[math4] FourthGradeMath Digest, Vol 2, Issue 39

[Stephen Jacobs]

yay. spoke with vp of exhibitions at the conf this week as well.

Sent from my iPhone

On Mar 28, 2009, at 9:00 AM, fourthgrademath- 
request at lists.sugarlabs.org wrote:

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> Today's Topics:
>
>   1. Strong Museum Follow-up (Karlie Robinson)
>   2. Re: FourthGradeMath Digest, Vol 2, Issue 37 (Brian Long)
>   3. Quiz/Question API Proposal (Enimihil)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 27 Mar 2009 15:33:11 -0400
> From: Karlie Robinson <karlie_robinson at webpath.net>
> Subject: [math4] Strong Museum Follow-up
> To: fourthgrademath at lists.sugarlabs.org
> Message-ID: <49CD29F7.7020703 at webpath.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> I spoke with the Collections Manager at the Strong Museum today.
>
> They do have an XO in the collection but it's not on display and they
> would welcome a second XO.
>
> It will take about a month for the museum to determine if they will  
> take
> the donation and if they do, we will be given an opportunity to name  
> who
> the donation is from.  "A gift from [someone]"
>
> Good news is that it can be a gift from more than one group so from  
> the
> Fedora Ambassadors and OLPC etc.
>
> So while things are up in the air on a donation, I did suggest that we
> could hold an event at the museum with the Grass Roots folks in  
> Western
> NY at the Museum.  After all, the public may not get their hands on  
> the
> XO if it's behind glass but if our people bring machines for the  
> public
> to explore and play with it could present a good opportunity for  
> Fedora,
> OLPC, SugarLabs and Math4.
>
> I'll keep you updated as info becomes available
>
> ~Karlie
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Fri, 27 Mar 2009 16:03:03 -0400
> From: Brian Long <brilong87 at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [math4] FourthGradeMath Digest, Vol 2, Issue 37
> To: Mel Chua <mel at melchua.com>
> Cc: fourthgrademath at lists.sugarlabs.org
> Message-ID:
>    <e2c25ac50903271303u2ea10360m35199e9cd721aa3b at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Mel,
>
> Thanks for the help.  I do believe most of us were able to get on  
> the IRC
> today.  We do come from a very broad range as far as programming and
> technical skill goes though.  I think the next step for a lot of us  
> will be
> setting up the development environment to code and then run Sugar on  
> top of
> our OS or on another machine...
>
> My last question was pretty amateur, sorry about that.  From now on,  
> I'm
> full speed ahead with Python!  Thanks to
> http://delicious.com/force
>
> for this bookmark:
> http://dirtsimple.org/2004/12/python-is-not-java.html
>
> -Brian Long
> bbl5660 at rit.edu
>
>
> On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 9:35 AM, Mel Chua <mel at melchua.com> wrote:
>
>> Moving this thread to sugar-devel as well. Most general "how do I  
>> set up
>> $environment?" questions regarding Sugar development get answered  
>> faster
>> there. ;)
>>
>> If you need help setting up a Sugar dev environment, the #sugar  
>> channel on
>> freenode is an awesome place to go - did the class get an intro to  
>> IRC yet*?
>>
>> --Mel
>>
>> *If not, this sentence may sound incoherent to a lot of people  
>> here...
>>
>>
>> Brian Long wrote:
>>
>>> all,
>>>
>>> Is there any means of running sugar or python via a JVM?
>>>
>>> -Brian Long
>>> bbl5660 at rit.edu
>>>
>>
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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Fri, 27 Mar 2009 22:32:03 -0400
> From: Enimihil <enimihil at gmail.com>
> Subject: [math4] Quiz/Question API Proposal
> To: fourthgrademath at lists.sugarlabs.org
> Message-ID:
>    <388d1ac00903271932m1b6f5d3aqdb11ea5e978d0039 at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
>
> Hello all,
>
> This is my first post so I guess I should introduce myself a bit. ?I'm
> Greg S., one of the RIT students in the class working on the Math4
> goals, and something that I've mentioned might be a good idea a few
> times now is a shared library/API for quiz questions/drilling so that
> activity developers can leverage content and easily use questions
> written in a variety of formats, from a variety of sources.
>
> Inline below is a simple outline of a proposal for an API along those
> lines, with a few notes on implementation at the end. ?Just trying to
> propose something to save and/or centralize some common work that
> needs to be done for a variety of activities.
>
> =================================
> Sugar Quiz API Preliminary Design
> =================================
>
> Motivation
> ==========
>
> In the RIT class working on the Math4 projects, many proposed  
> activities
> require a question database of some kind. ?A common API or library for
> accessing databases in different formats, stored either locally or  
> remotely,
> along with a simple mechanism to determine more complex formatting or
> presentation than simple text (e.g. to include simple graphics or
> mathematical notation) would cover a majority of the cases where the
> activity needs some configurable "curriculum data".
>
> Eventually this library could be extended to provide hints,  
> explanations, or
> walkthroughs for questions, in addition to the basic metadata about  
> level,
> grouping, difficulty, and subject matter that would be part of the  
> base
> system.
>
> Envisioned Usage
> ================
>
> Consider a simple flash-card-like activity. ?It presents a question  
> from a
> list of questions, allows the student to select an answer from the  
> provided
> answers for the question or to enter their own answer. ?Then the  
> correct
> answer is revealed and the student it told whether their answer is  
> correct.
> If the question has an explanation of the correct answer, the flash- 
> card
> activity will show the explanation of the correct answer. ?(Note  
> that this
> is just a simple usage example, the interaction design of a drilling
> activity could be markedly different.)
>
> The flash-card activity would use this proposed Quiz API for the  
> following:
>
> ? ?- Loading the questions from the storage location into memory. This
> ? ? ?includes any filtering or network lookup to download the  
> questions
> ? ? ?from a remote resource and select appropriate questions for the
> ? ? ?student.
>
> ? ?- Determining whether the student has entered a correct answer.
>
> ? ?- Rendering the question to a simple widget/canvas. (i.e. pass the
> ? ? ?library a GtkCanvas or similar and tell it to display the  
> question)
>
> To start with, the library would simply be a time-saving tool for  
> developers
> needing similar functionality, but as the XS (School Server) becomes  
> more
> fully developed the library should integrate the functions provided  
> by the
> XS to enable automated update of course material for the current  
> topic of
> study so the students can drill material using any tool they prefer,  
> while
> still reporting progress to the instructor using the XS services.
>
> Proposed API
> ============
>
> The Quiz API would be a python library, to act mostly as glue between
> various file formats (and local or remote resources) for question  
> data and
> the Gtk graphical environment, providing a simple way to consistently
> present and layout questions.
>
> ? ?:quizdata.open(uri, [cache=False]):
> ? ? ? ?Opens a URI, returning a list of quizdata.Question  
> instances. ?A
> ? ? ? ?standard method of filtering question data based on parameters
> ? ? ? ?should be specified. ?Examples of URIs that might be used::
>
> ? ? ? ? ? ?http://xs-server/math4class/current_topic?level=4&difficulty=hard&format=moodle
>
> ? ? ? ? ? ?file:///var/lib/mathquestions/quiz1? 
> level=4&difficulty=hard&format=xml
>
> ? ? ? ? ? ?xmpp://teacheraccount@xs.server/classname? 
> difficulty=hard&level=4
>
> ? ? ? ?The cache parameter would locally save the retrieved  
> questions to a
> ? ? ? ?persistent storage so requests from the same URI (with  
> cache=True)
> ? ? ? ?would read from the cache.
>
> ? ?:class quizdata.Question:
> ? ? ? ?This class contains individual data for a question:
> ? ? ? ? ? ?- The question text
> ? ? ? ? ? ?- The style of answer (incl. multiple-choice, numeric, free
> ? ? ? ? ? ? ?response, etc.)
> ? ? ? ? ? ?- The correct answer (or if the question is subjective,  
> that
> ? ? ? ? ? ? ?there *is* no correct answer).
> ? ? ? ? ? ?- Question difficulty
> ? ? ? ? ? ?- Grade level
> ? ? ? ? ? ?- Tags (for free-form grouping by topic, course,  
> instructor,
> ? ? ? ? ? ? ?etc.)
>
> ? ? ? ?The question text and answers should support at least minimal
> ? ? ? ?markup, like that supported by pango, in addition to markup
> ? ? ? ?rendering with MathML/LaTeX syntax.
>
> ? ? ? ?.. note::
> ? ? ? ? ? ?The attributes listed above will should grow standardized  
> names
> ? ? ? ? ? ?and be documented as part of the interface to the Question
> ? ? ? ? ? ?class, to allow for fine-grained for activity controlled
> ? ? ? ? ? ?rendering of the Question, if the simple show() call is not
> ? ? ? ? ? ?appropriate.
>
> ? ? ? ?:Question.show(surface, x, y, [width=-1, [height=-1]]):
> ? ? ? ? ? ?Draw the question to the drawing surface at coordinates  
> (x,y)
> ? ? ? ? ? ?limited to the optionally specified width/height.
>
> ? ? ? ? ? ?This also should set up the appropriate input widgets for  
> the
> ? ? ? ? ? ?type of question (multiple-choice/free-response) and  
> handle the
> ? ? ? ? ? ?vents for those widgets.
>
> ? ? ? ?:Question.answered():
> ? ? ? ? ? ?Returns True if the student has provided an answer for the
> ? ? ? ? ? ?Question.
>
> ? ? ? ?:Question.submitted():
> ? ? ? ? ? ?Returns True if the student has submitted an answer for the
> ? ? ? ? ? ?Question.
>
> ? ? ? ?:Question.correct():
> ? ? ? ? ? ?Returns True if the currently selected answer is correct  
> for the
> ? ? ? ? ? ?Question.
>
> ? ? ? ?:Question.answer():
> ? ? ? ? ? ?Returns the answer the student has currently selected, or  
> None
> ? ? ? ? ? ?if no answer has been entered.
>
> ? ? ? ?:Question.clear():
> ? ? ? ? ? ?Removes the widgets and drawings that show() set up,  
> preparing
> ? ? ? ? ? ?the surface to receive the next question or other widgets.
>
>
> Implementation Issues
> ======================
>
> The implementation of this (deceptively simple) library will take some
> effort, in that it will be closely tied to the windowing/graphical  
> toolkit,
> PyGtk/Cairo/Pango rather directly, due to the high level of  
> abstraction.
> Additionally the URI lookup and question filtering based on  
> parameters will
> be necessary, as will interpreter the various format parsers  
> necessary to
> build the Question objects.
>
> For MathML support, the GtkMathView widget will need to be  
> available, so a
> certain amount of effort may be involved in packaging the library in a
> simple way for activity developers.
>
> Next Steps
> ==========
>
> Firstly, this API is being proposed and posted to the Math4 mailing  
> list for
> feedback and changes before any commitments to this interface is  
> decided.
> For any activity developers who are currently working on an activity  
> that
> could take advantage of such a system, or who have written similar
> functionality in an activity, your input on usage and the  
> naturalness of the
> API.
>
> Secondly, anyone who is interested in doing work on this library or  
> using
> the library in their activity should chime in, along with the  
> expected usage
> or how you can contribute.
>
> Greg S.
> --
> Email is packaged by intellectual weight, not volume. Some settling of
> contents may have occurred during transmission.
>
>
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>
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> End of FourthGradeMath Digest, Vol 2, Issue 39
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