Plucker Part II

In a previous posting, I reviewed Plucker. Here are a couple of additions:

• The Plucker Viewer is for the handheld. You must have this to view the files on the Palm.
• For instructions on how to use Plucker, see the K12 Handhelds Site.

MathAce 1r2 (Freeware)

MathAce is what we have been waiting for! Finally a free math program that let's you print the results! Here's the skinny: Kids can set their own options including the operation (+ - x ÷), the maximum operand OR answer (how cool is that?!), and whether or not to allow negative numbers. They can also set the amount of time for the practice session.

The best part though, is that the students get to decide whether to calculate (2 + 3 = _ ) or solve ( _ + 4 = 6). This is something that I haven't seen before in a free math application.

Finally, from the author of the application, "MathAce keeps tracks of your successes and failures. The Last 10 scores can be exported to Memos." This is a nice little feature because you can then print the Memo (if you have printing cabability using something like PrintBoy). Below is a sample of the data that is exported to Memos.

1: Lynn Lary
Started: Sep 22, 2005 11:27 am
Stopped: Sep 22, 2005 11:29 am
Timed: No
Score: 32 of 36
Operations: +-*/
Mode: Calculate
Max: Operand, 10

One note: Students cannot continue on until a problem is correctly answered. Regardless of how many incorrect attempts are made on a single problem, it is only counted as one incorrect answer.

QuizWiz V3.3 (Freeware)

We showed the QuizWiz application to the HIP (Handheld Integration Project) teachers in August and they loved it! According to the author, it's "an easy-to-use quizzing program that lets you tutor yourself on any topic using flashcards, multiple choice, or true/false questions. With QuizWiz you can import quizzes you've created yourself using the Palms built-in Memo Pad application or choose from a library of free quizzes available at our website."

So, how is it used? Teachers and students can create their own quizzes in Memo Pad (see direction below) and import them into QuizWhiz to study any topic (we were working with vocabulary) in a variety of formats (multiple choice, true/false, or self scored flash cards).

To create the quiz in Memo Pad, create a new Memo. The first line of the memo will be the title of the quiz. Then put the question on the 2nd line and its answer on the 3rd line and so on alternating between the questions and answers. Once you finish this, open QuizWiz and import the quiz. One thing to note: QuizWiz randomly generates the other multiple choice options. However, you can provide your own alternatives by editing the quiz from within QuizWiz.

Quizzes are beamable. However, if you have students create quizzes for their classmates, make sure that they have included a correct answer for each question!

Geohelper 0.1.3 (Freeware)

As those of you who know me already know, I am an energetic Geocacher. If you are interested in taking up Geocaching, you might want to take a look at Geohelper so that you can carry the most up-to-date cache information with you on your handheld. Nice thing about this is that you don't have to print and carry around all those cache descriptions!

JotLog Update

We are waiting for the new version of JotLog as the current version doesn't work 100% correctly with the Tungsten E2. The issue with the E2 is that the drawings are not saved with the notes. But if you have a Tungsten E, JotLog works great!

Sketcher V2.0 (freeware)

Sketcher is a great little drawing program that can be used in vocabulary instruction similar to my previous Jotlog posting. The one thing that I really like about this program is the fact that when students open Sketcher, they view the picture that they have drawn first and then they can access the notes that they have written to describe the picture. This is a great way for kids to non-linguistically represent vocabulary words.

NOTE: We are waiting for the new version as the current version doesn't work with the Tungsten E2. Works great on the Tungsten E!

Plucker V1.8 (freeware)

Ok, so now I am really excited. Plucker is a wonderful application that allows you to save web pages to your handheld. Why am I excited about this? Well, think about the teacher who has a classroom set of handheld computers. She can use Plucker to download a web page, including its linked pages (you can decide how many levels you want to download), beam the file to her students and they can use the offline site to do their own research. Benefits include no off-task browsing and student access to online content without having to go to the computer lab.

There are two components to Plucker: the Plucker desktop which allows you to select the web content you want to download and the Plucker viewer Palm application that allows you to read the web content once you have hotsynced. You can beam the Plucker files to another Palm from within the Plucker viewer.

Name Picker V1.2 (freeware)

Name Picker is a fun little program that can be used to randomly select a word from a list of words. The way I use it is to raise the "level of concern" in my classroom by using it to randomly select students. To do this, first create a list of students in your Memos. Each student's name should be on a separate line. Then, open Name Pick on your Palm and locate your class list. Click Start to select the first name. Click Choose Again to select the next name.

Snap (freeware)

A quick way to create Palm screenshots is to use an application called Snap. To use Snap you need to have an SD card to store the images on.

Open Snap, click the Enable button and uncheck the Auto disable box. This allows you to take as many screenshots as you like without having to open Snap each time. You should see "Snap Key" and it is defaulted to Power. What this means is that when you want a screenshot, you have to click the power button. You'll here a beep, then wait a few seconds for your Palm to process the image (your Palm is not frozen, so be patient!).

To use the image, transfer it from your SD card to your computer.

Moose Update

I'm visiting with some awesome teachers here in Montana who are doing a terrific job learning about handheld computers. We are using Tungsten E2s and have so many programs we are installing that we need to delete some files to make room for more.

One of the tricky ones to delete is Moose. According to the author of the program, you will need to delete Moose. Then, make a soft reset by pushing the reset button and then delete the following files:

flite
cmulex
cmu_us_kal16
usenglish

JotLog V 2.0 (freeware)

JotLog is a very cool little program that can be used for vocabulary instruction. Essentially, students can make up their own dictionaries by entering a word and its definition. The really cool part though is that students can also draw a symbolic representation of the word. Why is this important? According to my friends in our local vocabulary dream team, "One of the best ways to learn a new word is to associate an image with it. In controlled studies it was found that instructional techniques employing the use of imagery, produced achievement gains in word knowledge that were 34 percentile points higher than techniques that did not. This would include using graphic representations, pictures, and pictographs as well as creating mental pictures of new words and even act out their meanings."

ShapeUp ($14.95)

ShapeUp is a Geometry program that focuses on shape recognition and transformational geometry. Although I usually write about free programs, I couldn't resist including this one! There are a couple of basic activities--identifying shapes and transforming shapes. If the student doesn't know the properties of a shape, background information is provided so that the student can complete the activities. Identifying shapes (such as isosceles triangles) is ok...but the real fun is with the transformational geometry activities. In the first part of this activity, students are challenged to transform a shape in the minimum number of moves. The second part consists of transforming multiple shapes to form a given design. Lots of fun and a good way to reinforce transformational geometry concepts.

Simplify and MixedUp (freeware)

These free two programs can both be used to practice fraction skills. Simplify allows students to simplify fractions. Students can select the maximum size of the denominator (up to 20, 100, 200, 1000). MixedUp allows students to convert between fractions and mixed numbers. Students can select the maximum size of the denominator (up to 10, 20, 100, 200) and the level (beginner and advanced). In both cases, there are no documented assessment results. However, after each problem, the student receives feedback and a running total is kept until the student stops using the program.

SpellIT (freeware)

Students can use SpellIt to create their own spelling word/definition lists. Once the list has been entered, students can practice spelling, work on word jumbles, and take spelling tests. The teacher can look at test results by date/time, can see how the student responded during the spelling test, and review the overall percentage that the student spelled correctly.

HiMoney (freeware)

The HiMoney program is for tracking your budget. However, the cool part about it is that there are multiple ways to graph budget data. This program would be great for use in the classroom as part of a simulation where students track their expenses and incomes. Graph reading skills can also be targeted as the students can switch between the numerical budget and the graphical representation.

Gone Mad (freeware)

As a kid I remember planning MadLibs with my sister and friends. One person would write down the nouns, verbs, adverbs, etc. that we suggested and then read the story that our parts of speech had formed. It was so much fun! The great news is that Gone Mad is available for the Palm and is the same game that I played as a kid using the MadLibs note pad that we had purchased at the store. Gone Mad comes with three stories that have certain parts of speech removed; when you complete the list of the required parts of speech, Gone Mad substitutes your words into the story. There are two features that I love—first, the stories can be exported to Memo Pad where students can continue writing. Second, the story templates can be created by the teacher or students (be sure to read the README file for instructions on how to create the templates, as it is a really easy task if you follow the directions).

Idea Pad 3.1 (freeware)

I first saw Idea Pad about a year or two ago. At that time, I decided that it was really too much work to have students create diagrams on the Palm with Idea map--that it was easier and more efficient to have them do so on paper.

However, all that has changed with Idea Pad 3.1. It works quite similarly to the program Inspiration, allowing you to create a diagram, switch to outline view, and then export your work to Memo Pad where you can continue the writing process.

Thanks to Tony Vincent for his tip on deleting files: "To delete a file, tap the file name from the "Choose a file" screen. Then tap the Details button. From there, you can delete it."

Moose 1.1.3 (freeware)

WOW. After spending all day reviewing Palm software on Saturday, I found some really cool software. Moose is a free piece of text-to-speech software. Need I say more? Now your Palm can read to you, pronounce words for students who don't know how to read, and be used in the writing and revision process. It does require a bit of space, so be sure to read the Read Me before you install it.

If you're students are not using text-to-speech in the writing process, you may want to do a little reading. My web page on this topic includes several worksamples showing the student's progress as she writes, listens, spellchecks, listens, and revises.

One thing that you will want to do is to turn on Moose (in the Moose options) so that it can be accessed from all programs in the shortcuts menu.

BeSmart V1.3

BeSmart is a drill and practice piece of software allowing students to add, subtract, multiply, or divide two numbers. The student can select one type of operation as well as the number of digits in both the first and second number (these can be one to five digit numbers). The student can also determine whether to use negative or positive numbers. There are two features that I like about this program. First, there is a work area so that if a student needs "virtual scratch paper" they can work out the problem right on their Palm. Second, the student's percent correct is shown on the screen at all times. If a student doesn't like a 75% rate of accuracy, (s)he can simply reset the tally and go for 100% accuracy. Speed in which the problems are completed is not a factor; the only feedback a student receives if they are wrong is the correct answer.
This is a time limited demo version; the unlimited version is $8.

TanFree

Tangrams Free allows students to solve tangrams. The student starts with a silhouette and seven pieces. The pieces can be rotated, flipped, and translated; the goal is to replicate the silhouette using all seven pieces. This is a great virtual manipulative because unlike physical manipulatives, this program allows students to ask for hints in solving the tangram. If a hint is requested, the program will show the correct location of the selected piece. The student can then continue solving the puzzle. This is an excellent activity for students of varying ability levels.

Salary Utility

Salary Utility used to be a free program, but now it is bundled with 49 other programs for about $1.50 (50 Great Utilities for Palm OS which I found using Froogle).

This program allows students to calculate how much they really make once they take into account the costs of commuting, paid vacation, insurance, etc. This is a good tool to help students understand that an hourly wage isn't necessarily worth its face value. A drawback to this program is that it doesn't take into consideration social security, retirement, state and federal taxes. In addition, teachers would want to supplement the use of this program with discussions about topics such as how much commuting to a higher paid job located farther away would cost (is public transportation available? is a car necessary?) as compared to a lower paying job within walking distance.

I'm Back...

It's been a week or so since my last post because I have been out at a conference. It was wire-less (as opposed to wireless), so I have been offline for a bit. Onward and upward!

Oh, and email me at llary@lynnlary.com if you are interested in a particular type of Palm software.

dAbacus

dAbacus is a free, easy program that simulates a Chinese abacus. As the user moves the beads, the Arabic numeral equivalents are shown. This allows students to deduce the values of the beads in different rows. One of the really cool features is that as the students use beads with smaller place values (i.e. two beads with a value of five each), they are exchanged for beads of larger values (i.e. one bead with a value of ten). This is a valuable exercise in teaching the concept of place value in a number system. This virtual abacus is a great virtual manipulative that can be used with a real abacus, as it provides students with immediate feedback as to the value of the beads.

KidzTalk™-Calc

One of our schools if focusing student use of handhelds on mathematics achievement. Students as young as first grade, as well as special education students, are using the Palms. Using the Palm to give instant feedback is one of its major benefits and one of the programs that we found to be helpful was KidzTalk™-Calc.

We bought this program because it actually speaks the numbers allowing students to have audio feedback about the numbers that they are working with. For instance, if you enter "2 + 4 =" it will say "two plus four equals six." But, do be forewared because when you start working with two digit numbers, it acts a little odd. For instance, if you enter "24 + 13 =" it will say "two four + one three equals thirty seven." The way that we use it is to help students learn how to say multi-digit numbers correctly. For instance, when you enter "24 =" it will say "two four equals twenty-four." The nice thing is that you can have it pronounce numbers up to 99,999,999.

WordDraw

WordDraw is a shareware program ($5) that allows students to practice writing their letters and words. For little ones just learning to write, the advantage of using this program over a worksheet is that it is animated--by that I mean that the students can actually watch how a letter is formed. Then they can either trace or free write the letters of the word with their writing showing up on the Palm screen. Gone are the days of having students trace words on a worksheet only for the teacher to find out that the student has just traced the same letter wrong for the last 15 times! The visual feedback on this program is awesome.

One nice feature is that you to create word lists in Memo Pad and then import them into WordDraw, which is great if you are trying to reinforce specific vocabulary. You can also set the animation speed and the case of the letters. As with most Palm programs, there are not many choices, so the program is easy to use.

Tan Free

Tan Free is a nifty little program for teaching students about translational geometry. Essentially, it provides a number of tangrams; students start with a silhouette and seven shapes and the goal is to replicate the silhouette using all seven pieces. To solve them, the students must translate, reflect, and rotate the geometric shapes. This is a great virtual manipulative because unlike physical manipulatives, this program allows students to ask for hints in solving the tangram. If a hint is requested, the program will show the correct location of the selected piece. The student can then continue solving the puzzle.

Environmental Footprint Calculator (EFC)

EFC is a great program for classroom discussions about the impact that humans, and particulary ourselves, have on the world, provides opportunities for students to read graphs, and allows students to test their own hypotheses about the effect changing their lifestyles has on the earth.

Students are asked a series of 13 questions about their lives: how much food they waste, how big their homes are, what kind of transportation they use, etc. Once all of the answers are entered, the students learn how their lifestyles affect the earth. The data is presented in four different ways:

1. The number of Earths needed to support all humans if everyone lived the way they do
2. The number of football fields needed to support their lifestyle
3. How their own consumption breaks down (acres needed for housing, transportation, food, etc.)
4. How their individual consumption compares with the average American, the averages of people living in Sweden, Nigeria, and five other countries as well as with the world as a whole.
   

Depending on the age of the student, they may not know the answers to all of the questions. Teachers may want to use this program as a part of a home-based activity in which students discuss the questions with their parents to make their data input more realistic. Related activities might include conjectures about ways that humans can have less impact on the Earth or having students answer the questions from the perspective of a poor person in a third-word county and comparing/contrasting the outcome to their own responses.

Muxles

What better place to use a Palm than in the PE classroom? Writing down grades on a clipboard in the field and then entering them into a computer in the office just doesn't make sense when you can have your whole gradebook with you on your Palm. What's more is that there are a number of programs that are available for the Palm that would fit into the physical education curriculum. For instance, Muxles, which costs $11.95, is a program that contains information about different muscles, their functions, and what exercises can be done to develop them. The cool part about it is that as a user, you don't have to look up the names of the muscles - you just click on the muscle on the front or back of the interactive body that you want to learn about.

WIB: What-if Builder

This is another completely free and totally awesome program for the Palm. This application allows you to write a story in which the reader decides which of several options to take as they read the story. For example, after reading part of a story, the reader may have to decide whether to walk through the creepy forest or return home for more help.

This type of story provides readers with a variety of options as to how the story will come out. It also provides a highly differentiated activity for student authors. The program is easy to use and can be used with primary through adult students. For more information about WIB, see my instructional unit. Oh, and don't forget to download WIB from Kidsolve.

PS: I have found that when beaming WIB stories, the receiver needs to exit from the WIB application (else the app will die forcing you to do a soft reset).

Inflationmaster

Inflationmaster is one of my favorite programs! I love it because I can use it at the drop of a hat to provide me with some context for what I am hearing, learning, or seeing. Here's how it works:

1. Enter a year between 1800 and 2004 (ie: 1850)
2. Enter an amount of money (ie: $325)
3. Enter a second year between 1800 and 2004 (ie: 2004)
4. Calculate

In this case, I had read (National Oregon Trail Center) that it cost $100 for a wagon in the 1850s and another $225 for three oxen. Based on the actual rates of inflation, that's $7,211 by 2004 standards! And, that's just for the oxen and the wagon. So, ask yourself: what kind of people came across the Oregon trail with wagons and oxen?

Need I say more? This program rocks!

NW Handheld Project

If you are considering using handhelds in your classroom, there are a number of things to consider: equipment management, student contracts for out of class use, tutorials, curriculum integration, success stories, and current research on handheld effectiveness.

During the 2004-05 school year, the South Lane and Eugene 4J School Districts began the second year implementation of handhelds in the classroom. These two districts, in conjunction with the Lane Education Service District, are assisting Creswell, Three Rivers, and Springfield School Districts in the implementation of their own 2004-05 handheld initiatives. This blog will feature applications that we have found helpful to the teachers and students in these Oregon K-12 districts.

To help teachers learn more about classroom use of handhelds, the South Lane and Eugene 4J School Districts have worked in partnership with the Organization for Educational Technology and Curriculum to develop the Northwest Handheld Project. Visit the site and be sure to contribute to the applications database!

Math Ace Updated

You may have read my previous posting on Math Ace. If so, and you downloaded, be sure to go back and download the most recent version (1.8). You might also want to take a look at what Ron Lampe's middle school students have to say about Math Ace!