Ian Lynch wrote:
On Wed, 2005-10-26 at 17:54 +0100, Eoghan Barr wrote:
Hi folks,
This might be the wrong address to post to...but maybe not.
I am an ICT / Computing teacher currently trying to pave the way for
OOo2 introduction into my school.
We have invested heavily in Smartboards / Interactive whiteboards /
Starboards / tablet PCs etc and are conducting staff training in these
areas.
Sounds like you might be in the UK?
Yeah - NI actually...
An area I find useful with these devices is the ability to annotate over
Word / PPT etc (through Office 03 digital ink facility), and I recently
bought a graphics tablet to practice / develop similar OO strategies and
techniques at home.
I can use the 'highlight' function successfully in Writer but when using
'draw line' to write notes on top of documents I can only write one
letter at a time since OO reverts to the 'select' mode rather than draw.
I just tried this in OOo20 and it seems to work as I'd expect. Just
select freeform line drawing and write a letter at a time. Just
wondering if there is a way to switch to a different mode but I can;t
find one.
I have been playing with that too, but find it irritating that you can't
write continuously. I'm sure there must be a way round this.
I was hoping to create a customised toolbar using macros or whatever to
mimic the functions I need, but was wondering if anyone else knows of a
similar attempt already underway with OO development, or if there is any
attempt to integrate Digital Ink in OO in the future?
Depends on what you mean by digital ink? As fas as I can tell You can
write with a large range of line styles over the top ow text in Writer.
Each letter is just an individual vector drawing. Turning to printed
text as in handwriting recognition is unlikely to be possible anytime
soon however most IWBs have these tools in the software that comes with
them.
I'm not even thinking about handwriting recognition. What I was thinking
of was some kind of OOo plugin / upgrade toolbox which had all or some
of the common features provided by the different IWB / Smartboard /
Starboard software packages.
In my school we have a whole variety of systems all with their own
proprietary packages which staff have to adapt to.
As the recent-graduate-gadget-geek (I am young and have a Palm therefore
I know all there is to know about Whiteboards etc...apparently) I have
been called on to deliver training to our staff on all of these
different platforms with their different implementations of essentially
the same widgets.
What I think could be OOo's 'killer app' in the educational sector would
be some kind of 'catch-all Interactive Device' toolbox. This would
contain a selection of the most common widgets or eyecandy applications
which accompany these devices. This 'iCandy' toolbox would turn Writer
into 'iWrite' or Impress into 'iImpress', and provide a common platform
for using any kind of whiteboard or peripheral rather than having
teachers jump through new hoops every time a new peripheral appears on
the scene. It might also allow the use of cheaper graphics tablets
rather than hugely expensive whiteboards. All it would need is a
reworking of the freeform drawing you mentioned earlier for handwriting,
some kind of slider for pen size etc, a highlight option (transparent
thick pen), screen blackout (with optional James Bond style spotlight
feature), eraser, a ticker tape, screengrab for web page etc and I
reckon it would be a viable option for most schools sick of redoing
their PPT / Activ Flipcharts etc
Word 03 on a tablet PC (but not desktop!) allows you to annotate over
the document, and PPT allows you to write over slides etc but this kind
of approach might give OOo a boost as regards educational establishment
uptake (and by the way kids, you can have this software too...).
Anyway, here endith my 2.30 am brainstorm as I have to get up soon to
attend aformentioned school.
PS Ian - I am intending to get my GCE Applied ICT students to base their
Multimedia coursework around promoting Open Source software. I am
planning out activities involving podcasts, animated advertisements,
video tutorials etc. Would you be available for an interview as a
recognised expert / professional in the area?
Thanks
PPS I realise am getting way off topic, but I suddenly thought about
using XForms as present in OOo2 as a GUI interface with Python code
behind for Computing projects. I am thinking along the lines of a Delphi
/ Object Pascal relationship. Anyone know if this is viable, or have I
misinterpreted what XForms can be used for?
Thanks again
(Am really off to bed now...)
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