Copyright 2011 Open University

Talk Factory Secondary Generic

Supporting young people‘s whole class discussions in secondary school

Copyright 2011 Open University

Downloading Talk Factory

1. Go to http://www8.open.ac.uk/creet/main/TalkFactory and click on the Talk Factory Secondary Generic download link

2. Select Save and navigate to where you want the software to save to e.g. desktop3. When the download is complete, click on Open Folder. 4. Navigate to the Talk Factory Secondary Generic WinZip file you have just downloaded (e.g. on your

desktop) and double click on it. You will see:

4. The file is zipped and you need to unzip it: right click on the Talk Factory folder5. Select ‘extract’ from the dropdown menu. 6. Navigate to where you want the file saved to: e.g. desktop. Click extract.7. The software will now appear in a folder called Talk Factory Secondary Generic on your desktop. Double

click on this folder. To run the software double click on the Talk Factory Executable Jar File:

Copyright 2011 Open University

Talk Factory is designed to generate graphical representations of the content of students' whole class discussions in real time. It is designed for use on an Interactive Whiteboard.

Start using Talk Factory by tapping on the ‘click here to begin’ button

Tailoring Talk Factory to your needs

TO START A NEW TALK FACTORY FILE (do not complete this if you want to open a saved file from a previous lesson)First enter a file name, class name, date and time. This will enable you to go back to this file in future. The file will be saved automatically (as an Excel file) to your desktop.

TO EDIT THE TALK FACTORY RULESHere, you can edit the rules for talking which appear in Talk Factory. We recommend you use the existing default rules initially. Once your class has mastered these rules, you can enter new ones. The first line is the rule and subsequent lines are examples of that rule in practice.There are three positive rules on the left and three negative rules on the right.Note: there is a limit to how much text you can type into the rules boxes.

TO OPEN A SAVED FILE: click ‘Open saved file’. Navigate to the (excel) file you want to open and click OK.

Copyright 2011 Open University

Copyright 2011 Open University

Talk Factory Classic screen

The Classic screen can be used to support whole class discussion in any lessons on any topic.

Click on ‘Classic’ to enter Talk Factory.

Copyright 2011 Open University

Classic Screen

• The Classic screen can be used to represent students' discussion in any lesson

• The processes of argumentation are represented in Talk Factory as six talk rules (both positive and negative elements of argumentation)

• Sentence openers are displayed to guide students' understanding of how to begin dialogic responses that follow these rules

• The software requires you to tap on each rule as a child makes an utterance. It then transforms your input into a bar graph quantifying the occurrence of each event

• The horizontal bar shows the unfolding sequence, or timeline, of desirable ('happy face') and undesirable ('sad face') events.

Using the OPTIONS button

When you right click on the options button you can:

1. Undo your last action. You can repeat this as many times as you wish2. Save and return to menu. This saves your filet and returns to the menu (as shown on the previous page)3. Close the application. When you close the application the software automatically saves

Copyright 2011 Open University

Thank you for using Talk Factory

The Open University is keen to hear your feedback. This will help us to improve future versions of the software.

Please visit the Talk Factory website and enter your comments http://www8.open.ac.uk/creet/main/TalkFactory