Download a JQZ quiz file with 10 questions on rounding whole numbers of various sizes. You can also download a Web page with the quiz ready for use.
Part of the 20 minutes project, written on the way in on the train.
Download a JQZ file with 10 multiple choice questions about place value in whole numbers. You can also download a Web page with the Hot Potatoes quiz ready to use, with randomised question order and shuffled answer order. Feel free to save the Web page to your computer for local use.
Language raises its ugly head: In the quiz, the ‘value of the digit 5’ in the number (say 75 892) is taken as 5000. A question like ‘what is the hundreds digit in 12 759?’ has the answer 7, and one of the distractors is 700. A question like ‘how many tens are there in 197’ has the correct answer 19, and 9 is a distractor. You might want to alter the JQZ file to reflect the language you use in this topic. I’m prepared to admit that writing these questions caused me to think carefully about the words I was using.
Part of my 20 Minutes a Day e-learning project, although exporting, checking and uploading added a little longer.
GTK-RecordMyDesktop does what it says on the packet, and the YouTube above provides the evidence. Using 640 by 480 screen resolution, and setting the audio quality to 50%, 3 minutes of screen recording produced an OGG Theora file that was 21 Mb in size. The image quality is good enough for making screencasts using OpenOffice Impress (or PowerPoint) presentations. Numeracy screencasts on the way…
I’m using Ubuntu 8.10, and the version of gtk-RecordMyDesktop is the one in the Ubuntu repositories for Ibex. I’m using a dynamic microphone, a Maycom MicTube preamplifier, and the analogue Mic input on the NVIDIA integrated sound card on my Asus Pundit P1 box. It all seems to work with plenty of gain in reserve.
Download a HotPotatoes quiz JQZ file for writing numbers in figures and back again. You can also save a copy of the Web page export of the words to figures and back again quiz.
An example of 20 minutes a day e-learning but actually took 35 minutes because of the need to help a colleague switch a projector from Video mode back to Computer mode. C’est la vie. I am also complying with the generous Hot Potatoes licence, in that I’m making the test available on a public Web site.
Download a two page PDF file [ 10 Mb file ] with scans of the histogram and cumulative curve drawn from a frequency distribution of adult male weights (made up data!). The frequency distribution has a moderate skew and shows the way the mean, median and mode spread out under those circumstances. The frequencies and weight intervals have been chosen to fit on a sheet of the standard A4 2mm/2cm graph paper we use in Colleges. The scan is at 300 dpi and in grey scale.
Today’s 20 minutes was spent drawing and scanning the graphs, it took another 20 minutes to upload it here because of the size of the PDF file (had to use ftp)! The upload function in WordPress proved unequal to the task (I think the php memory on the server ran out).
Today’s 20 minutes produced a tree diagram slide sequence based on a two stage ‘with replacement’ problem. The final slide is leading to a YouTube screencast about another way of explaining the reason you multiply the probabilities along each route in the tree diagram (as explained to me by Paul J). You can download the OpenOffice Impress presentation file for the tree diagram build if it is useful.
“When I’m working on a story or novel, I set a modest daily goal — usually a page or two — and then I meet it every day, doing nothing else while I’m working on it. It’s not plausible or desirable to try to get the world to go away for hours at a time, but it’s entirely possible to make it all shut up for 20 minutes. [...] The secret is to do it every day, weekends included, to keep the momentum going, and to allow your thoughts to wander to your next day’s page between sessions.” Cory Doctorow: Writing in the Age of Distraction via Fortnightly Mailing.
20 minutes a day. That is a class blog, or perhaps a multiple choice quiz for each box in the mind map, or perhaps the Adult Maths Teachers Survival Guide? My train ride lasts 20 minutes each day. No Internet there…