Yesterday, I was sorting out some issues with embedded objects in my blog. In order to see if the problems had been resolved, I published a trial post. The post, entitled ‘Sand Boxing 2′, was “live” for less than 5 minutes before I trashed it, but it seems that was long enough for quite a few regular readers to find it. So, if you wound up with the response ‘Page Not Found’, I apologize for wasting your time.
In an effort to make your visit to this post worthwhile… Here’s one of the videos I most enjoyed making in 2011. My wife and I had a picture perfect day to go whale watching on the weekend between teaching for two weeks in Port McNeill, near the north end of Vancouver Island. Our hopes of seeing killer whales were definitely not disappointed. I shot the video with my standard digital camera, a Canon SX20IS, and editing was done in iMovie on my iPad.
I wrote about the Mathematics Add-in for MS Word and OneNote in February of 2011. As of December 2011, this remains one of my most frequently visited posts. Today’s post is prompted by a comment left there byMurray Bourne. Murray kindly informed me that Microsoft Mathematics 4.0 is available as a free standalone program, not just as an add-in for MS Word or OneNote. This is a powerful and versatile free tool for anyone learning or teaching maths, at the secondary or perhaps late middle school level.
Mathematics 4.0 can be installed and run on its own in Windows 7, Vista or XP. It can also be installed as an add-in that will run within MS Word 2010, MS OneNote 2010, or MS Word 2007. The standalone option means that the program can be used without having to purchase MS Word or OneNote. [The add-in can be downloaded HERE, and the standalone program HERE. If your computer system is 64-bit, you'll need to download MSetup_x64.exe. If you have a 32-bit system, download MSetup_x86.exe.]
Mathematics 4.0 enables the user to “do” math on the computer. This is helpful for anyone who has difficulty using pencil and paper. In the context of UDL (Universal Design for Learning) the program is also helpful because it offers powerful visual alternatives for representing information to learners, as well as options for action and expression. For example, the graphing calculator can animate graphsof 2D and 3D equations. Below is a list of what Microsoft says the program will do:
The Microsoft Mathematics Add-in can help you with the following tasks:
Compute standard mathematical functions, such as roots and logarithms
Compute trigonometric functions, such as sine and cosine
Find derivatives and integrals, limits, and sums and products of series
Perform matrix operations, such as inverses, addition, and multiplication
Perform operations on complex numbers
Plot 2-D graphs in Cartesian and polar coordinates
Plot 3-D graphs in Cartesian, cylindrical, and spherical coordinates
Solve equations and inequalities
Calculate statistical functions, such as mode and variance, on lists of numbers
Factor polynomials or integers
Simplify or expand algebraic expressions
My math skills are such that I am not competent to review Mathematics 4.0 properly. I refer you instead to the excellent review posted by Murray Bourne on his website, squareCircleZ. Keyboard shortcuts are available for Mathematics 4.0, but I don’t know if these are sufficient for use by someone who is blind. Mohan Manohar Mekar has written a post listing and describing the available keyboard commands. Embedded below is Microsoft’s promotional video.
Microsoft promotes Mathematics 4.0 as a teaching tool, and it can indeed be used to great effect by teachers of Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Calculus, Physics, or Chemistry. If I were teaching any of these subjects, I would want to use this program, via projector, to help explain, demonstrate, and review. Mathematics 4.0 is also an impressive learning tool for individual independent exploration and for completing assigned work. This is a program that can be used by learners in the classroom and at home.
Pictured below are the two main user interfaces of the program. I find it noteworthy that handwriting can be entered when the program is open on a tablet computer.
As we take a break to celebrate the birth of Jesus and the miracle of the incarnation, here are my favourite videos from last Christmas. I hope you’ll enjoy them. If you’ve already seen them, you may well want to watch again. Truth to tell, these are two of my favourite music videos of all time!
This morning I received an email from a teacher in a neighbouring town with a cautionary tale that I think needs to be shared. Countless children will be unwrapping iStuff from “Santa” over the next few days. There are some extremely important settings that parents need to know about to avoid the prospect of facing unwanted bills from the App Store.
Here is the cautionary tale exactly as related to me…
Friends of mine have a new iPad. Their 9 year old son loves to play games using free apps that they’ve found. They recently discovered they have a bill of over $500 on their credit card thanks to “In app purchases”. What this means is that while the boy is playing, the game will offer to let him buy “food” or other items he needs to progress with his game. If he clicks on “Buy” there is no request for a password or other authorization. It just goes right through to his parents’ credit card!
My colleague kindly shared the lesson learned through this painful experience. Here is what you can do to to ensure that this does not happen. Open ‘Settings’ and under the ‘General’ settings, click on ‘Restrictions’.
Now click on ‘Enable Restrictions’ on the new screen that opens. The screen shown below will then open and you will be asked to set a 4-digit restrictions pass code. You need to enter a pass code, and you’ll be asked to confirm it when you do.
After creating your restrictions passcode, another screen will open. Scroll down to the section ‘Allowed Content’ and make sure that ‘In-App Purchases’ are turned off, as shown below.
The passcode you created will have to be entered and In-App purchases turned on before any In-App purchases can be made. The family in the story above was able to have the charges to the App Store reversed, but I suspect it wasn’t easy. So, I hope this information is helpful in saving hassles and headaches. Please share this post with anyone whom you think needs to know.
Here’s more encouraging evidence of Google’s commitment to accessibility–a powerful add-on for the Chrome browser designed to make the Internet more accessible for individuals with low vision. This add-on has been created by Google, not by a third-party.
Chrome Vis is an add-on for Google’s Chrome browser that magnifies selected text and changes the contrast between the colours of text and background to a pre-set combination. Magnified text can be displayed in a floating lens immediately above the selected text, or in a lens at the top of the screen. The two modes are illustrated in the images below.
Customizable keyboard commands may be used to select and magnify text, to increase or decrease the magnification, as well as to adjust the contrast. Keyboard shortcuts are also available to move the curser either forward or backward by character, word, sentence or paragraph.
It’s easy to set up options. Just right-click on the Chrome Vis icon in the Add-on Bar and select ‘Options’. The image below shows the default keyboard shortcuts; and this is where you can change them. Note: A helpful Chrome Vis User Manualis available from google-axs-chrome, the home page for ‘Google Extensions for Accessibility’.
