From mwforum@lists.mathcats.com Fri Jan 2 00:52:04 2004 From: mwforum@lists.mathcats.com (Ask an Expert - Question) Date: Thu, 01 Jan 2004 19:52:04 -0500 Subject: [MWForum]Re: MIA, Ask an Expert Question Message-ID: <3FF47A64.27556.53E56@localhost>
This is very, very simple but draws what you ask it to.
to poly :sides
repeat :sides[fd 100 rt 360 / :sides]
end
Then call poly 4 (or whatever)
Steve
Other than a screen capture, I am not sure how to capture/copy/paste
a shape from MW into AppleWorks. Sometimes MW has the perfect graphic to
accompany a story written in AW word processing. Is the following true?
Graphics can become shapes but shapes are not graphics??
BTW, you once asked what changes would be helpful. A lasso tool would be nice, now that we are discussing graphics.
Looking forward to your presentation mode lesson.
Wendy Petti wrote:
Hi Folks,--------------3A26E448B6F3B126FB534C76-- From mwforum@lists.mathcats.com Thu Feb 26 20:17:48 2004 From: mwforum@lists.mathcats.com (Lauren Pacini) Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2004 12:17:48 -0800 (PST) Subject: [MWForum]how much MW homework help should this list provide? In-Reply-To:Recently on this list, Tony Wilson was asking about an easy way to use MW to
run an automatic slideshow. He mentioned during that dialogue, "I am trying
to push Microworlds amongst the staff and if it is too much of a bother they
will want to use a media player or powerpoint. I am hoping the kids can see
the value and power of programming."I think many of us have found ourselves in that same situation. We might be
the lone MicroWorlds enthusiast on staff or we might be one of a small core
group of MW enthusiasts, and we might be looking for ways to get more
teachers excited about and comfortable with MicroWorlds even if they have no
background or interest in programming. It's one thing to teach our students
some programming, but I never got anywhere with trying to teach programming
to my colleagues.But I did find many ways to promote the use of MicroWorlds by less
tech-savvy teachers, even though they continued to need some hand-holding
and encouragement. I'll share a few ideas here, more later, and I hope some
of you will share ideas that have been well-received at your schools.The focus in this message is on the graphics capabilities of MicroWorlds.
At my former school, we had a very limited set of software installed on our
computers: MicroWorlds 2.0_ and Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint,
Access - which we steered clear of for the most part) and also MSWorks. And
then of course there were the programs that come with Windows, such as Paint
and Internet Explorer. (I hated Paint and much preferred the graphics
capabilities of MicroWorlds.)I became a huge fan of using MicroWorlds for all of our graphics needs, and
I continue to use MicroWorlds for generating all of the graphics on my Math
Cats website. In 3 1/2 years of developing that site, I have felt little or
no need to shell out $$ for a more advanced graphics application.We've already seen how MW can easily be used to assemble an automatic
slideshow of external JPEG or GIF files (as well as other graphics formats).
Here's how I often use MW to create and edit artwork:Let's say I'm drawing a new cat for Math Cats. I use the circle/oval tool
to make the basic head shape, then erase a bit and add ears. Next I draw
one eye. I want the other eye to be a mirror image of the first, so I
surround the first eye and copy and paste it into a shape. I open that
shape and use the mirror image button to reverse the eye, then I surround
that eye with the selection tool and copy it. I close that shape and paste
the selected area into the cat's head. (I've used this partial mirror-image
technique in lots of Math Cats projects, such as the Symmetrical Butterflies
craft project: http://www.mathcats.com/crafts/symbutterflies.html.)I often use the fat bits editor (I click and drag with the selection tool
then double-click inside the selected area) to get an enlarged view which I
can edit pixel by pixel. I love that I can select the desired magnification
with MW Pro. I copy and paste my finished cat into a shape, then I open the
shape and click and drag its boundaries to crop the image closely so that I
don't have any unnecessary white space around it. (This works much better
in MW Pro than in MW 2.0_, for we can easily select any shape dimensions
with Pro but cannot fine-tune the dimensions as much with MW 2.0_.)(I love storing graphics in the shapes center. Often I make multiple copies
of a newly-drawn shape and then edit them to get variations - arms and legs
in different positions; merging one graphic with another; etc.)Next I use the SAVESHAPE command (in the command center) to save my new
shape as an external GIF file (or if I've cropped a photo or combined a
photo with a cartoon-like drawing, I might save it as a JPEG file).
Example:saveshape "orangecat.gif 17
where 17 is the number of the shape I'm saving as an external file.
Now one thing to bear in mind is that a white background in a shape is
transparent when used within a MicroWorlds project, but it appears as solid
white when used outside MicroWorlds. If I want a transparent background for
this external graphics file, I need to use another application to do this.
(I used to use the drawing tools of Word to make one color transparent; I
would import the graphics file, use the transparency tool to make one color
transparent, then save the Word document as a web page, and in
newly-generated folder accompanying the web page I would find two files, one
of which was the new graphics file I needed with the transparent
background.) But it is much easier to use the free Irfanview graphics
viewing-editing application (www.irfanview.com) to make a transparent color;
read on "transparency" in the help index to find out how.All of the graphics for Math Cats' Polygon Playground
(www.mathcats.com/explore/polygons.html) and Tessellation Town
(www.mathcats.com/explore/tessellationtown.html) were created with MWPro
(with the help of another application for making transparent backgrounds).
I combined MW Logo programming with the graphics tools to generate all of
the colored polygon outlines. It is very easy to create tessellating puzzle
pieces with MicroWorlds, when you copy and paste wiggly lines to form
matching pairs on both sides of an altered quadrilateral (for instance). My
students used to love creating tessellations with MicroWorlds. I used the
rotation tool in the shapes editor to create right-side-up and upside-down
triangle people. (Of course, first I created the original equilateral
triangles with Logo commands.) To make very precise tessellating ocean
waves I used MW Logo programming to draw the original curves and then I used
the graphics tools to color the wave puzzle pieces and the coordinating fish
puzzle pieces.For an example of a graphic combining a photo with a cartoon-like drawing
and using a transparent background, see my self-portrait at
www.mathcats.com/grownupcats.html. I used the graphics tools of MWPro to
erase the background of the photo, first outlining carefully around my head
(first with a white fine line tool or eraser and then with the fatter lines
and with white rectangles). Then I put my head into a MicroWorlds shape,
opened the shape and chose a good magnification, and drew a little cat
perched on my shoulder. I saved this as a GIF image and then used Irfanview
to make the white background transparent. It was fun and easy to create
this composite image using MWPro.My students used to love drawing cartoon bodies under their photo heads and
then animating their bodies to dance or leap or do jumping jacks or
whatever. You can see examples in the "Animate Me" folder at the
MicroWorlds in Action site:
http://mia.openworldlearning.org/animate_me/animate_me.htm
They enjoyed importing each other's cartoon-body images and using these
characters in multimedia stories which they wrote using MicroWorlds
textboxes. Even first-graders could do this, if we didn't worry about
writing procedures to create animations. The "Animated Story" MIA folder
demonstrates how even stationary characters can be used to make textboxes
appear or to navigate to different project pages:
http://mia.openworldlearning.org/animated_story/animated_story.htmWe used to use the graphics capabilities of MW combined with textboxes to
create many multimedia social studies projects. It was nice sometimes to
incorporate some programmed animations, but if we are trying to get more
teachers comfortable with using MicroWorlds, we can encourage them to
combine static graphics and text as a first step.I also created an "empty book" project which already had empty textboxes and
navigation arrows and plenty of pages already set up (another version
generated pages automatically as needed, complete with new textboxes and
programmed navigation arrows). It had a title page; the student just needed
to type the title and author in the preformatted textboxes. It also had a
planning page where students could list their characters, make note of any
references, do some brainstorming, etc.I much preferred using MW for creating multimedia projects in this way
rather than PowerPoint or HyperStudio, because this way we could keep the
focus on generating meaningful content. With PowerPoint or HyperStudio,
students begin to get too distracted by the formatting decisions before
they've developed their content. With MicroWorlds, it is easy to start with
a bare-bones text box and then gradually add the bells and whistles after
the text is written.I will try to locate this empty book project and a few other useful template
projects and share them soon with this list.I hope you'll find some of these ideas useful... and if you've managed to
read to the end of this message, I congratulate you heartily!Wendy Petti
MicroWorlds in Action
http://mia.openworldlearning.org
Math Cats
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...and another thought! If you want some good graphics for turtle shapes, you can search the 'net (with appropriate care) and locate a web page graphic which can be copied and pasted to the shape centre. The tumbnails in Google image search are ofetn a useful size, and if the search is made for gif files only, the background is often white.
Just a thought.
Steve
On Thursday, February 26, 2004, at 09:11 AM, Mikula Family wrote:
Other than a screen capture, I am not sure how to capture/copy/paste a shape from MW into AppleWorks. Sometimes MW has the perfect graphic to accompany a story written in AW word processing. Is the following > true?
Graphics can become shapes but shapes are not graphics??
It works both ways for me although I've never pasted into the AW paint program. You can click once on a shapes box to select it, then go to Edit and choose copy, then go to AppleWorks and paste it into a word processing document or a drawing document. Most of the computers in my room don't have enough RAM to run MW Pro, so we use MW 2.05 on those older computers. In version 2 you can't rotate shapes except by 90 degree increments. So my students copy the MW shape and paste it into AW draw where it can be rotated at any angle. Then the graphic can be copied from AW and pasted back into a MW shapes box. This way my students can do an animation with an airplane take off or land at a more reasonable 20 or 30 degree angle rather than 90 degrees.
-John
John St. Clair&= nbsp; = x-tab> Global SchoolNet Foundation
john.stclair@verizon.net&nb= sp; www.gsn.org
Vina Danks Middle SchoolLogoFor= um moderator
Teacher of Logo and Legogroups.ya= hoo.com/group/logoforum
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Hi Marian,
The background on the gifs might be clear or white, if you paste into MW it doesn't actually matter because the transparency is lost anyway. To restore transparent backgrounds, just double click the shape in the shape centre, then pour in the transparent colour from the colour palette onto the background. The point is that as long as the background is plain, you can make it transparent easily. Also if you find an animated gif, you could take it apart to make an animated turtle.
Also, depending on the version of MW you are using, the transparent colour might take a little bit of locating; the earlier versions use (if memory serves me) the lightest shade of white.
Filetypes - you could write a short book on the question, but in brief, here goes...
GIF (Graphic Image File) have a max of 256 colours, can have transparent areas, are used in animations, are often logos, cartoons, text.
JPEG (.jpg -Joint Photographer Expert Group) can have up to 16 million colours, can be compressed to lower the file size, are often used for photographs. If you copy and paste a big, colour-rich jpeg into MW (especially earlier versions) you will notice that the colour depth is reduced.
PICT(Mac format) PICTs are Mac produced bit maps and object image files... basically, these are images made on a mac.
more here: http://www.wfu.edu/~matthews/misc/graphics/formats/formats.html
Hope this helps, good luck
Steve
More about graphics
Sorry Marian, there's beena delay here, my first response didn't make it; here goes again.
The Gif background may be white or clear. If you copy from the internet and paste it into the shape centre, you will need to fill the background of the sprite in with 'transparent paint' from within MW anyway. It's just easier when the background is all one colour. Gifs can be animations, so you can unpack them (using a GIF animator) and paste them, one by one, into the shape centre to use as animated turtles.
Graphic Filetypes.
This is a big question, but very, very briefly, here goes:
JPEGs have 16 million colours, can be compressed without becoming visibly too bad to use and are great for photo's and so on. If you paste, or insert a jpeg into MW (certainly early versions) you may notice some strange colours appearing.
GIFs are much smaller (sizewise), have a maximum of 256 colours, can be animated and can have transparent areas.
PICTs are native Mac format pictures.
The above is just a very quick answer, you can get loads more if you need it from
http://graphicssoft.about.com/cs/graphicformats/
Hope this helps
Regards
Steve
Bob Irving
Middle School Technology =
Coordinator
Lancaster=20
Country Day School
Lancaster, PA 17603
Weblog: http://bobirving.weblogs.us/
'Are=20
we educating students for our past or for their future?'=20
Anonymous
Hi Craig,
I'd be interested in the MicroWorlds answer myself! As to Logo philiosphy, I think the commonly held response would be Seymour Papert's 'Mindstorms, Children Computers and Powerful Ideas'. In terms of technology it's dated, but in respect of the philosphy of Logo, I really liked it. Good luck with finding it!
Steve
------=_NextPart_000_000E_01C40419.80F5C360-- From mwforum@lists.mathcats.com Sun Mar 7 15:59:41 2004 From: mwforum@lists.mathcats.com (cy) Date: Sun, 7 Mar 2004 08:59:41 -0700 Subject: [MWForum]Apologies References:----- Original Message -----From:=20 Steve=20 RobsonSent: Sunday, March 07, 2004 = 7:15=20 AMSubject: RE: [MWForum]MIA, Ask = an Expert=20 QuestionFrom: "Ask an Expert - Question"=20Hi Craig,
I'd be interested in the MicroWorlds answer myself! As to Logo = philiosphy,=20 I think the commonly held response would be Seymour Papert's = 'Mindstorms,=20 Children Computers and Powerful Ideas'. In terms of technology it's = dated, but=20 in respect of the philosphy of Logo, I really liked it. Good luck with = finding=20 it!
Steve
Reply-To: mwforum@lists.mathcats.com=20 To: mwforum@lists.mathcats.com=20 Subject: [MWForum]MIA, Ask an Expert Question=20 Date: Sat, 06 Mar 2004 08:39:35 -0500=20 This is an automatic message sent from the web form at:=20 http://mia.openworldlearning.org/howdoi.htm=20 from: "Craig Yager" date: Fri, 5 Mar 2004 18:21:15 -0700=20 What is the most recent MicroWorlds book that you would=20 recommend for use in teaching teachers to program and also=20 philosophy about Logo?=20 _______________________________________________=20 MWForum mailing list=20 MWForum@lists.mathcats.com=20 http://lists.mathcats.com/mailman/listinfo/mwforum=20 Attachments archived at:=20 http://www.mathcats.com/mwforum/attachments.html=20 To unsubscribe or for administrative questions contact=20 mailto:mwforum-admin@lists.mathcats.com=20
Half price modem, FREE connection and one month FREE - click here to sign up = to BT=20 Broadband. _______________________________________________ MWForum = mailing=20 list MWForum@lists.mathcats.com=20 http://lists.mathcats.com/mailman/listinfo/mwforum Attachments = archived at:=20 http://www.mathcats.com/mwforum/attachments.html To unsubscribe or for = administrative questions contact = mailto:mwforum-admin@lists.mathcats.com=20
------=_NextPart_000_0024_01C40422.86EB6730-- From mwforum@lists.mathcats.com Sun Mar 7 18:21:01 2004 From: mwforum@lists.mathcats.com (Karen Randall) Date: Sun, 7 Mar 2004 12:21:01 -0600 Subject: [MWForum]books In-Reply-To: <001101c40454$2e969140$70b3fea9@Downstairs> References:----- Original Message -----From:=20 cy =Sent: Sunday, March 07, 2004 = 7:55=20 AMSubject: [MWForum]Steve ~ I = agree on=20 PhilosophyHey, Steve... I reread Mindstorms = every year with=20 my graduate students at St. Michael's College in Burlington, Vt. It is = a=20 treasure -- as are many of Semour's later writing.I'm mostly interested in hearing if = someone has=20 come upon a recently published book for helping teachers enjoy = programming=20 with cool ideas and grounded in Logo constructivist = philosophy.Craig YagerWhittier International = SchoolBoulder, Colorado----- Original Message -----From:=20 Steve=20 RobsonTo: mwforum@lists.mathcats.com= =20Sent: Sunday, March 07, 2004 = 7:15=20 AMSubject: RE: [MWForum]MIA, = Ask an=20 Expert QuestionFrom: "Ask an Expert - Question"=20Hi Craig,
I'd be interested in the MicroWorlds answer myself! As to Logo=20 philiosphy, I think the commonly held response would be Seymour = Papert's=20 'Mindstorms, Children Computers and Powerful Ideas'. In terms of = technology=20 it's dated, but in respect of the philosphy of Logo, I really liked = it. Good=20 luck with finding it!
Steve
Reply-To: mwforum@lists.mathcats.com=20 To: mwforum@lists.mathcats.com=20 Subject: [MWForum]MIA, Ask an Expert Question=20 Date: Sat, 06 Mar 2004 08:39:35 -0500=20 This is an automatic message sent from the web form at:=20 http://mia.openworldlearning.org/howdoi.htm=20 from: "Craig Yager" date: Fri, 5 Mar 2004 18:21:15 -0700=20 What is the most recent MicroWorlds book that you would=20 recommend for use in teaching teachers to program and = also=20 philosophy about Logo?=20 _______________________________________________=20 MWForum mailing list=20 MWForum@lists.mathcats.com=20 http://lists.mathcats.com/mailman/listinfo/mwforum=20 Attachments archived at:=20 http://www.mathcats.com/mwforum/attachments.html=20 To unsubscribe or for administrative questions contact=20 mailto:mwforum-admin@lists.mathcats.com=20
Half price modem, FREE connection and one month FREE - click here to sign up = to BT=20 Broadband. _______________________________________________ = MWForum=20 mailing list MWForum@lists.mathcats.com=20 http://lists.mathcats.com/mailman/listinfo/mwforum Attachments = archived at:=20 http://www.mathcats.com/mwforum/attachments.html To unsubscribe or = for=20 administrative questions contact = mailto:mwforum-admin@lists.mathcats.com=20
I have a few remarks on the matter of MW books:
1) From what I understand, after the early versions of MW, LCSI made the
decision to focus on software itself rather than on printed manuals and
supplementary resources. Sharon Yoder (not affiliated with LCSI) wrote
several books on MW 2.0 which are now out of print. I bought them but did
not find them as helpful as LCSI's early print materials.
2) I believe I've read recently that LCSI has recently produced a book on
MicroWorlds EX, but I can find no mention of it on their site or anywhere
else. Perhaps it is still in production. (Also, MW EX comes with more
helpful resources built into the software, including tutorials and
projects.)
3) After Jim Muller wrote "The Great Logo Adventure" (which focused on
MSWLogo but much of it is applicable to all versions of Logo), he mentioned
on the LogoForum list that in the future he would stick to electronic
distribution of Logo writings. And his book did become available for free,
electronically, a year or two after it was published. I think part of his
reasoning for shying away from print resources in the future is that it
takes so long to bring a book to market and by then one wishes to make
changes. As Ray points out, state-of-the-art computer software and related
information is typically distributed through the Internet, and I'm sure that
the main reasons are the ease of distribution and the ease of updating
information.
4) I agree that sometimes print materials are the easiest to use and to
refer to, although perhaps that's only because we are all still adjusting to
the world of electronic information. But I found it a huge help, years ago
in the days of MW 1.0 and the first MW 2.0 for Mac, to refer to the print
resources packaged with the software, including step-by-step projects.
(Prior to that, I valued the old Logowriter activity cards.) I believe that
some of these resources were included electronically in later versions on
the CD but I don't think they are any more. I wonder if LCSI might consider
placing some of these early MW resources in downloadable version on their
website.
5) I'd like to remind you that OpenWorld Learning has been developing a
collection of online MW resources at the MicroWorlds in Action site -
http://= mia.openworldlearning.org. The project folders there guide users
through building related projects of increasing complexity. The
"educational context" materials in the Resources area give some background
on the "Logo philosophy" and ideas on using MW in a constructivist computer
lab. We would welcome your input and contribution of ideas, articles, "how
do I" tips, etc., as we continue to build this online MW resource.
Wendy Petti
OWL's MicroWorlds in Action
http://mia.openworldlearning.org
Math Cats
http://www.mathcats.com
> -----Original Message-----
> From: mwforum-admin@lists.mathcats.com
> [mail= to:mwforum-admin@lists.mathcats.com]On Behalf Of Ray Catzel
> Sent: Sunday, March 07, 2004 6:05 PM
> To: mwforum@lists.mathcats.com
> Subject: RE: [MWForum]books
>
>
> I believe the best resources for MicroWorlds is via the Internet - and why
> not, since that is the medium through which any state of the art computer
> software will distribute and publish information.
> --------Ray Catzel
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Hi. I am trying to create a virtual =
pet using
Gary Stagers webpage: www.stager.org/ar=
ticles/tamagotchi.html
HOUR is not =
working at
all. There must be an HOUR =
going on in
the background, but it has me stuck. I
had to rename MESSAGE to MESSAGES. Why? Has anyone done this and can =
they help me? Thanks.
Cathy =
Berger
Thanks,
I removed the avi file and one of the wav files. Everything works well. Thanks again.
Dear Consuella,
this particular problem can happen if the independent files (.wav and
.avi) were not properly linked before creating the .html template.
Simply place all three files (.wav, .avi , .mw2 or .mwz) in the same
folder, launch the .mw2 file with MicroWorlds Pro (v.1.1), re-import
the media files and then create the .html template. Test the project
by opening the .html template with your latest WebPlayer
(http://www.microworlds.com/webplayer/index.html) equipped Internet
browser. If everything works, you can upload the files to overwrite
the existing files on your web server.
Please note, that you should only user lowercase characters in the
file names. We also don't recommend the use of video clips for
online projects due to longer loading time. You can find more
information on using media files with online projects from the
following link: http://www.microworlds.com/library/post.html
Let me know how it goes.
Regards.
Shawn Jesty
LCSI
--
Logo Computer Systems Inc.
1 Westmount Square, Suite 300
Montreal,QC Canada
H3Z 2P9
info@lcsi.ca
www.lcsi.ca
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You could run the project in a web page and use all the various get-outs that way. Don't know if that helps at all.
Regards
Steve
These are good ideas. It is also possible to create a math game which
generates random questions and evaluates the answers. It is easiest to
focus on one operation at a time, but then you can design a version of the
game which chooses randomly from addition, subtraction, multiplication and
division questions, or even a game in which it is possible to choose a
difficulty level (how many digits, etc.).
Here are procedures for a simple multiplication quiz game. (Mind you, I'm
not promoting the idea of drill and practice math games! I don't know what
kind of math games your students are developing. But this is a simple way
to get started in game creation.)
This game presents problems in question boxes and evaluates the answers. If
the answer is correct, the score in the SCORE textbox increases by 1 and a
little snake moves forward 20 pixels; otherwise the computer shows the
answer in an announcement box, the snake moves back 20 pixels, and the score
decreases by 1. For the game below you would need a "new_problem" button
and a "new_game" button and there is no clear finish to the game. It would
be fairly easy to improve on this game so that new questions appear
automatically after the previous question is evaluated, until a specified
number of questions have been asked. It would also be possible to announce
how many points have been earned out of how many total questions asked
(perhaps when the game ends).
* * * * *
to new_problem
make "m1 random 11
make "m2 random 11
question (se :m1 "x :m2 "=)
ifelse answer = :m1 * :m1 [setscore score + 1 fd 20] [show_answer bk 20
setscore score - 1]
end
to show_answer
make "m1m2product :m1 * :m2
announce (se :m1 "x :m2 "= :m1m2product)
end
to new_game
setscore 0
t1, setpos [-178 -6]
end
to startup
new_game
end
Wendy Petti
OWL's MicroWorlds in Action
http://mia.openworldlearning.org
Math Cats
http://www.mathcats.com
- - - - -
> Another way to do this:
>
> Assume you have a procedure
> ASKQUES :N
> which asks a question depending on the value of the input it is
> called with.
>
> At the beginning of the game maybe have a procedure like
> TO STARTUP
> MAKE "Q 1
> END
>
> Then the button's instruction could say
> ASKQUES :Q MAKE "Q :Q + 1
>
> - Jerry Balzano (F&M alumnus)
>
> >You can have one button that starts the game. In it you would put
> >the name of each procedure that asks a question
> >
> >to play
> >ques1
> >ques2
> >ques3
> >end
> >
> >Then it will ask one question at a time.
> >
> >Susan
> >On Apr 13, 2004, at 10:37 AM, Bob Irving wrote:
> >
> >>Got a question... My students are writing math games. Is
> there a good way
> >>to ask multiple questions (say, 10) without having 10 buttons
> to launch each new question?
>
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This is very, very simple but draws what you ask it to.
to poly :sides
repeat :sides[fd 100 rt 360 / :sides]
end
Then call poly 4 (or whatever)
Steve
Other than a screen capture, I am not sure how to capture/copy/paste
a shape from MW into AppleWorks. Sometimes MW has the perfect graphic to
accompany a story written in AW word processing. Is the following true?
Graphics can become shapes but shapes are not graphics??
BTW, you once asked what changes would be helpful. A lasso tool would be nice, now that we are discussing graphics.
Looking forward to your presentation mode lesson.
Wendy Petti wrote:
Hi Folks,--------------3A26E448B6F3B126FB534C76-- From mwforum@lists.mathcats.com Thu Feb 26 20:17:48 2004 From: mwforum@lists.mathcats.com (Lauren Pacini) Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2004 12:17:48 -0800 (PST) Subject: [MWForum]how much MW homework help should this list provide? In-Reply-To:Recently on this list, Tony Wilson was asking about an easy way to use MW to
run an automatic slideshow. He mentioned during that dialogue, "I am trying
to push Microworlds amongst the staff and if it is too much of a bother they
will want to use a media player or powerpoint. I am hoping the kids can see
the value and power of programming."I think many of us have found ourselves in that same situation. We might be
the lone MicroWorlds enthusiast on staff or we might be one of a small core
group of MW enthusiasts, and we might be looking for ways to get more
teachers excited about and comfortable with MicroWorlds even if they have no
background or interest in programming. It's one thing to teach our students
some programming, but I never got anywhere with trying to teach programming
to my colleagues.But I did find many ways to promote the use of MicroWorlds by less
tech-savvy teachers, even though they continued to need some hand-holding
and encouragement. I'll share a few ideas here, more later, and I hope some
of you will share ideas that have been well-received at your schools.The focus in this message is on the graphics capabilities of MicroWorlds.
At my former school, we had a very limited set of software installed on our
computers: MicroWorlds 2.0_ and Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint,
Access - which we steered clear of for the most part) and also MSWorks. And
then of course there were the programs that come with Windows, such as Paint
and Internet Explorer. (I hated Paint and much preferred the graphics
capabilities of MicroWorlds.)I became a huge fan of using MicroWorlds for all of our graphics needs, and
I continue to use MicroWorlds for generating all of the graphics on my Math
Cats website. In 3 1/2 years of developing that site, I have felt little or
no need to shell out $$ for a more advanced graphics application.We've already seen how MW can easily be used to assemble an automatic
slideshow of external JPEG or GIF files (as well as other graphics formats).
Here's how I often use MW to create and edit artwork:Let's say I'm drawing a new cat for Math Cats. I use the circle/oval tool
to make the basic head shape, then erase a bit and add ears. Next I draw
one eye. I want the other eye to be a mirror image of the first, so I
surround the first eye and copy and paste it into a shape. I open that
shape and use the mirror image button to reverse the eye, then I surround
that eye with the selection tool and copy it. I close that shape and paste
the selected area into the cat's head. (I've used this partial mirror-image
technique in lots of Math Cats projects, such as the Symmetrical Butterflies
craft project: http://www.mathcats.com/crafts/symbutterflies.html.)I often use the fat bits editor (I click and drag with the selection tool
then double-click inside the selected area) to get an enlarged view which I
can edit pixel by pixel. I love that I can select the desired magnification
with MW Pro. I copy and paste my finished cat into a shape, then I open the
shape and click and drag its boundaries to crop the image closely so that I
don't have any unnecessary white space around it. (This works much better
in MW Pro than in MW 2.0_, for we can easily select any shape dimensions
with Pro but cannot fine-tune the dimensions as much with MW 2.0_.)(I love storing graphics in the shapes center. Often I make multiple copies
of a newly-drawn shape and then edit them to get variations - arms and legs
in different positions; merging one graphic with another; etc.)Next I use the SAVESHAPE command (in the command center) to save my new
shape as an external GIF file (or if I've cropped a photo or combined a
photo with a cartoon-like drawing, I might save it as a JPEG file).
Example:saveshape "orangecat.gif 17
where 17 is the number of the shape I'm saving as an external file.
Now one thing to bear in mind is that a white background in a shape is
transparent when used within a MicroWorlds project, but it appears as solid
white when used outside MicroWorlds. If I want a transparent background for
this external graphics file, I need to use another application to do this.
(I used to use the drawing tools of Word to make one color transparent; I
would import the graphics file, use the transparency tool to make one color
transparent, then save the Word document as a web page, and in
newly-generated folder accompanying the web page I would find two files, one
of which was the new graphics file I needed with the transparent
background.) But it is much easier to use the free Irfanview graphics
viewing-editing application (www.irfanview.com) to make a transparent color;
read on "transparency" in the help index to find out how.All of the graphics for Math Cats' Polygon Playground
(www.mathcats.com/explore/polygons.html) and Tessellation Town
(www.mathcats.com/explore/tessellationtown.html) were created with MWPro
(with the help of another application for making transparent backgrounds).
I combined MW Logo programming with the graphics tools to generate all of
the colored polygon outlines. It is very easy to create tessellating puzzle
pieces with MicroWorlds, when you copy and paste wiggly lines to form
matching pairs on both sides of an altered quadrilateral (for instance). My
students used to love creating tessellations with MicroWorlds. I used the
rotation tool in the shapes editor to create right-side-up and upside-down
triangle people. (Of course, first I created the original equilateral
triangles with Logo commands.) To make very precise tessellating ocean
waves I used MW Logo programming to draw the original curves and then I used
the graphics tools to color the wave puzzle pieces and the coordinating fish
puzzle pieces.For an example of a graphic combining a photo with a cartoon-like drawing
and using a transparent background, see my self-portrait at
www.mathcats.com/grownupcats.html. I used the graphics tools of MWPro to
erase the background of the photo, first outlining carefully around my head
(first with a white fine line tool or eraser and then with the fatter lines
and with white rectangles). Then I put my head into a MicroWorlds shape,
opened the shape and chose a good magnification, and drew a little cat
perched on my shoulder. I saved this as a GIF image and then used Irfanview
to make the white background transparent. It was fun and easy to create
this composite image using MWPro.My students used to love drawing cartoon bodies under their photo heads and
then animating their bodies to dance or leap or do jumping jacks or
whatever. You can see examples in the "Animate Me" folder at the
MicroWorlds in Action site:
http://mia.openworldlearning.org/animate_me/animate_me.htm
They enjoyed importing each other's cartoon-body images and using these
characters in multimedia stories which they wrote using MicroWorlds
textboxes. Even first-graders could do this, if we didn't worry about
writing procedures to create animations. The "Animated Story" MIA folder
demonstrates how even stationary characters can be used to make textboxes
appear or to navigate to different project pages:
http://mia.openworldlearning.org/animated_story/animated_story.htmWe used to use the graphics capabilities of MW combined with textboxes to
create many multimedia social studies projects. It was nice sometimes to
incorporate some programmed animations, but if we are trying to get more
teachers comfortable with using MicroWorlds, we can encourage them to
combine static graphics and text as a first step.I also created an "empty book" project which already had empty textboxes and
navigation arrows and plenty of pages already set up (another version
generated pages automatically as needed, complete with new textboxes and
programmed navigation arrows). It had a title page; the student just needed
to type the title and author in the preformatted textboxes. It also had a
planning page where students could list their characters, make note of any
references, do some brainstorming, etc.I much preferred using MW for creating multimedia projects in this way
rather than PowerPoint or HyperStudio, because this way we could keep the
focus on generating meaningful content. With PowerPoint or HyperStudio,
students begin to get too distracted by the formatting decisions before
they've developed their content. With MicroWorlds, it is easy to start with
a bare-bones text box and then gradually add the bells and whistles after
the text is written.I will try to locate this empty book project and a few other useful template
projects and share them soon with this list.I hope you'll find some of these ideas useful... and if you've managed to
read to the end of this message, I congratulate you heartily!Wendy Petti
MicroWorlds in Action
http://mia.openworldlearning.org
Math Cats
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...and another thought! If you want some good graphics for turtle shapes, you can search the 'net (with appropriate care) and locate a web page graphic which can be copied and pasted to the shape centre. The tumbnails in Google image search are ofetn a useful size, and if the search is made for gif files only, the background is often white.
Just a thought.
Steve
On Thursday, February 26, 2004, at 09:11 AM, Mikula Family wrote:
Other than a screen capture, I am not sure how to capture/copy/paste a shape from MW into AppleWorks. Sometimes MW has the perfect graphic to accompany a story written in AW word processing. Is the following > true?
Graphics can become shapes but shapes are not graphics??
It works both ways for me although I've never pasted into the AW paint program. You can click once on a shapes box to select it, then go to Edit and choose copy, then go to AppleWorks and paste it into a word processing document or a drawing document. Most of the computers in my room don't have enough RAM to run MW Pro, so we use MW 2.05 on those older computers. In version 2 you can't rotate shapes except by 90 degree increments. So my students copy the MW shape and paste it into AW draw where it can be rotated at any angle. Then the graphic can be copied from AW and pasted back into a MW shapes box. This way my students can do an animation with an airplane take off or land at a more reasonable 20 or 30 degree angle rather than 90 degrees.
-John
John St. Clair&= nbsp; = x-tab> Global SchoolNet Foundation
john.stclair@verizon.net&nb= sp; www.gsn.org
Vina Danks Middle SchoolLogoFor= um moderator
Teacher of Logo and Legogroups.ya= hoo.com/group/logoforum
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Hi Marian,
The background on the gifs might be clear or white, if you paste into MW it doesn't actually matter because the transparency is lost anyway. To restore transparent backgrounds, just double click the shape in the shape centre, then pour in the transparent colour from the colour palette onto the background. The point is that as long as the background is plain, you can make it transparent easily. Also if you find an animated gif, you could take it apart to make an animated turtle.
Also, depending on the version of MW you are using, the transparent colour might take a little bit of locating; the earlier versions use (if memory serves me) the lightest shade of white.
Filetypes - you could write a short book on the question, but in brief, here goes...
GIF (Graphic Image File) have a max of 256 colours, can have transparent areas, are used in animations, are often logos, cartoons, text.
JPEG (.jpg -Joint Photographer Expert Group) can have up to 16 million colours, can be compressed to lower the file size, are often used for photographs. If you copy and paste a big, colour-rich jpeg into MW (especially earlier versions) you will notice that the colour depth is reduced.
PICT(Mac format) PICTs are Mac produced bit maps and object image files... basically, these are images made on a mac.
more here: http://www.wfu.edu/~matthews/misc/graphics/formats/formats.html
Hope this helps, good luck
Steve
More about graphics
Sorry Marian, there's beena delay here, my first response didn't make it; here goes again.
The Gif background may be white or clear. If you copy from the internet and paste it into the shape centre, you will need to fill the background of the sprite in with 'transparent paint' from within MW anyway. It's just easier when the background is all one colour. Gifs can be animations, so you can unpack them (using a GIF animator) and paste them, one by one, into the shape centre to use as animated turtles.
Graphic Filetypes.
This is a big question, but very, very briefly, here goes:
JPEGs have 16 million colours, can be compressed without becoming visibly too bad to use and are great for photo's and so on. If you paste, or insert a jpeg into MW (certainly early versions) you may notice some strange colours appearing.
GIFs are much smaller (sizewise), have a maximum of 256 colours, can be animated and can have transparent areas.
PICTs are native Mac format pictures.
The above is just a very quick answer, you can get loads more if you need it from
http://graphicssoft.about.com/cs/graphicformats/
Hope this helps
Regards
Steve
Bob Irving
Middle School Technology =
Coordinator
Lancaster=20
Country Day School
Lancaster, PA 17603
Weblog: http://bobirving.weblogs.us/
'Are=20
we educating students for our past or for their future?'=20
Anonymous
Hi Craig,
I'd be interested in the MicroWorlds answer myself! As to Logo philiosphy, I think the commonly held response would be Seymour Papert's 'Mindstorms, Children Computers and Powerful Ideas'. In terms of technology it's dated, but in respect of the philosphy of Logo, I really liked it. Good luck with finding it!
Steve
------=_NextPart_000_000E_01C40419.80F5C360-- From mwforum@lists.mathcats.com Sun Mar 7 15:59:41 2004 From: mwforum@lists.mathcats.com (cy) Date: Sun, 7 Mar 2004 08:59:41 -0700 Subject: [MWForum]Apologies References:----- Original Message -----From:=20 Steve=20 RobsonSent: Sunday, March 07, 2004 = 7:15=20 AMSubject: RE: [MWForum]MIA, Ask = an Expert=20 QuestionFrom: "Ask an Expert - Question"=20Hi Craig,
I'd be interested in the MicroWorlds answer myself! As to Logo = philiosphy,=20 I think the commonly held response would be Seymour Papert's = 'Mindstorms,=20 Children Computers and Powerful Ideas'. In terms of technology it's = dated, but=20 in respect of the philosphy of Logo, I really liked it. Good luck with = finding=20 it!
Steve
Reply-To: mwforum@lists.mathcats.com=20 To: mwforum@lists.mathcats.com=20 Subject: [MWForum]MIA, Ask an Expert Question=20 Date: Sat, 06 Mar 2004 08:39:35 -0500=20 This is an automatic message sent from the web form at:=20 http://mia.openworldlearning.org/howdoi.htm=20 from: "Craig Yager" date: Fri, 5 Mar 2004 18:21:15 -0700=20 What is the most recent MicroWorlds book that you would=20 recommend for use in teaching teachers to program and also=20 philosophy about Logo?=20 _______________________________________________=20 MWForum mailing list=20 MWForum@lists.mathcats.com=20 http://lists.mathcats.com/mailman/listinfo/mwforum=20 Attachments archived at:=20 http://www.mathcats.com/mwforum/attachments.html=20 To unsubscribe or for administrative questions contact=20 mailto:mwforum-admin@lists.mathcats.com=20
Half price modem, FREE connection and one month FREE - click here to sign up = to BT=20 Broadband. _______________________________________________ MWForum = mailing=20 list MWForum@lists.mathcats.com=20 http://lists.mathcats.com/mailman/listinfo/mwforum Attachments = archived at:=20 http://www.mathcats.com/mwforum/attachments.html To unsubscribe or for = administrative questions contact = mailto:mwforum-admin@lists.mathcats.com=20
------=_NextPart_000_0024_01C40422.86EB6730-- From mwforum@lists.mathcats.com Sun Mar 7 18:21:01 2004 From: mwforum@lists.mathcats.com (Karen Randall) Date: Sun, 7 Mar 2004 12:21:01 -0600 Subject: [MWForum]books In-Reply-To: <001101c40454$2e969140$70b3fea9@Downstairs> References:----- Original Message -----From:=20 cy =Sent: Sunday, March 07, 2004 = 7:55=20 AMSubject: [MWForum]Steve ~ I = agree on=20 PhilosophyHey, Steve... I reread Mindstorms = every year with=20 my graduate students at St. Michael's College in Burlington, Vt. It is = a=20 treasure -- as are many of Semour's later writing.I'm mostly interested in hearing if = someone has=20 come upon a recently published book for helping teachers enjoy = programming=20 with cool ideas and grounded in Logo constructivist = philosophy.Craig YagerWhittier International = SchoolBoulder, Colorado----- Original Message -----From:=20 Steve=20 RobsonTo: mwforum@lists.mathcats.com= =20Sent: Sunday, March 07, 2004 = 7:15=20 AMSubject: RE: [MWForum]MIA, = Ask an=20 Expert QuestionFrom: "Ask an Expert - Question"=20Hi Craig,
I'd be interested in the MicroWorlds answer myself! As to Logo=20 philiosphy, I think the commonly held response would be Seymour = Papert's=20 'Mindstorms, Children Computers and Powerful Ideas'. In terms of = technology=20 it's dated, but in respect of the philosphy of Logo, I really liked = it. Good=20 luck with finding it!
Steve
Reply-To: mwforum@lists.mathcats.com=20 To: mwforum@lists.mathcats.com=20 Subject: [MWForum]MIA, Ask an Expert Question=20 Date: Sat, 06 Mar 2004 08:39:35 -0500=20 This is an automatic message sent from the web form at:=20 http://mia.openworldlearning.org/howdoi.htm=20 from: "Craig Yager" date: Fri, 5 Mar 2004 18:21:15 -0700=20 What is the most recent MicroWorlds book that you would=20 recommend for use in teaching teachers to program and = also=20 philosophy about Logo?=20 _______________________________________________=20 MWForum mailing list=20 MWForum@lists.mathcats.com=20 http://lists.mathcats.com/mailman/listinfo/mwforum=20 Attachments archived at:=20 http://www.mathcats.com/mwforum/attachments.html=20 To unsubscribe or for administrative questions contact=20 mailto:mwforum-admin@lists.mathcats.com=20
Half price modem, FREE connection and one month FREE - click here to sign up = to BT=20 Broadband. _______________________________________________ = MWForum=20 mailing list MWForum@lists.mathcats.com=20 http://lists.mathcats.com/mailman/listinfo/mwforum Attachments = archived at:=20 http://www.mathcats.com/mwforum/attachments.html To unsubscribe or = for=20 administrative questions contact = mailto:mwforum-admin@lists.mathcats.com=20
I have a few remarks on the matter of MW books:
1) From what I understand, after the early versions of MW, LCSI made the
decision to focus on software itself rather than on printed manuals and
supplementary resources. Sharon Yoder (not affiliated with LCSI) wrote
several books on MW 2.0 which are now out of print. I bought them but did
not find them as helpful as LCSI's early print materials.
2) I believe I've read recently that LCSI has recently produced a book on
MicroWorlds EX, but I can find no mention of it on their site or anywhere
else. Perhaps it is still in production. (Also, MW EX comes with more
helpful resources built into the software, including tutorials and
projects.)
3) After Jim Muller wrote "The Great Logo Adventure" (which focused on
MSWLogo but much of it is applicable to all versions of Logo), he mentioned
on the LogoForum list that in the future he would stick to electronic
distribution of Logo writings. And his book did become available for free,
electronically, a year or two after it was published. I think part of his
reasoning for shying away from print resources in the future is that it
takes so long to bring a book to market and by then one wishes to make
changes. As Ray points out, state-of-the-art computer software and related
information is typically distributed through the Internet, and I'm sure that
the main reasons are the ease of distribution and the ease of updating
information.
4) I agree that sometimes print materials are the easiest to use and to
refer to, although perhaps that's only because we are all still adjusting to
the world of electronic information. But I found it a huge help, years ago
in the days of MW 1.0 and the first MW 2.0 for Mac, to refer to the print
resources packaged with the software, including step-by-step projects.
(Prior to that, I valued the old Logowriter activity cards.) I believe that
some of these resources were included electronically in later versions on
the CD but I don't think they are any more. I wonder if LCSI might consider
placing some of these early MW resources in downloadable version on their
website.
5) I'd like to remind you that OpenWorld Learning has been developing a
collection of online MW resources at the MicroWorlds in Action site -
http://= mia.openworldlearning.org. The project folders there guide users
through building related projects of increasing complexity. The
"educational context" materials in the Resources area give some background
on the "Logo philosophy" and ideas on using MW in a constructivist computer
lab. We would welcome your input and contribution of ideas, articles, "how
do I" tips, etc., as we continue to build this online MW resource.
Wendy Petti
OWL's MicroWorlds in Action
http://mia.openworldlearning.org
Math Cats
http://www.mathcats.com
> -----Original Message-----
> From: mwforum-admin@lists.mathcats.com
> [mail= to:mwforum-admin@lists.mathcats.com]On Behalf Of Ray Catzel
> Sent: Sunday, March 07, 2004 6:05 PM
> To: mwforum@lists.mathcats.com
> Subject: RE: [MWForum]books
>
>
> I believe the best resources for MicroWorlds is via the Internet - and why
> not, since that is the medium through which any state of the art computer
> software will distribute and publish information.
> --------Ray Catzel
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Hi. I am trying to create a virtual =
pet using
Gary Stagers webpage: www.stager.org/ar=
ticles/tamagotchi.html
HOUR is not =
working at
all. There must be an HOUR =
going on in
the background, but it has me stuck. I
had to rename MESSAGE to MESSAGES. Why? Has anyone done this and can =
they help me? Thanks.
Cathy =
Berger
Thanks,
I removed the avi file and one of the wav files. Everything works well. Thanks again.
Dear Consuella,
this particular problem can happen if the independent files (.wav and
.avi) were not properly linked before creating the .html template.
Simply place all three files (.wav, .avi , .mw2 or .mwz) in the same
folder, launch the .mw2 file with MicroWorlds Pro (v.1.1), re-import
the media files and then create the .html template. Test the project
by opening the .html template with your latest WebPlayer
(http://www.microworlds.com/webplayer/index.html) equipped Internet
browser. If everything works, you can upload the files to overwrite
the existing files on your web server.
Please note, that you should only user lowercase characters in the
file names. We also don't recommend the use of video clips for
online projects due to longer loading time. You can find more
information on using media files with online projects from the
following link: http://www.microworlds.com/library/post.html
Let me know how it goes.
Regards.
Shawn Jesty
LCSI
--
Logo Computer Systems Inc.
1 Westmount Square, Suite 300
Montreal,QC Canada
H3Z 2P9
info@lcsi.ca
www.lcsi.ca
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