On Fri, May 30, 2008 at 10:17 AM, Jim Hutchinson <<a href="mailto:jim@ubuntu-rocks.org">jim@ubuntu-rocks.org</a>> wrote:<br><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<br>I would very much like to get a lesson/tutorial up there for Kig. This is a very promising program and similar to a propritary app called Geometers Sketchpad. I think Kig still needs a bit of work to realy rival GS but there are a lot of cool things that can be done with it.</blockquote>
<div><br>Okay, Jim, I read your blog entry on Kig and have had some time to play around with it. Unfortunately, the main KIG website is down right now, so I haven't been able to see any of the documentation :-(<br><br>
You appear to have found a big weakness in KIG, however, in that you can't simply calculate the sum of, say, two angles. In GS you just click them and tell it to add them and display the result. Using a python script will not win over your typical teacher, sadly. <br>
<br>See what you think of this GS tutorial:<br><br><a href="http://www.wiley.com/college/musser/CL_0471263796_S/sketchpad/sketchpad_tutorial/">http://www.wiley.com/college/musser/CL_0471263796_S/sketchpad/sketchpad_tutorial/</a><br>
</div></div><br>What I like about it is that it just has you do a few of the classic constructions. I could write up something like that and take some png screen shots, if that would work. I'd also include basic vectors, as Kig's vector system is really intuitive. So would a tutorial that starts with some basic constructions like an equilateral triangle, a 30-60-90 triangle, etc--and then a few of Kigs more advanced features--would that work? Elementary teachers would probably care most about the simple constructions, while others may appreciate the vectors part. I could do a screenshot every step or so, or just one or two for each subtopic.<br>
<br>Let me know what you think and I'll try to get the Kig help files to solve the problem of simply adding two angles....<br><br>I definitely do NOT want to write standard lesson plans, as I think they're outdated and dull. I'd rather write something like "Quickstart with Kig", aimed at those that have either used GS or would like to learn the basics of Kig, including helpful hints like using "z" to repeat a construction, how to hide objects, etc....<br>
<br>Richard <br>