Here is an activity I built.<br><br><a href="http://robertfant.com/Algebra1/eXe/Chapter4/solutions_dragndrop.html">http://robertfant.com/Algebra1/eXe/Chapter4/solutions_dragndrop.html</a><br><br>If I could use math expressions (symbols) in these text boxes (whether LaTeX or images), it would open things up tremendously. And I'm guessing that if I can figure out how to do it for any of the activities, it would be about the same for all of them.<br>
For instance, for the category, instead of "y = 2x + 1" if I could put the image of an actual graph in there, then the kids drag the points (solutions) into that category, etc., etc.<br><br>Unfortunately, if I'm understanding things correctly, all of the "Activities" have this "text only" limitation.<br>
<br>Though I am open to alternatives to the drag-n-drop idea, it cannot be denied that the kids (students), love the drag-n-drop thing. I can't explain why they get such a kick out of moving things around on the screen like that but, . . . if it gets them to do math then that's what I'll do. <br>
<br><br>Julian, have a thanked you for your help and patience lately?<br><br>Thank You Sir<br><br><br><br><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Jan 19, 2009 at 3:52 PM, Julian Tenney <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:Julian.Tenney@nottingham.ac.uk">Julian.Tenney@nottingham.ac.uk</a>></span> wrote:<br>
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<div dir="ltr"><font size="2" color="#000000" face="Arial">ahh - I see now - you want to do drag and drop with images in the template. Currently that functionalty isn't in there. I can look at it at some point. In the meantime, try thinking differently - does it have to be drag and drop? Think about the actual skill you want the learner to demonstrate - there is often an alternative to drag and drop,</font></div>
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<div dir="ltr"><font size="2" face="Arial">J</font></div></div>
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<font size="2" face="Tahoma"><div class="Ih2E3d"><b>From:</b> <a href="mailto:xerte-bounces@lists.nottingham.ac.uk" target="_blank">xerte-bounces@lists.nottingham.ac.uk</a> on behalf of Robert Fant<br></div><b>Sent:</b> Mon 19/01/2009 21:49<div>
<div></div><div class="Wj3C7c"><br><b>To:</b> Xerte discussion list<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [Xerte] More Questions<br></div></div></font><br></div><div><div></div><div class="Wj3C7c">
<div>Honestly, the "limitation" is my programming skills.<br><br>However, I can generally look at some code, figure some things out and tweak things to meet my needs.<br><br>What I would like to attempt is to create a drag-n-drop activity using the pageTemplate (wizards / templates), and tweak this code, using the logic that is created via the wizard. <br>
So, my question was, can I edit the XML file, to have it show (or refer to) a graphic rather than just that literal text that I placed in there via the wizard.<br><br><br>Does this make any sense?<br><br><br><br>Otherwise, does someone have a drag-n-drop.rlo file that I can download, open in raw Xerte, and inspect the logic, overall structure.<br>
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<div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Jan 19, 2009 at 3:23 PM, Julian Tenney <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:Julian.Tenney@nottingham.ac.uk" target="_blank">Julian.Tenney@nottingham.ac.uk</a>></span> wrote:<br>
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<div dir="ltr"><font size="2" color="#000000" face="Arial">use graphic icons to display graphics. I'm not sure what limitations you think you've found?</font></div></div>
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<div><b>From:</b> <a href="mailto:xerte-bounces@lists.nottingham.ac.uk" target="_blank">xerte-bounces@lists.nottingham.ac.uk</a> on behalf of Robert Fant<br><b>Sent:</b> Mon 19/01/2009 18:43<br></div>
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<div><b>To:</b> Xerte discussion list<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [Xerte] More Questions<br></div></div></font><br></div>
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<div>This line comes from an original XML file, (the target area):<br><br> <category name="y = 2x+ 1"><br><br> and it displays y = 2x + 1 exactly like that, which is as expected.<br><br>My question is; Instead of the XML file holding a literal text argument, can it hold a reference to (lets say) an image? And, instead of displaying this literal text, display the image instead?<br>
<br> <category name=" <image src=\"<a href="http://host.com/image/" target="_blank">http://host.com/image\</a>"> "><br><br><br><br>Only being able to display and use text in the activities is extremely limiting, especially in mathematics.<br>
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<div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Jan 19, 2009 at 3:51 AM, Julian Tenney <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:Julian.Tenney@nottingham.ac.uk" target="_blank">Julian.Tenney@nottingham.ac.uk</a>></span> wrote:<br>
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<p><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">I'm not sure what you're trying to do here, but anything's possible…?</span></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 36pt;"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-US">From:</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-US"> <a href="mailto:xerte-bounces@lists.nottingham.ac.uk" target="_blank">xerte-bounces@lists.nottingham.ac.uk</a> [mailto:<a href="mailto:xerte-bounces@lists.nottingham.ac.uk" target="_blank">xerte-bounces@lists.nottingham.ac.uk</a>] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Robert Fant<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Saturday, January 17, 2009 3:37 PM
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<div><br><b>To:</b> Xerte discussion list<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [Xerte] More Questions</div></div></span>
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<p style="margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-right: 0cm;">Not to belabor this but . . .<br><br>Is is possible that the XML entry could be the address to an image, rather than a literal text string? Even if I have to edit them by hand.<br>
<br><category name="y = 2x+ 1"><br><br>If I can get something like this to work (using math symbols in the activities), then I won't have to do any (much) scripting and the templates will work wonderfully. <br>
<br>+++++++++++++++<br><br>Otherwise, are there any other math folks (programmers), on the listserve that have figured this out. Have any math folks created a Learning Objective file such as this that they'd like to share?<br>
I believe that if I can see an example, I can dissect it and transfer the technique to create others. I just don't understand the application well enough to get started on such a project.<br><br>As you all can well imagine, this has been an ongoing struggle for mathematicians since the very beginning of the internet. Fantastic tools are being developed (such as Xerte), that lend themselves very nicely to all topics (except math). Those pesky symbols are necessary but get in the way of our (online) progress. <img width="12" height="12"> <br>
<br>Thanks for your time, patience, and consideration on this matter.<br><br>Robert</p>
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<p style="margin-left: 36pt;">On Fri, Jan 16, 2009 at 7:40 AM, Julian Tenney <<a href="mailto:Julian.Tenney@nottingham.ac.uk" target="_blank">Julian.Tenney@nottingham.ac.uk</a>> wrote:</p>
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<p style="margin-left: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">It's text only here, but if you use Xerte in it's raw form, it ought to b easy enough to have a dag and drop activity that lets you sort different types of latex into different groups.</span></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 72pt;"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-US">From:</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-US"> <a href="mailto:xerte-bounces@lists.nottingham.ac.uk" target="_blank">xerte-bounces@lists.nottingham.ac.uk</a> [mailto:<a href="mailto:xerte-bounces@lists.nottingham.ac.uk" target="_blank">xerte-bounces@lists.nottingham.ac.uk</a>] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Robert Fant<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Friday, January 16, 2009 1:20 PM<br><b>To:</b> Xerte discussion list<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [Xerte] More Questions</span></p></div>
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<p style="margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-left: 72pt; margin-right: 0cm;">Hey Thanks Julian,<br><br>I apologize for asking such a primitive question. I don't know how I missed that in my readings.<br>Nonetheless, I got it going and it works just like you said.<br>
<br>Hopefully this next question will not be so trivial.<br>I just created a "categorizing" activity, works great. <br>As I understand it, all "item" entries are stored in the XML file. Is it possible for the items to be LaTeX code/images (or any image type)? Or are we limited only to text here?<br>
I would guess that the answer to this will apply to all of the different activity entries.<br><br>Again, than you for your patience,<br><br>Robert</p>
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<p style="margin-left: 72pt;">On Fri, Jan 16, 2009 at 1:41 AM, Julian Tenney <<a href="mailto:Julian.Tenney@nottingham.ac.uk" target="_blank">Julian.Tenney@nottingham.ac.uk</a>> wrote:</p>
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<p style="margin-left: 72pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">Fire up Xerte. Go to the templates menu, choose the pageTemplates option there. Let it create a new project or you. Once it's done, you should be faced with the wizard screen, and the insert menu in the top left. This allows you to add pages to the project.</span></p>
<p style="margin-left: 72pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);"></span> </p>
<p style="margin-left: 72pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">This is the way to use Xerte if you want to create content quickly,using predefined templates – no need to script anything. You can create cutom pages by loading up flash movies which do things not available in the other page types.</span></p>
<p style="margin-left: 72pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);"></span> </p>
<p style="margin-left: 72pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">The file type for this type of project is .rlt. When Xerte opens an .rlt file it automatically opens the wizard interface. Underneath that is the normal Xerte dev environment – if you close the wizard you will return to it. To fire up the wizard again by doule clicking the Learning Object icon (which now has a little cog wheel on it, indicating this is a data-driven piece).</span></p>
<p style="margin-left: 72pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);"></span> </p>
<p style="margin-left: 72pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">Probably best not to mess with the underlying .rlt file until you've figured a bit more out – this is quite advanced Xerte.</span></p>
<p style="margin-left: 72pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);"></span> </p>
<p style="margin-left: 72pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">The wizard interface allows you to edit an xml file (template.xml) which contains your content. At runtime this file is loaded up, and the logic in the .rlt uses the data in this file to construct the piece dynamically, based on the data it finds in there.</span></p>
<p style="margin-left: 72pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);"></span> </p>
<p style="margin-left: 72pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">If you've jumped straight into the quiz templates tutorial, and haven't written any code before you'll have a lot of further questions – just shout, but be aware this is quite advanced stuff, and you should defintitely learn some coding first. Work through the getting started bit of the help file, that should help quite a bit,</span></p>
<p style="margin-left: 72pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);"></span> </p>
<p style="margin-left: 72pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(31, 73, 125);">J</span></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 108pt;"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-US">From:</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-US"> <a href="mailto:xerte-bounces@lists.nottingham.ac.uk" target="_blank">xerte-bounces@lists.nottingham.ac.uk</a> [mailto:<a href="mailto:xerte-bounces@lists.nottingham.ac.uk" target="_blank">xerte-bounces@lists.nottingham.ac.uk</a>] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Robert Fant<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Friday, January 16, 2009 3:12 AM<br><b>To:</b> Xerte discussion list<br><b>Subject:</b> [Xerte] More Questions</span></p></div>
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<p style="margin-left: 108pt;">First, thank all of you (<b>Julian, John, and Patrick</b>), for your quick, informative responses.<br>I feel much better but have a LONG way to go.<br><br>I have actually created a couple of pages with some trivial (scrolling) text boxes, math symbols, and a graphic, (must start somewhere, right). Working through the quiz tutorial in the help menu, now. My programming / scripting skills are minimal, so this is going to be tough.<br>
<br>QUESTION(S): I got on John's online site and saw that one can "Insert" various templates from a drop-down list, (inter-activities, media, navigators, etc.). I don't seem to have all of this available with the desktop version. What am I missing? Do I need to install these templates? However, as I look through the directory where Xerte is installed, I can see what appears to be folders with a lot of this stuff available. I'm guessing I just don't understand how to implement any of them.<br>
The "template" directory in the help file just <b>seems</b> to only disect and explain the various xml files.<br clear="all"><br>I suppose this is enough for now. I've been at this all day.<br><br>Thanks in advance for your help and expertise,<br>
<br><br>-- <br>Robert Fant<br>Mathematics Instructor<br>Technology Integration Enthusiast<br><br><a href="mailto:rfantster@gmail.com" target="_blank">rfantster@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://robertfant.com/" target="_blank">http://robertfant.com</a><br>
Skype Username: rfantster</p></div></div></div></div>
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<p style="margin-left: 72pt;"><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Robert Fant<br>Mathematics Instructor<br>Technology Integration Enthusiast<br><br><a href="mailto:rfantster@gmail.com" target="_blank">rfantster@gmail.com</a><br>
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<p style="margin-left: 36pt;"><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Robert Fant<br>Mathematics Instructor<br>Technology Integration Enthusiast<br><br><a href="mailto:rfantster@gmail.com" target="_blank">rfantster@gmail.com</a><br>
<a href="http://robertfant.com/" target="_blank">http://robertfant.com</a><br>Skype Username: rfantster</p></div></div></div></div><br>_______________________________________________<br>Xerte mailing list<br><a href="mailto:Xerte@lists.nottingham.ac.uk" target="_blank">Xerte@lists.nottingham.ac.uk</a><br>
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Technology Integration Enthusiast<br><br><a href="mailto:rfantster@gmail.com" target="_blank">rfantster@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://robertfant.com/" target="_blank">http://robertfant.com</a><br>Skype Username: rfantster<br>
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<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Robert Fant<br>Mathematics Instructor<br>Technology Integration Enthusiast<br><br><a href="mailto:rfantster@gmail.com" target="_blank">rfantster@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://robertfant.com/" target="_blank">http://robertfant.com</a><br>
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<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Robert Fant<br>Mathematics Instructor<br>Technology Integration Enthusiast<br><br><a href="mailto:rfantster@gmail.com">rfantster@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://robertfant.com">http://robertfant.com</a><br>
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