Activities/Learn: Difference between revisions
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Learn is a component of the Karma Learning System. When installed as a part of KLS, it is tightly integrated with the schoolserver. The primary design goal is to provide local copies of lessons as needed so that the student can use them when not connected to the school server. | Learn is a component of the Karma Learning System. When installed as a part of KLS, it is tightly integrated with the schoolserver. The primary design goal is to provide local copies of lessons as needed so that the student can use them when not connected to the school server. | ||
Version | Version 61 enables evaluation of the activity independently of a schoolserver by using a USB removable drive. | ||
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,you should see /media/XXX (where XXX is the label of your removable drive). | ,you should see /media/XXX (where XXX is the label of your removable drive). | ||
The Learn activity requires a recent ( | On 12.0.1 and later releases use /run/media/olpc/XXX. | ||
Sugar with the Gnome desktop, the version | |||
Make sure the label XXX does not have spaces. A label such as /media/kls is fine. A label such as | |||
/media/Store N Go does not work. | |||
The Learn activity requires a recent (12+) version of Firefox. While Firefox is installed on versions of | |||
Sugar with the Gnome desktop, the version doe not provide the needed capabilities. | |||
From the Firefox website, download the compressed Firefox file, e.g. firefox-*.tar.bz2, where '*' is the | From the Firefox website, download the compressed Firefox file, e.g. firefox-*.tar.bz2, where '*' is the | ||
version number of the latest Firefox release, e.g. | version number of the latest Firefox release, e.g. 16.0. Copy this file to the XXX drive. | ||
From this website download these files and copy them to the XXX drive: | From this website download these files and copy them to the XXX drive: | ||
[[ | [[File:Kls_demo_2.tar.bz2]] is a 50mb file which contains the sample content kls and other files | ||
for the Learn activity. Unpack it with the command: | |||
tar -xvjf Kls_demo_2.tar.bz2 | |||
This populates the drive with the scripts and the kls folder which contains the sample content. Optionally, delete the compressed file: Kls_demo_2.tar.bz2: | |||
rm -rf Kls_demo_2.tar.bz2 | |||
xo-custom is a script which sets up the XO to use the Learn.activity. It installs Firefox from the tar file on the XXX drive. It modifies two files in Sugar: sugar-launch and SimpleHTTPServer.py. Finally it sets up the XO to start the localhost daemon at boot. These changes do not affect normal operation of Sugar. | |||
modifies two files in Sugar: sugar-launch and SimpleHTTPServer.py. These changes | |||
normal Sugar | |||
Download learn- | Download learn-61.xo from the activities.sugarlabs.org site. Copy this bundle to the XXX drive. | ||
Download showntell-12.xo from the Activities.Sugarlabs.org. Copy this bundle to the xxx drive. | |||
When this is done, the command: ls /media/XXX should show the following: | When this is done, the command: ls /media/XXX should show the following: | ||
firefox-*.tar.bz2 | firefox-*.tar.bz2 | ||
kls | |||
Kls_demo_2.tar.bz2 | |||
learn- | learn-61.xo | ||
localhost.service | |||
rc.local | |||
readme | |||
showntell-12.xo | |||
SimplerHTTPServer.py | |||
sugar-launch | |||
xo-custom | |||
===Execute the install | ===Execute the install script=== | ||
Now mount the XXX drive on the XO. | Now mount the XXX drive on the XO. | ||
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Enter the commands: | Enter the commands: | ||
cd /media/XXX | cd /media/XXX or cd /run/media/olpc/XXX | ||
bash xo-custom | |||
Upon completion of these commands, the script shuts down the XO. | Upon completion of these commands, the script shuts down the XO. | ||
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In 'Tabs', uncheck 'Always show the tab bar'. Students do not normally use tabs in Firefox. | In 'Tabs', uncheck 'Always show the tab bar'. Students do not normally use tabs in Firefox. | ||
Students are advised to | Customize the navigation toolbar. Add the full-screen icon. Choose small icons. In a deployment without internet, the Google icon can be removed. | ||
Students are advised to use fullscreen mode. | |||
Firefox tries to refresh pages from a cache in memory. This can sometimes prevent changes in screens to be immediately visible. In this case, use alt+F5 to refresh the page from the source. Note: on the XO keyboard, | Firefox tries to refresh pages from a cache in memory. This can sometimes prevent changes in screens to be immediately visible. In this case, use alt+F5 to refresh the page from the source. Note: on the XO keyboard, | ||
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==Managing Educational Content== | ==Managing Educational Content== | ||
Within the Karma Learning System, the Learn activity delivers educational content stored on the school server. From one academic year to the next, this content needs to be updated based on the experience of the teachers in using the content, changes in the curriculum, and new resources that become available. Many schools divide the academic year into semesters or terms. | |||
One strategy is to keep the current terms content in the main menu. Content from previous years or terms are kept as Resouces on the school server but not linked to the learning system. Content for the next term can be developed in a Laboratory subject visible only to the staff. | |||
The reality is that in most deployments, the first task will be to develop a baseline of content sufficient for the academic year. This may take some years to accomplish. Once a baseline is reached, the Laboratory can be initialized from the Resources from previous terms. The focus of the staff will be on improving the courses and incorporating new material. Until that time, the focus will be on creating lessons based on turning paper lesson plans into computer-based lessons. | |||
The Learn activity supports this process at the milestone level. Managing subjects and courses requires the efforts of an adminstrator with technical knowledge. This intervention is very important to manage the rotation of content between terms. | |||
This document assumes that there ia a Laboratory subject and that the courses there are the ones needed in the next academic period. | |||
===Creating Milestones=== | ===Creating Milestones=== | ||
[[Image:empty_course.png]] | |||
This is the fourth grade English course for term 3 in the Laboratory subject (sje423). | |||
The course is empty, there are no milestones in the ladder. A typical course for one term will have | |||
about ten milestones. | |||
====Adding the Milestone==== | |||
The teacher for this course can create a new milestone by clicking on the edit button to the right of | |||
the header. | |||
[[Image:Adding_a_milestone_1.png]] | |||
The teacher clicked on the + button to add a milestone. The new milestone shows in the list. | |||
====Adding a label and description==== | |||
The teacher clicked on the edit button for this milestone. The first | |||
entry allows the creation of a label. It is in numerical sequence by default. However, the teacher | |||
entered 3/9 to show that the milestone will be used in week one of the term which | |||
starts on the third of September. | |||
The second entry contains the description of | |||
the milestone that shows up on the milestone ladder when the cursor hovers over the milestone icon. | |||
The teacher clicks on the third entry ('done') to complete the changes. | |||
====Done==== | |||
[[Image:Adding_a_milestone_2.png]] | |||
Once the teacher is satisfied, he or she clicks on the green check mark to commit the changes. A click on the X cancels the changes. Note that this screen can also be used to delete a milestone and to rearrange the sequence of milestones (when there are more than one). | |||
===Creating Activities=== | ===Creating Activities=== | ||
[[Image:Course_with_milestone.png]] | |||
Now the empty course has a milestone. Note the cap of the milestone is blue since the milestone is on the XO. | |||
Next, the teacher clicks on the milestone. Naturally, this reveals an empty milestone with no activities on | |||
the activity ladder. | |||
[[Image:empty_activity_ladder.png]] | |||
A typical milestone has sufficient activities so that a typical student will take a week to | |||
complete it. If a teacher equates an activity to a lesson requiring one class period to complete, the number of activities is likely to be four to five. If the teacher expects some or most of the activities to be completed outside of class, this number can double. The guiding concept is that completing a milestone should represent achievement of an important learning objective. The number and nature of the activities should be proportional so that the student does not become discouraged. A milestone with forty activities would certainly be daunting! | |||
[[Image:new_activity_1.png]] | |||
To create an activity, as before, the teacher clicks on the edit button in the header. The difference is that | |||
the teacher has a number of choices in the type of activity. In this case, the teacher selects t00 for a basic | |||
activity. The other options will be described below. | |||
[[Image:new_activity_2.png]] | |||
In a similar way, the teacher assigns a label and description to the activity. In this case, the teacher has | |||
labeled the activity as 'I' to show the type of activity, 'introduction'. As before when the teacher is satisfied, he or she clicks on the green check mark to commit the changes. | |||
===Creating Basic Activities=== | ===Creating Basic Activities=== | ||
[[Image:activity_5.png]] | |||
The teacher clicks on the activity. | |||
[[Image:activity_6.png]] | |||
This is the default activity created by the Learn activity. The teacher clicks on the edit button to | |||
enter the edit mode [ckeditor]. | |||
===Using the Editor=== | ===Using the Editor=== | ||
[[Image:editor_1.png]] | |||
The default lesson is loaded into the editor. The buttons on the header to the right are: | |||
#save - click on this button to save changes | |||
#audio - add an audio track to the lesson - explained below | |||
#image - add an image to the lesson - explained below | |||
#quit - quit activity, not normally used in this context | |||
The arrow to the left of the header leaves the edit mode and returns to the activity. If the user | |||
returns to the activity before clicking on the save button, changes will be lost. | |||
[[Image:editor_4.png]] | |||
The editor is WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get). However, the actual appearance of the lesson will | |||
differ because of the different style sheets applied. In addition, images are not shown in edit mode. | |||
The editor has a toolbar with icons. Most of these icons are common to most editors. There are three | |||
rows: | |||
First row: | |||
*Source - switches the view from WYSIWYG to the html view. | |||
*Cut, copy, and paste are the first three icons in the second block. | |||
*The rounded arrows in the next block are for 'undo' and 'do'. | |||
*The two in the third block are 'find' and 'find and replace'. | |||
The remaining icons in this row are not useful in this context. | |||
Second row: | |||
*The first block formats text: bold, italic, underline, and strike-through. The next two set the superscript and | |||
subscript modes, respectively. | |||
*The icons in the second block set numbered or bullet list modes, increase or decrease indent. Skipping two icons, | |||
there are icons to control alignment: left, center, right, and justify. | |||
*The fourth icon in the last block inserts a horizontal rule. This is used to mark the boundary between screens in a multiple-screen lesson. The next two insert special characters such as a smiley or a division symbol. The last two are not useful in this context. | |||
Third row: | |||
*'styles' selects a style to use, the ones available are not very useful in this context. | |||
*'Format' defaults to normal text. However, use this list to select various style headers. For example, | |||
the lesson title is normally Heading 1. Sub-title may be Heading 2 and so on. | |||
*'Font' allows selection of a font to use. Changing font is not often needed in this context. | |||
*'Size' allows a change in the font size. To change the font size, you must first 'select' the text to | |||
apply the change to. Move the cursor to the left of the first character to be changed. Hold the left | |||
mouse button down while moving the cursor along the line of text. The background of the text will turn dark to | |||
show that the text is selected. Release the left mouse key when the correct text is selected. Now change the | |||
font-size. | |||
*The next two icons allow change to the text color and to the background color respectively. This works the | |||
same way as 'font-size', you select the text and then select a color. | |||
[[Image:editor_2.png]] | |||
This image shows the beginning of the lesson. The title could be centered by using the center icon on the toolbar. Select the title as described above and click on the center-alignment icon. The A section title | |||
could be a Heading 2. Select the text (including the A.) and click on the second list in the bottom row. A | |||
list of formats appears, click on Heading 2. | |||
[[Image:editor_3.png]] | |||
The teacher has clicked on the 'save' icon (an image of a 'floppy drive') and then clicked on the right arrow | |||
to return to the activity. The activity now shows the text entered in the editor. | |||
===Adding Images=== | ===Adding Images=== | ||
[[Image:image_1.png]] | |||
Clicking on the camera icon in the header will (after some moments) show this screen. It shows thumbnails of all | |||
of the images available to be added to the lesson. In this case, these are the screen shots I used in | |||
preparing this page. | |||
The | The images are those found in the Journal plus any images in /home/olpc/Documents. In recent builds of Sugar, | ||
this folder is visible in the Journal and acts like a mounted usb drive. This means that images obtained from | |||
the internet, a digital camera or a mobile phone can be copied to a usb drive. When this drive is mounted, it will appear at the bottom of the Journal screen along with an icon for the /home/olpc/Downloads folder. By selecting the usb drive (or SD card) containing the images, the relevant ones can be dragged to the folder. Alternatively, the images can be dragged to the Journal. In either case, a thumbnail will appear on this screen. | |||
[[Image:image_2.png]] | |||
In this case, the middle image in the top row was selected (click on the thumbnail). This screen allows the teacher to specify the size and location of the image. The width of 600 represents one-half of the screen. The height of 450 gives a 4:3 aspect ratio. | |||
The | The next entry specifies the screen on which the image will appear. In single-screen lessons this is, of course, 1. | ||
In multi-screen lessons, the teacher might want a different image on each screen. | |||
An entry of 1L specifies that the image should be at the top left of the screen. An entry of 1R specifies the right side. An entry of 1 specifies the image should be centered. When the image is on the left, text will appear to its right. If right is specified, text will appear to the left. When an image is centered, text will begin | |||
below the image. | |||
The teacher clicks on the OK entry to commit the change. | |||
[[Image:image_3.png]] | |||
This shows the image in the lesson. Since 1L was entered, the image is on the left with text to the right. | |||
Note: images currently can only be located at the top of a screen and only one image can be on each screen. | |||
===Adding Audio Clips=== | |||
Clipping on the microphone adds an audio clip to the lesson. It works the same way as the image icon | |||
except that the user only needs to click on the correct audio clip since no location or size information is | |||
needed. | |||
A lesson with an audio clip shows a play button in the left-side of the footer. It is a toggle so that | |||
when the audio is playing it shows a 'pause' symbol. The audio continues if play is pressed after a pause. | |||
To restart the audio, it is necessary to go back to the activity ladder and select the activity again. | |||
===Adding Questions=== | |||
An interactive quiz can easily be added to any lesson/activity. | |||
[[Image:quiz_in_editor.png]] | |||
The quiz is entered in edit mode using a special format developed by Moodle called 'gift'. | |||
The questions are entered between the following lines: | The questions are entered between the following lines: | ||
/*Quiz | /*Quiz | ||
questions go here | |||
/*Quiz | /* | ||
The word Quiz (capitol Q) must be entered after /* with no spaces. The '*/' is on a separate line. The questions are entered between these two lines separated by a blank line. Here are some example questions: | |||
<pre> | |||
/*Quiz | |||
The Learn activity is part of the Karma Learning System.{T} | The Learn activity is part of the Karma Learning System.{T} | ||
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One of these organizations is not related to the others. Which one? {=CIA ~OLPC ~Sugarlabs ~Red Hat} | One of these organizations is not related to the others. Which one? {=CIA ~OLPC ~Sugarlabs ~Red Hat} | ||
The first question is True-False. Answers are shown between braces '{ }'. The answer to a True-False question may be any of T, t, True, true, F, f, False, false. Note that, unlike the | */ | ||
</pre> | |||
The first question is True-False. Answers are shown between braces '{ }'. The answer to a True-False question may be any of T, t, True, true, F, f, False, false. Note that, unlike the other answers, an equal sign '=' is not needed. | |||
The second question is short answer. Acceptable answers (one or more) are given between braces. In this case, XO and xo will be accepted as correct. Xo and xO would be considered incorrect. | The second question is short answer. Acceptable answers (one or more) are given between braces. In this case, XO and xo will be accepted as correct. Xo and xO would be considered incorrect. | ||
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The fourth question is multiple-choice. The choices are given between braces. The correct answer is indicated by the equal sign '='. The incorrect choices (distractors) are indicated by the tilde sign '~'. | The fourth question is multiple-choice. The choices are given between braces. The correct answer is indicated by the equal sign '='. The incorrect choices (distractors) are indicated by the tilde sign '~'. | ||
The quiz is created when the lesson is saved | The quiz is created when the lesson is saved. | ||
[[Image:quiz question.png]] | |||
When the student opens the lesson, there will be a 'Start' button shown on the bottom right of the screen. The screen gives information (e.g. a diagram) needed to answer the questions and/or instructions on answering the questions (e.g. round your answer to two decimal places). | |||
When the student presses the Start button, he is given the questions one at a time in the order they appear in the lesson (not randomized). | |||
This capability is based on the jquizme library. | |||
===Using Karma Templates=== | |||
When creating an activity, the teacher can choose among a menu of activity types from t00 - a basic activity | |||
to t20. | |||
[[Image:new_activity_1.png]] | |||
The activity types are: | |||
#t00 Basic - a normal textbook-style lesson with optional images, audio, or quiz components. | |||
#t01 Adding up to 10 - a Karma game which currently has no options for customization. | |||
#t02 Crossword - a crossword puzzle to find a hidden word. A teacher can create a custom crossword puzzle. | |||
#t03 Hangman - a traditional hangman. A teacher can provide the wordlist. | |||
$t04 Identification - not currently usable | |||
#t05 Mad-libs - A teacher can provide the clues and story. | |||
#t06 Matching - a Karma implementation of Concentration. The teacher can provide the words and images. | |||
#t07 Matching Pairs - a matching activity. The teacher can provide the list of matching words. | |||
#t08 Multiple-choice sentence - multiple choices for words in the sentence (e.g. is/are). The teacher can supply the word choices and sentences. | |||
#t09 Puzzle - rearrange pieces of a picture in alphabetical or numerical order to see the completed picture. The teacher can supply images. | |||
#t10 Quick Arithmetic - student is challenged to provide sums mentally. Currently customizing is not supported. | |||
#t11 Scrambled sentences - not operational | |||
#t14 Vocabulary - not operational | |||
#t15 Vocabulary with game - not operational | |||
#t16 What is this? - matching images against words. The teacher can supply words and images (images not automated). | |||
#t17 Anagram - rearrange letters to form a word naming an image. Teacher can supply words and images (images not automated). | |||
#t18 Maths introduction - not operational | |||
#t19 Maths guided practice - not operational | |||
#t20 Maths evaluation - not operational | |||
The best way to see how these activity types work is to go to the Laboratory and in any course add a milestone. | |||
Then add activities selecting the various types. The result is an example of the activity type. By entering | |||
the editmode, the source.txt file defining that activity is shown. It can be edited to make a custom version | |||
that fits the milestone. For example, a crossword could be constructed using some words from the week's vocabulary list. | |||
Most of these templates were created by Peter Gijsels in a visit to Rwanda in 2011. They illustrate how | |||
activities can be created using the Karma library and html5 web techniques (css, javascript, jquery). It is intended that this library be expanded to include more useful educational activity types. | |||
== | ===Using Sugar Activities=== | ||
The | There is currently no automated support for creating these lessons. It requires some command-line knowledge. | ||
When a lesson is opened in the edit mode, the file being edited is 'source.txt'. The first line of this file | |||
contains a directive to launch a specific Sugar activity, e.g., | |||
<!--B:TurtleArt,lines_lesson.ta,application/x-turtle-art--> | |||
For technical reasons, this line appears in the edit mode as: | |||
/*B:TurtleArt,lines_lesson.ta,application/x-turtle-art*/ | |||
The | The source.txt file uses html5 markup in which <!-- and --> enclose a comment. As a result, this line is | ||
not visible in the editor. By converting the markup to /* */, the user can create and edit this line. | |||
The B: is required to signal this comment contains a directive. There are three parts to the directive separated by commas: | |||
#name of the Sugar activity. This is the same as the name in /home/olpc/Activities minus the activity. | |||
So Turtle Art (Blocks) appears as /home/olpc/Activities/TurtleArt.activity. | |||
#file name of the activity bundle (lines_lesson.ta) including the file extension. This bundle must be in | |||
the folder for this lesson in Learn. | |||
#mime_type of the bundle. The mime_type of a bundle is given in /home/olpc/Activities/TurtleArt.activity/activity/activity.info. For 'some.activity', look in /home/olpc/Activities/some.activity/activity/activity.info. | |||
A Sugar activity can be launched as a new start by: | |||
/*B:some.activity*/ | |||
The | The Learn.activity creates a Journal object with the bundle file as data. It then resumes the activity from this Journal object. | ||
Note that not all activities are able to resume from a Journal object and not all activities support processing data files. | |||
The user needs to quit the launched activity when finished to return to the Learn activity. Sugar treats the launched activity as a window opened by Learn and so gets confused if the user tries to return to Learn via the frame. | |||
==Integration in the Karma Learning System== | ==Integration in the Karma Learning System== |