortcuts to prevent access and delete the corresponding data file optionally first making a backup copy of it just in case a teacher later wants access to the data it contains The shortcuts created either at installation or when a new user group is made exist only on the workstation in use at the time To use the software from other workstations the network supervisor should create similar shortcuts on other workstations You may of course wish to put shortcuts only on certain machines such as shortcuts to the Fred s class user group only on computers in Fred s classroom Click here for the Contents page 20 Windows The software must be started using a shortcut that specifies both the Target
13. al al al al ajaja alan arn al al al al ala Father Bear goes fishing Teacher 8 individual items Click on the boxes at the left to enable or disable an entire book In the diagram The photo book and Father Bear goes fishing have been disabled For the books that are enabled students are always able to read the book and write their own version Individual questions and activities can be enabled or disabled by clicking on the appropriate small rectangle In the diagram some of the harder questions and activities have been disabled for Little Chimp is Brave Ben s Jigsaw Puzzle and Presents for Jack and Billy Hint if you wish to disable a particular question but are not sure what number it is go into the software and find the question that you want then look at the question menu This will tell you the number of the question The same applies to activities Click here for the Contents page 16 Control panel Many of the controls that students use to control the software are held in a control panel shown in diagram Teacher 9 This can be placed either at the right or the left of the screen By default students are able to choose whether they want the control panel at the left or right by clicking on the small dark triangles at the top of the panel The computer will remember each student s preference Students often do not notice these triangles for
14. ames for this new user group The next section describes how to allow access to this new user group from other workstations on a network by creating suitable shortcuts Windows or aliases Macinstosh Click here for the Contents page 19 Creating shortcuts The remaining information is provided for the benefit of network supervisors who may wish to create shortcuts or menu systems to access the software or for some other reason may want to know more about how the software is launched The software should be launched via a shortcut Windows or alias Mac Each user group has its own shortcut for starting the software and its own data file This data file records the teacher password for this group the settings and also the name and the progress of every user in the group The data files are kept in a folder called User_PGR for the PM Gems Red software and similar names for the other colours It is essential that all users have read and write access to this data and that the location is the same for all users Windows The location of this folder is whatever you selected when the software was installed as the location for data files to which the computer writes All shortcuts to the software will specify this location in their Start in field not to be confused with the Target field which will point to the executable file The Start in field should point to the location that contains the User
15. answer so they give a better indication of a student s progress Click here for the Contents page 14 Settings This facility allows the teacher a great deal of control over exactly how the software behaves for members of a particular user group However there is no need to adjust these settings unless you really want to in most situations the default settings are satisfactory Because the settings apply to the whole of the user group it is best if members of a given user group are all at about the same level If you feel that certain students would benefit from different settings put them into a separate user group To reach the settings dialog shown in diagram Teacher 7 below click on Settings from the main teacher menu see diagram Teacher 2 on page 10 Red underline A red underline always appears under a word when the student clicks on a single word to hear it There is also an optional moving red line that underlines each word in turn while the computer speaks the text The settings allow you to have this moving red underline always enabled for reading questions and activities enabled just for reading or it can be completely disabled Hearing The software includes recordings of all the Teacher options settings Click on ITEMS to decide which books text that appears in Lele unc Items are available or to enable or disable specific questions activities etc ALWAYS on C the books
16. applies only to this particular user group and be sure to keep a written record of the password If you forget the password and the user group contains student data that you can t afford to lose please contact Greygum Software for assistance Managing users To reach the Users dialog shown in diagram Teacher 4 on the next page click on Users from the main Teacher options menu When the software is first installed or when a new user group is created users is initially disabled This means that the computer does not know who is using the software so it can t keep track of individuals progress Anyone can use the software and they are not asked to log in by name when the software starts To alter this click on Enabled see diagram Teacher 4 You can then go on to add names to this user group by clicking on Add user and typing the required name If you have quite a few names to add try hitting the ENTER key twice after each name The first ENTER will add the name and the second ENTER 1s equivalent to clicking Add user so that you can type the next name There is a maximum of 41 students plus the teacher in a single user group However we advise you to try not to have more than two dozen or so students in any one user group Small groups are easier to manage and make it easier for students to find their own name when they log in Click here for the Contents page 12 Teache
17. aste it into a wordprocessor for saving printing etc Sort by name Sort by score For more detail about what a given user has achieved click on their name then click on Details or double click the name Finished Copy list to clipboard Details Teacher 5 progress of all Teacher options progress report Progress report for AERE Questions Reading Little Teddy and Monkey Holiday Time Sally s Snowman Raccoon Wakes Up Balloons Go Pop Kitty Cat and the Bird The Hungry Squirrel Little Chimp is Brave Ben s Jigsaw Puzzle Presents for Jack and Billy The photo book Father Bear goes fishing In the above chart GREEN represents pages read questions answered or activities successfully completed RED represents items not yet done BLANK represents items made unavailable see Settings Teacher 6 an individual s progress the diagram books 11 and 12 have been totally disabled and some of the harder activities for books 9 and 10 are also disabled This student has completed books 1 2 and 3 has read all book 4 and has done some of its questions and activities Note that the computer judges a page of a book to have been read as soon as the student looks at the page So a student may in fact just have flipped past the page very quickly without really reading it at all However the questions and activities all require some effort or a correct
18. ch easier for students to find their own name when logging in and equally it is much easier for teachers to manage their own group and inspect their students progress Each group also has its own separate settings so that teachers can choose different setting for different classes to suit the age and ability of each class In some situations you may want to have a number of user groups for the various classes using the software but you may also want to allow public access perhaps so that guests or children from other classes can also use the software To achieve this create a new group with a suitable name like public use but do not enable the users facility for this group Then anyone can choose the PM Red for public use shortcut and since the users facility is not enabled for this group students using this shortcut will not be asked to log in Click here for the Contents page Installation Each of the PM Gems Software packages comes on a dual platform CD suitable for Windows and Macintosh Some of the following details vary according to which platform you are using In such cases please refer to the Windows or Macintosh section as appropriate Greygum Software does not copy protect its software and it has on approval and site licence policies that are more favourable to schools than is the case with many other software publishers Please read through the sections on registration and l
19. e the users feature is disabled This means there is no list of users at all This has the advantage that the software is immediately available for use and that anyone can use it students are not asked to log in by name However there is the disadvantage that students progress can t be recorded as the computer doesn t know who is using the software Having a single list of named users You may at any time choose to enable the users facility described in detail on page 11 in the Teacher options chapter After enabling users the teacher must type in the names of all the people who are to be on the list of users When this has been done students are asked to select their name from the list of users whenever the software starts As the computer now knows who is using the software it is able to keep track of each student s progress and the teacher can inspect the progress of any student at any time It is however best not to have too many people on the list as it becomes too long to be easily manageable We recommend that at most one class forms a user group Click here for the Contents page 4 Having many groups of users If the number of people using the software is too big to fit easily on one list the next step is to create one or more additional user groups A new user group can be created using the Teacher options described more fully on page 18 The new user group will have its ow
20. e hearing in which case the Hear button will not be shown though students can still click on an individual word to hear it Three different hearing settings are provided one applies to reading one applies to questions and activities and one to writing where speech is of course not pre recorded but uses any text to speech engine that your computer has Items It is possible to choose which books Teacher options items Use the squares at the left to enable or disable each of the books if certain books or Kitty Cat and the Bird certain questions or activities are too hard for these students To do this click on I The photo book the Items button diagram Teacher 7 8 CACHE 7 For books that are enabled reading the book is always available This leads to the Back YELLOW represents questions activities that are available and n 3 GREY represents questions or activities that are disabled dialog illustrated in Click on a yellow or grey item to change it diagram Teacher 6 on the right are available to the Questions Activities user group and also Little Teddy and Monkey 4 5 6 9 to disable individual Holiday Time 9 questions or activities Sally s Snowman 9 You may wish to do Raccoon Wakes Up 9 this for example Balloons Go Pop 9 9 9 9 ol al al aol al a a ao o wl wl wl wl wl wl wl wl wl w ajajaj oe eo ajajaja alal
21. en double click on the Installer icon and follow the instructions that appear Registration The first time you run the PM Gems Software a dialog will appear asking you to register your copy by entering your name or else to click on the Evaluation button If the software is on approval you should not register it and you may use it only for testing and evaluation purposes Once you have purchased the package enter the name of the person or institution that has purchased the software Make sure that your spelling is correct Please note that the registration process does not involve any codes or on line authentication it just stamps the software with the name of the purchasing institution which is displayed in the main menu Installing on a network You may not install the software on a network unless you have a site licence Please read the Installing the software section first then these additional notes The PM Gems Software is designed to work on a network no special network version is needed We recommend that the installation should be performed from a workstation rather than directly at the server and that it should be undertaken by the network supervisor or a privileged user who should remain at the workstation and run the software for the first time after installation The supervisor should then register the software and set a teacher password Click here for the Contents page 8 Wind
22. ese aliases should be created individually rather than copied If you wish you may change the location of the data files Move the User_PGR folder to a new location After this existing aliases may no longer point to the correct location If necessary they should be re directed by selecting the alias choosing File Get Info then selecting Select New Original For this reason we recommend that if you wish to change the location of the data files you do this before creating new user groups If as a result of changing their location the data files are on a different volume from the installation folder ensure that both volumes are mounted on all workstations that wish to use the software Click here for the Contents page 21 Driving the software The main controls In nearly all situations students control the software by clicking on control buttons Many of these buttons are grouped into a control panel which students can choose to place either on the left or on the right of the screen Because of the difficulty some very young users have controlling the mouse these buttons are generally large and obvious they become highlighted when the mouse passes over them and users can if their mouse has two or more buttons use either the left or the right mouse button when clicking on these buttons Some of the buttons are shown in diagram Driving 1 Students generally learn quickly how to use the co
23. g on buttons and in particular with the idea of using the Next button to move on from one stage to the next t makes it easier for children to find their own log in button in future Teachers who find that students are using this face change facility too much can use Teacher options to disable or limit its use see Log in face on page 16 Click here for the Contents page 23 Menu items The PM Gems Software also provides some menu items which are generally intended for adult use rather than for student use The various menu items are as follows File gt Change user Use this when one student stops using the software and another student from the same user group wants to start It is equivalent to quitting the software and then restarting it but it achieves this more quickly File Print This allows the current screen to be printed By default printing is disabled Refer to page 17 for more details such as how to enable printing The print menu leads to a dialog that on Windows computers allows you to choose a printer and to set such details as the print quality and the page orientation portrait or landscape for the selected printer before finally deciding to proceed with printing or to cancel On Macintosh computers much the same applies except that it is not possible to choose the page orientation portrait or landscape from the print dialog There is a separate menu item File gt Page
24. icensing arrangements and ensure that you and your educational institution comply with them Copyright and licensing Software must be purchased before it may be installed or used with the sole exception of software obtained on approval which may be installed and run for evaluation and testing purposes only If you decide against purchasing software ordered on approval all copies and installed versions must be deleted from all storage devices when you return the original package If you have purchased one copy of the software you may install and use the software on one computer only You may not unless you have a site licence install the software on more than one computer nor copy it onto a network In Australia and New Zealand the purchase of two or more copies of a given package constitutes a site licence and this allows you to install the software onto many stand alone computers Windows or Macintosh and to install the software onto networks provided that all the computers with access to the software are owned or leased by the purchasing institution and are permanently situated on a single campus of that institution There is no limit to the number of computers allowed to access the software If you wish to access the software on computers used off site or if you require a site licence for some other situation not covered by the above please contact Greygum Software or your local distributor Site licence arrangements in
25. information for local installations page 6 and further suggestions for networks page 7 but essentially you install this software just like any other software With Windows installations you will be asked to choose a location for the program executables and fixed data files and another location for files to which the software writes Warning Program Files and My Documents are not suitable for this For more details refer to the Installation chapter page 5 Once installed the software runs without needing the CD to be in the CD drive On a network a supervisor or someone with full network rights should install the software register it and set a teacher password We strongly recommend that you install the software to the server from a workstation rather than directly at the server itself Teacher password Immediately after installation you should go into Teacher options and set a teacher password For full details see page 11 User groups When the software is first installed anyone can use it The computer does not keep track of students progress because it does not know who is using the software In due course it is likely that you will want to create one or more user groups The concept of user groups and how to control them is explained in the Users and user groups chapter on page 3 Settings The software allows you to vary the settings which control things like exactly which bo
26. le to launch the software Text to speech engines Nearly all the words and sentences that the computer needs to speak are pre recorded However there are a few situations such as the school s name or the users names where the words are unpredictable and so can t be pre recorded If the user clicks on these words the computer will attempt to use any text to speech engine that may be installed to speak the word in question The text to speech engine is also used when students choose to write their own version of a story When the student clicks Hear the computer will use its text to speech facility to attempt to pronounce whatever has been written You may feel that this helps and encourages students but there is also a negative aspect to this in that it rewards phonic spelling such as sed for said Teachers can go into settings part of the Teacher Options and enable or disable this facility for hearing sentences using a text to speech engine when writing If your computer does not have text to speech facilities no error will be reported the computer will make no sound whenever there is no pre recorded speech Windows The software uses any compatible text to speech engine that may be installed on your system Most recent versions of Windows such as XP and Vista include a built in engine but other versions may require you to obtain and install an engine Macintosh To determine if you have Apple s Text
27. n desktop icon Macintosh and Windows and start menu shortcut Windows only If for example you are using the Red level software and the new user group is called Fred s class a desktop icon PM Red for Fred s class will be created and members of this group should use this icon or the equivalent shortcut in the start menu system when they wish to launch the software After creating a new user group the teacher should exit the software and then use the new shortcut to restart the software as a member of the new Fred s class user group Initially just like when the software is first installed the users facility for the new Fred s class group will be turned off so the teacher should go into Teacher options set a password enable the users facility and type in the names of the users for this new group Any number of user groups can be created To start the Red level software students in the Fred s class group should use the PM Red for Fred s class shortcut and they will then be asked to choose their name from the list of users in this user group Equally the teacher of this group when inspecting progress will see only the students from the Fred s class user group A network manager can even arrange that the Fred s class shortcut appears only on the computers in the relevant classroom By having several user groups each containing only a few students it is mu
28. ntrols but occasionally may need help with the Driving 1 idea that they should control buttons use the Next button to proceed to the next page question or activity click on a finger button to select an answer to a question 9 Students should also be told that as well as clicking on the Hear button to hear a whole phrase or sentence they can also click on an individual word to hear it spoken This is an extremely useful facility for children who can read much of the text but need assistance with a few of the words Dragging with the mouse The menu screens reading and the questions are controlled entirely by clicking on buttons In many of the activities students also need to drag an object or some text around the screen Because some young children find it difficult to move the mouse while keeping a button pressed the software provides two methods of dragging The software automatically accepts whichever method is used some children even unconsciously switch between the two methods Click here for the Contents page 22 Normal dragging Point to the object that is to be dragged then press and hold down the mouse button Move the mouse to the required new position then release the button This is of course how mouse dragging normally works Alternative dragging Point to the object that is to be dragged and then click press and release the mouse button The object will become stuck
29. oks questions and activities are available when the computer speaks the text how the moving red underline behaves and whether printing is permitted The default settings are fine to start with but later on you may wish to alter the settings Each user group has its own settings Full details are given in the Teacher options chapter from page 14 onwards Click here for the Contents page Overview What is the PM Gems Software The PM Gems Software consists of five packages at the Magenta Red Yellow Blue and Green levels in ascending order of difficulty Each software package features all ten of the PM Gems books for that level and except for the Magenta level also includes two additional books from the PM Story Books See www thomsonlearning com au for full details of the entire PM Library range of books teacher materials software and other resources Reading Students can read each book on the computer The text and illustrations from the books are displayed page by page Students can listen to the text being read as pre recorded speech using an Australian accent with an optional red underline that highlights each word as it is spoken which encourages the student to follow the text and to associate each word with its sound and its meaning in context Writing Students can write their own version of each story and can save and subject to the teacher settings print their stories Questions For each of
30. ons Click here to inspect the progress of individual users Hitting the ESCAPE key always e It is available only if Users has been enabled brings you back a level This allows you to inspect or change the settings There is Setti i If you have several user groups ettings no need to alter any settings unless you really want tol remember that each group has Use this only after yau hi d thi l its own separate settings S hele fle and you are sure Create new user group what it does You should always create a password to avoid accidental or malicious misuse of the Exit Click here to leave Teacher options teacher facilities Teacher 2 the main Teacher options menu Click here for the Contents page 11 Teacher password It is strongly recommended that you set a password immediately after you install the Password software or create a new user group If you don t it is very likely that a student will gain access to Teacher options and set a password that you don t know To set or alter the teacher password for a given user group click on Password from the main teacher menu shown in diagram Teacher 2 Type in the required password then hit ENTER Finished or click on Finished see diagram Teacher 3 To remove a password click Finished without typing anything in the box Teacher 3 creating a password Remember that this password
31. or or word processor On a network students should choose an appropriate folder to which they are permitted to write files to save their story Note that it is unwise to alter the saved text in some other application and then attempt to open the altered version back into the PM Gems Software or to try to open the text written for one story when a different story has been selected The results may look rather odd Rather than starting with blank pages students can use the Load original story menu item to load the text as it appears in the original printed book which they can then alter to create their own version File gt Exit Students can use this to quit at any time However we recommend that students should quit by returning to the main menu then using the Exit button In accordance with the conventions for different operating systems this item appears as File gt Exit in Windows but in Mac OS X it appears as Quit PM Red in the PM Red menu and similarly for other colours The Page Question or Activity menu The name of this menu will vary according to whether the student is reading writing answering questions or doing activities Generally students should work through in order using the Next button to move on to the next page question or activity However this menu makes it possible to jump directly to a particular page question or activity The Help menu There are two items in this
32. or the Contents page The main progress window shown in diagram Teacher 5 gives a summary of the progress of everyone in the group by showing each student s score This score is made up of one point for each page read two points for each question answered and three points for each activity completed This list can be arranged either in alphabetical order of name or in numerical order of score To keep a permanent record of these results click on Copy list to clipboard You can then paste the results into your favourite text editor or word processor from which you can print them or save them To inspect the details of a given user click on the name then click on Details or just double click the name This leads to a visual display of the individual s progress diagram Teacher 6 Green the light shade in the diagram shows items completed and red the dark shade shows items not yet completed If the teacher has disabled any items they will be shown as blank So in Teacher options inspect progress 13 O Zebidee 65 TEACHER 68 David 153 Anne The list at the right shows the names of the users and their score The score gives a rough guide to their progress the bigger the score the more reading questions and activities they have completed You can sort this list alphabetically by name or in increasing order of score You can also copy the list to the clipboard then p
33. other countries may be different consult your local distributor or email us at Greygum Software for more details Click here for the Contents page 6 System requirements The CD is dual platform and contains both Windows and Macintosh versions of the software Images are designed for screens set to at least 24 bit or 32 bit colour Windows or millions of colours Mac Acceptable but slightly reduced quality will be obtained with 16 bit colour Windows or thousands of colours Mac Older computers and computers with primitive video cards will have a substantially slower performance generally and poorer graphical effects when objects are dragged across the screen but should still allow the software to run Windows The Windows software is suitable for all 32 bit versions of Windows such as Vista XP NT ME 2000 98 95 and all subsequent versions that are 32 bit compatible Macintosh The Mac version is Universal software that will run natively on both Intel and Power PC Macs It requires Mac OS X version 10 2 8 or later Installing the software This section gives details about how to install the software for the first time to a single stand alone computer Later sections give further details about installing on a network Once the installation is complete you no longer need the CD in the drive for the normal operation of the software Please also refer to the text file README TXT Window
34. ows When asked for the location for the program files and program data specify the location on your server where you normally store program files As you are installing from a workstation this name will normally be a UNC name starting with something like server and can be selected using the browser provided in the installer by starting with My Network Places For the location of the data files remember that students need to write to these files during the normal operation of the software because for example their progress is recorded in these files Choose a common network location to which all users have read write access and which is shared by all users Do not choose a location that is different for different users Macintosh Install exactly as for a stand alone machine but specify a destination on the server Use from other workstations To use the software from other workstations no further installation is needed The network supervisor should create shortcuts or icons Windows or aliases Macintosh on all workstations similar to the ones created during installation On Windows machines be sure that both the Target and the Start In fields of each new shortcut are the same as in the original shortcut For Macintosh each new alias should point to the same data file PM Red that the original alias points to and similarly for other colours See also Creating shortcuts on page 19 How to s
35. r options users Choose whether users is enabled or not With users enabled you can add or remove individual users from the list at the right or can remove all users Disabled Users do not log in and their progress is not recorded Anyone can use the software and the list at the right is ignored Enabled Users log in by name chosen from the list at the right and each user s progress is recorded Finished Add user Remove user Remove ALL Teacher 4 users To remove a single user from the list first click on the name to highlight it then click Remove user To remove all users for example at the start of a new school year click on Remove ALL Note that it is never possible to remove the user named TEACHER This user must always exist so that access to Teacher options is possible Inspecting progress To inspect students progress click on Progress from the main Teacher options menu This will be available only if users has been enabled see page 11 This facility gives you a summary of the progress of all students in this user group and also lets you inspect the progress of any individual student in detail Remember that different user groups are totally separate You can inspect progress only of members of the current user group To inspect a different user group you must exit the software and start again using the shortcut for that user group Click here f
36. s or Read Me Macintosh on the CD for the most up to date information which may supersede details given in either the printed manual or the PDF version of the manual Windows A menu will usually appear a little while after you insert the CD From this menu click on Install now to start installing If the menu fails to appear you can start the installer by running SETUP EXE on the CD or from the Add or Remove Programs item in the Control Panel When the installer starts follow the instructions that appear Click here for the Contents page 7 You will be asked to specify a location for the program the executables and the fixed program data we recommend the Program Files folder You will also be asked for a location for the data files to which the software writes such as those that record students progress Choose a location that is the same for all users of the computer and to which all users have write access Suitable locations include somewhere inside Shared Documents or Application Data Note that My Documents and Program Files are not suitable locations because they may be different locations for different users or are unsuitable for files that get updated Generally the default locations suggested by the installer will be fine Macintosh Mount the CD then double click on the PM Red CD icon for the Red level software and similar icons for the other colours Th
37. tart the software Windows For the Red level software for example click on Start Programs PM Gems and then click on the shortcut PM Red If several user groups have been created for Red level there will be several additional shortcuts with names such as PM Red for Fred s class If you installed several of the PM Gems Software packages there will also be similar shortcuts to the Magenta Yellow Blue or Green software and for any additional user groups that have been created Choose the appropriate shortcut Alternatively double click on the equivalent desktop icon Click here for the Contents page Macintosh To start the Red level software double click on the desktop alias PM Red and similarly for the other colours If additional user groups have been created double click on the appropriate desktop alias such as PM Red for Fred s class but note that the creation of these desktop aliases is an option during the process of creating user groups so the aliases may not have been created If desktop aliases don t exist navigate to the User_PGR folder for PM Gems Red level and similar names for other colours where there will be data files for each user group with names like PM Red for Fred s class This User_PGR folder will be in the installation folder unless you moved it elsewhere When you have found this folder double click on the required data fi
38. te new user group button in the Teacher options menu On a network this should be done by the network supervisor or someone with adequate rights to create new files You will be asked to type in a name for the new group Choose a short name such as Fred s class and avoid having several groups with names that start similarly such as Year 1 and Year 2 and Year 3 The computer will first create a data file for this group If it fails to create the file you probably do not have adequate network rights If it finds an existing file for a group of this name you will have the choice of scrapping the old file and losing any data it holds or keeping the old file If in doubt keep the old file as you can always opt to create the same group again later and choose to scrap the existing file The computer will then create a desktop icon and for Windows only a start menu shortcut in the program folder of your choice for the new user group These shortcuts will have a name like PM Red for Fred s class If on a network these shortcuts are not created it is probably because you have inadequate rights You should then exit from the software and start it again using one of these new shortcuts As with a new installation there will be no teacher password and the users facility will be turned off You should go into Teacher options set a teacher password enable users and type in the n
39. that control and further TAB keypresses will move the mouse pointer through all the available controls highlighting each in turn The ENTER or SPACE keys if hit while one of the control buttons is highlighted are equivalent to clicking the mouse on that control This facility allows limited control of the software by a double switch device Make one switch equivalent to hitting the TAB key and use this to move through the various control buttons in turn Make the other switch equivalent to hitting the ENTER or SPACE key and use this to activate the required control button This allows control of the menus face changing and the Reading and Questions sections of the software It does not however allow the Activities or Writing sections to be adequately controlled Click here for the Contents page THOMSON NELSON nelson thomsonlearning com au www thomsonlearning com au GREYGUM SOFTWARE support greygum com au www greygum com au
40. the books the software provides a number of questions that test both the students comprehension of the story and their knowledge of its vocabulary Activities Various activities are provided that deal with and reinforce the vocabulary and story for each book These include phonic spelling activities sentence completion exercises and other activities specific to the particular story Teacher facilities In addition the software includes many teacher facilities including the ability to create user groups each with its own settings which affect the difficulty and presentation of the software and to track the progress of each student Click here for the Contents page Users and user groups What are users and user groups The PM Gems Software includes facilities for keeping track of students progress but obviously the computer needs to know who is using the software This can be achieved by having one or more lists of users It is important to understand this concept and this chapter gives an overview of user groups There are essentially three different ways of using the PM Gems Software These are to have e no record of who is using the software or asingle list of users or several different lists of users The students on each list make up a user group The possibilities are explained in more detail in the following paragraphs Public use without a user list When you first install the softwar
41. themselves so you may wish to point out this facility to your students As a general observation most right handed students seem to prefer the control panel at the right while left handed students are less predictable If you wish use the settings to force the control panel to be always at the right or always at the left If you choose either of these settings the small triangles will not appear Teacher 9 the Log in face control panel Students are able to create their own log in face by clicking on the Change face button Most students find this an entertaining activity and having their individual face helps them find their name at the log in screen Choosing a face also serves to introduce students to the control panel and the idea of clicking on the Next button to proceed You may find that students over use this facility at the expense of time spent on the rest of the software The settings let you permit students to use the change face facility disable the facility or allow each student to use it once only We recommend that you initially leave the facility enabled but then disable it after a few days if it is being over used Phonics Several activities such as spelling exercises involve the computer speaking a letter or sound and two different versions of these sounds are available Using the letter F as an example the name of the letter is pronounced eff but for the sound that it makes you
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