Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Tools for Schools Task



Tools for Schools Task



For each tool you will:
  • Explain what it does and how it might be used
  • Include a series of screen shots that describe how to use it
  • Tell us if the tool can be used on a smart phone or tablet as well as a computer
  • Find one example of another product that does a similar job
The tools to research are:
  • Evernote
  • Microsoft OneNote
  • Delicious
  • Google Drive
  • Google+
  • Windows live skydrive
  • Typewith.me
Select one other online tool from the following site Cooltoolsforschools and post about it as well.

Evernote: 






Evernote is a way to effectiviely take 'notes' on the computer while on the move or at home researching work. A 'note' can be considered a piece of text, webpages or sections of webpages, and image or voice recording. These notes can then be sorted into folders and lists, tagged, annotated, editied, comment on sections and export notes. 
Evernote can be used on computers, tablets and smartphones. On all these devices the information you save on one device is automatically updated on the other devices if you are logged into he same account on all devices. 

Another Program that does a similar job to evernote would be Resophnotes. 



Stop motion work


Stop Motion Video

In todays lesson, julianne, drishti and I managed to record a video of how to get images from picasa onto the computer and then how to rename those photos.

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Programming Assessment Task Documentation


Introduction (Purpose):

(Replace this with:  what is the purpose or problem that the program is trying to solve)
The purpose of this game is to entertain a child from around the ages of 10 and up. It is a fairly simple game that uses the arrow keys as a form of movement of the sprite and requires a simple form of co ordination to be able to guide the sprite to the appropriate coloured ball on the screen while avoiding the ‘bad’ sprites that take away the lives of your sprite. The instructions at the beginning of the screen guides the player through the appropriate way to play the game and which way ensures successful completion of the game. 

Algorithm Outlining the Program:

(put your flow chart here)























Explanation of Data Types used

(What types are used in the variables in your program and where ?)
Text:
-Game over
: sprites on the screen say ‘Game Over’ if all the lives are lost before you manage to get all the coloured balls.
Integer:
-Progress score:
determines if the player can advance to the next level. The progress is unseen in the game and varies from numbers of -5 till 15.
-Score: This data is seen on the screen. It increases in incriminates of 5 each time a coloured ball is touched by the cat sprite.
-Lives:  this data begins at 10 and decreases each time the cat sprite is touched by another creature on the screen. When the lives reach zero the sprites say ‘game over’ and 

Control Structure examples

(copy and paste the appropriate section from your program and explain)


Sequence:
In this sequence the score and the progress can only occur once something else has already been done. For example, in order for the progress to change by -5 the sprite has to be touching the colour orange. If it is not touching the colour orange then the commands under the ‘if’ bracket cannot be fulfilled and therefore the score cannot be updated and the game will not progress. 





Selection:
In this selection control structure the coloured ball that is yellow is hidden when the green flag is initially pressed to start the game. It then has to wait until the progress has reached a certain number (zero) before it can then be show. If the right progress number has not been selected then the yellow coloured ball will remain hidden and the game can no longer continue.






Repetition:
In this control structure the prompts in the ‘forever’ bracket will be constantly repeating. This shows that if the sprite is to be moving around the screen randomly. If the sprite comes to the edge of the screen it turns around in a random degree generated by the game and kept moving forward. This process has to be constantly repeating otherwise all the characters on the screen would stop moving once they reached the edge of the screen. 





Use of Error Detection

(explain how your program handles incorrect user inputs)
In my game there are not any ways of causing an error in the game. As my game only relies on hand-eye coordination and the ability to get the colour balls in a particular order there isn’t much ways to cause an error. The only real way to cause an error is if the user were to collect the coloured balls in the incorrect order, but then the game automatically responds to this sequence as incorrect and shows the ‘you lose’ image to indicate to the user that what they have done is incorrect and they can no longer progress.
Also in my game, if the user were to manually pick up the sprite and move it to the areas where the coloured balls are located, the computer does not recognise the gamer as moving the sprite and therefore the ability to ‘touch’ the coloured ball is taken away and the user cannot play the game correctly.
The only possible way to cheat in my game is if the user were to move the sprite fairly close to the coloured ball, then use the arrow keys to ‘touch’ the coloured ball then they can progress forward. The only way to avoid this is by putting the game on full screen, but this cannot be done automatically, so the possibility of cheating still exists where the computer has to way of identifying this error.  







Tuesday, September 11, 2012

App Inventor: Mole Mash


APP INVENTOR TASK THREE: MOLE MASH

The third game I created using app inventor was Mole Mash. To create this game, there are many different components that are needed to insure that this game can be played correctly. 
These components include: 
- canvas 
- image
- label
- button 
- timer 
-noise

The largest part of the screen is taken up by the canvas which enables to the mole (image) to be able to move around in on the screen. By drawing the canvas is enables to restrict the movement of the mole to a certain section of the screen. The image component must be placed inside the canvas component in order for the mole to move around in it. The label is used to show the score (number of times the mole is touched). A noise is used to identify when the mole is hit, a noise can then be heard by the player. The timer component is used to measure the amount of time the mole stays in one spot on the screen. The button that is used is to make the rest button which resets the score. 


The second major step to this game was to create the scripts for the game to work using the blocks editor. 
There are multiple different scripts used to determine the different parts of the game. The first script made is the one that controls the movement of the mole within the screen. The script for the score is also made. It calculates the change in score each time the mole is touched. The timer script is also made to determine what the moles does at each of the time intervals. 
And finally the rest button script is made that sets the score to zero once again. 


The last step was to connect the game into the the mobile emulator. This enabled me to test my game and see if all the scripts and variables worked as they should. 





  

Monday, September 10, 2012

App Inventor: Magic 8 Ball


APP INVENTOR SECOND TASK: MAGIC 8 BALL:

The first step for creating this app was to add in the components to make this game.
This included an image, text and a sound. 
The image is a button that has had an image to replace the text with.
The text was created using a label that displays the first question asked to the user. This is then placed in a vertical arrangement so that the responses of the eight ball are also displayed in the same area as the question. 

The next step was to open the blocks editor and then add in the commands so that the eight ball displayed an answer when it was clicked.
The eight ball has eight possible outcomes for answers that it can give as an answer. When an answer is given a sound is also accompanied by the response. 


The final step was to connect the app into the app inventor emulator (or android phone) to test this app.




App Inventor: Hello Purr


APP INVENTOR FIRST TASK: HELLO PURR

The first task with making this app was adding in all the components to make the app work. This included adding a image (kitty) as well as text (pet the kitty) and sound (meow). The image of the kitty is a button icon, the text it a label and the sound is a sound component.
The next step was to open the block editor which allowed for the cat to make a sound (meow) when the image was clicked on.  


The final step was to open to created app on either a mobile device or on the mobile emulator. This enabled us to play with the app we had just created. 

Selection and Repetition


Selection and Repetition


As we have mentioned in previous lessons Algorithms are composed of three basic structures. Sequence, Selection and Repetition.

We have already looked at sequence (the single steps in the algorithms we did before are sequence) so what are selection and repetition.

Solving a problem often involves making a decision between two or more options. In an algorithm this process of making a decision is called selection.

Describe, in plain english, an algorithm for;
(you may need to research algorithms in google.
Use the word “if” ie If red then ……)

1.    Moving through a set of traffic lights.
2.    Deciding whether to take an umbrella to school.
3.    Giving a student an A, B or C on their test.

Often an algorithm will often require you to repeat a task in order to solve a problem; when this is done in an algorithm the structure is called repetition.

Describe, in plain english, an algorithm for;

1.    Adding the correct amount of cordial to water to make a drink.
2.    Filling a bucket with water.
3.    Blowing up a balloon.

Remember to post all this in your blog along with any useful links you find in the process.