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Jun 19, 1998, 12:50am

Last week, a few of us were speculating on how best to create interactive true/false
and multiple choice questions with signs. I had proposed the use of two signs for
a "flash card" effect--one in back of the other. After a little more thought and testing,
I arrived at the following technique. Sorry if you've thought of this already, but I
hadn't tried to do this kind of thing before. I have a "wish" at the below, so I am
cross-posting this to wishlist.

The effect you want to create is that of a single sign with a question on it. You click
on it, and the answer pops up in the same sign. In fact, you can create the illusion
of a single sign in which the message changes several times by clicking on it or some
other object (e.g. true/false or multiple choice answers). I don't know any way to
implement this with a single sign. The best you can do is change the text once by
having an 'activate sign "answer"' command in the Action box and the question text in the
Description box. The text changes on a single click, but you have to recreate the object
to get the original text back (e.g. by leaving and coming back).

The trick is to have two or more signs (or picture objects) occupy the same space. All
but one of the objects is created with 'visible off'. All have distinct names, say
'name a1','name a2', etc. All boxes have an 'activate visible off, visible <next sign> on'
command. I have implemented some examples of the technique in AW at 1052N 198W 150.

In theory, you can use this method to create a long series of signs, with true/false
or multiple-choice branches. You are limited by the amount of text permitted in the cell,
but you can just teleport the student-avatar to a new location to continue the quiz.

I'm not sure how useful this technique would really be for teaching purposes. After all, why
not just do the quiz on a web page? But the illusion of changing text and picture content
might come in handy for some purposes.

Here's my wish: It would work much more conveniently if we could change the
syntax of the 'sign' command to allow control of named sign and picture objects. If you could
attach an 'activate sign <name> "Correct!"' to a separate object, then you wouldn't need to put
multiple sign objects with 'visible on/off' actions in the same space to achieve this effect.

Jun 19, 1998, 2:26am

I love this!!!!!!

The possibilities are really endless for what we could teach and demonstrate
with this kind of a process....


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Jun 19, 1998, 2:36am

Mmmm, lets not have signs.. hmmm, how about spinning bot trivia cubes that
ask questions and give answers. *spins around*

Question: What name is given to the longest side of a right triangle?

Jun 19, 1998, 1:33pm

please, WW, it's summer vacation... the last thing I need is a²+b²=c
and sine and cosine and all that, well, 'junk' :)

[View Quote] --
Dthknight - dthknight at earthlink.net - ICQ: 2603180
Dthknight Central: AW 1875N 2225W
Home Page: http://home.earthlink.net/~dthknight/

"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." - Albert
Einstein

Jun 19, 1998, 11:31pm

Actually, it's already in the sign command's syntax. Try this: On one
object...
Create name sgn1, sign "This will change."
(with the Description field holding whatever you want to show up when the
user points at it)
and on another object...
Activate sign "This is the change." name=sgn1

TechnoZeus

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Jun 19, 1998, 11:59pm

Actually what was being asked for (specifically) was a way to do multiple
flashcard problems and a form of the old "Concentration" game ( which I'm
fighting with the BI over right now :-) )

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Jun 20, 1998, 12:09am

Get in contact with me. I'll show you how. Not a problem.

TechnoZeus

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Jun 20, 1998, 4:20am

I just threw together a working demonstration in beta world at 49.5n 70w
which you may feel free to look over also as long as it doesn't get deleted
or destroyed.
Any questions?

TechnoZeus

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