Educational software

[Douglas Loss <dloss@csrlink.net>]

Forwarding my reply to Michael.

Douglas Loss wrote:
> 
> Michael A Hamblin wrote:
> >
> > I saw it in the LWN.  I have thought about the subject off and on but I
> > haven't ever posted anything anywhere (I'm alregic to posting to Usenet :)
> > I also thought about some sort of bindings between a common easy to
> > program language (like Perl! I love perl..) to a graphical vector&bezier
> > sprite-like environment... too bad I don't know how to do vector/bezier,
> > X11 programming, or language binding :)  But a bit of stuff that did that
> > would be good start to a toolkit for doing educational software.
> >
> It occurs to me that there are two separate concepts here for
> educational software--canned educational programs on the order of
> "MathBlaster" or "Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?", and
> authorware programs to allow educators and interested parents to create
> their own educational programs.  For the first, I doubt that it matters
> to the end user what they're written in, so long as they run properly.
> For the second, a simple, clear scripting language is probably required,
> and a graphical, click-and-drag design app would probably be very
> helpful.
> 
> > A toolset that
> > was free and based on
> > an already stable programming language would make it possible for other
> > Linux'ers to develop educational software.  This would also be cool
> > because I could finally have that Calculus Trainer program that would've
> > been so handy a few years back when I was struggling :)
> >
> > I think it needs to be based on an
> > existing language/s, for stability, and preferable something simple so
> > people without much programming experience (schoolteachers) can use it.
> >
> OK, that's definitely my second concept.
> 
> > I also haven't mentioned sound system yet, first step would be a midi
> > player with on/off and instrument control and a simple soundfile playback
> > (like a wav).  [...]
> > But that way any teacher/developer could download a
> > voice to use and apply it with a minimum of effort.  That's a bit in the
> > future... if you were to code it all from scratch.  I think the pieces are
> > out there they just need to be put together and refined.
> >
> You'd need ties to OSS or possibly Gimmick (I just saw it announced on
> freshmeat.net; I don't know anything about it beyond that).  I agree
> that it shouldn't be recreated from scratch; all this should build on
> and integrate with existing system services.
> 
> > For the video system, vectors with beziers would be nice because they
> > would allow scaling rotation and sprite changes fairly simply.  It should
> > be set up so that a sprite can be a collection of sprites that can be
> > changed quickle (to control blinking eyes and other facial features, a
> > tapping foot, canceling variables in equations, etc). <snip>
> 
> Do tools for non-programmers to develop these exist for Linux?  As I
> said before, to develop canned programs it may not matter, but for the
> educational and home user we probably need something on the order of
> HyperCard.

-- 
Doug Loss                 The more you observe politics, the
Data Network Coordinator  more you've got to admit that each
Bloomsburg University     party is worse than the other.
dloss@bloomu.edu              Will Rogers