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Re: While of on the subject of ideas for programs.
>
> How about a flash card application -- using two networked linux boxes, both
> running X windows, you could have a program run on the teacher's workstation
> (where the student[s] can not see the monitor), have it display a flashcard
> with the picture/question/whatever (along with the answer), and have the
> same thing (minus the answer) display on the student's X server.
>
> This is something you could not easily do with Windows. It is something
> you could very easily do with Linux/Unix/X Windows.
I'd do it with a Java client and a CORBA server (Java, C, C++, whatever) on
a Linux box. This way the client is platform independent and the server
is robust. Why I'd also avoid using X and X apps is that my skills in
X/GTK/whatever GUI programming are a lot lousier than my skills in coding
Java.
I think this is where CdG's project has some strong points. As he stated in
his message to the list, thinking of Linux in school systems sometime soon
will not be an entirely realistic train of thought. Don't get me wrong,
I'm a Linux advocate, but I also see that schools that have just invested
large sums of money on Macs or Windows xx boxes won't be throwing them away
either. The awarness we can raise is for servers and new computers. Platform
independence does have the additional benefit of reaching the machines already
there.
>
>
> You could have alot of variations on it...have it keep a tally of the student's
> answers (right/wrong), display multiple choice, and track the student's
> response (a b c d or e, have the student choose their answer, and score
> them on it). For math, you could build questions/euqations that have
> numeric answers, and have the students enter them right into the gui.
>
> Now that I'm thinking about it, you could probably take this even further,
> and develop an automated, network based testing system for an entire classroom.
> The tests/questions/answers could stay safely on the teacher's pc, and the
> software could do the display on the student's pcs -- so even savy student's
> would'nt be able to get at the test answers. Tie this in with gbook, or
> whatever other grading system, and you've just removed a bunch of overhead/work
> from the teacher.
>
For some comments on multiple choice test, see:
http://www.ils.nwu.edu/information/edoutrage6.html
I had quite a few laughs while reading that one...
ramin
--
Ramin Miraftabi Assistant, Department of Computer Science
ramin@cs.joensuu.fi University of Joensuu
http://dawn.joensuu.fi/~ramin/ Joensuu, Finland
PGP public key ID 9F7B3E51 (c) Copyright 1999