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!