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Re: Gradebook development
Hello, all!
I've just joined this SEUL list and 'd like to pour some fresh
thoughts (at least, they seem to be fresh)
I am sorry, I don't know at what stage of development grade
book really is. As I see you discussing the basics, it is
vaporware, my guess is.
On Sun, 15 Nov 1998, David Kirtley wrote:
>> On Sat, Nov 14, 1998 at 07:12:44PM -0500, EAMorical@aol.com wrote:
>> User Interface: text based version for teachers/students/countries stuck
>> with older equipment, Gnome/GUI version for those who are not.
>> (both versions continuously updated simultaneously)>
What about standard Linux design:
core + any number of frontends ?
The core could have some kind of CLUI/socket interface and
definite and clear set of commands/requests
The core should be developed, along with some trivial default frontend.
Then some people, unsatisfied, could easily build their favorite
Tcl/Tk, Perl, Java, Gtk, Qt, ncurses, slang .... etc
>If we work on the data model first, it could be a simple matter of porting it
>to any and all interface models. A text based interface is the lowest common
>denominator. If the data model is present, it could be accessed with whichever
>model GUI tool desired, from tc/tk, python, perl, GNOME/GTK, kde/QT, JAVA, or
Yes, data model is what must be handled by the core!
>Grades
>Assignments
>Eligibilities
>Attendance
>Materials
>Planning
>Communication
>Data Analysis
(As for these sections, very important thing to be added to the above
list is
Visualisation (in data analysis?)
[ambitions skipped]
Probably, there could be some modest start, say, Grades and
Assignments, but always with extensibility in mind.
So, relational database (some SQL) is indeed a must here.
Gradebook can have a modular structure. This modularity will
allow independent and parallel development of the gradebook.
And, please, don't forget I18N !
(probably Unicode is right thing here: students names could be
very strange even in USA, and it will not look serious, if the
system will not be able to spell french, polish or spanish
names correctly!)
It may seem as crazy idea to you, but what about doing it
Web-based? You have server-side (say, Apache+PHP+PostgreSQL)
and any kind of client side (even lynx for low-end)... Well, I
know, it will not be specific to Linux, but nonetheless could
be one of the solutions: for example, students will be able to
check their progress from anywhere ;-) Teacher's workbench will
still must-be-Unix.
(But not Java - it will be too sloooowww.)
*
About myself:
I am a programmer at the educator's training center in Karelia
(North-West Russia). My site mainly directed to promote Linux
in russian education is here:
http://sampo.karelia.ru/~rnd/linuxplanet.html
(it's in russian, of course ;-)
The major problem with Linux in education, as you well know, is
lack of educational application (due to the lack of GNU
developers in this area ;-) and overall orientation on MS
technology (Russia has more IBM-compatibles, than Macs, but
Karelia has more m68k Macs in schools than IBMs - so, we are
kind of alternative).
The major area in which we have a hole in administrative
software is 'school lesson schedule'. All those are for Windos,
you know, and commercial.
Gradebook as such is not top priority here (computers are too
rare).
In educational software, top priority is computer science
environments for secondary school: right now it's Robotlandia,
which if ported to Linux will create tremendous desire to
follow... Then something for (computer science) in high
school. Like Pascal or structural Basic IDE...
*
I wish you luck with your undertaking and almost always ready
to help (if possible) in creation of (international) edu soft!
(And also I'd like to know what other freeware projects are
going on - please, mail me! As I don't know anything other than
Logo language being available!)
--
Roman A. Suzi
-- Petrozavodsk -- Karelia -- Russia --
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