tuxmath-devel — TuxMath developer's mailing list.

Re: [Tuxmath-devel] Croatian translation

[David B. <dav...@gm...>]

Hi Davor,

On Sat, Jun 25, 2011 at 5:45 PM, Davor <dav...@gm...> wrote:
> Just translated.
>
> hr.po (UTF8) attached.
> (Croatian translation of TuxMath, v.2.0.3.)
>
> I like this game (my children too) - i`m glad that i could help - when can i
> expect translation to be included?

Thanks - your translation has been added to the git repository.  If
you build from the git master branch, it is included.

I hope to put out a 2.0.4 release sometime in the next few weeks with
minor fixes, updated translations, and so forth.

Thanks,

-- 
David Bruce

For all your software needs, visit The Apt Store:
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian stable main

[Tuxmath-devel] Croatian translation

[Davor <dav...@gm...>]

Just translated.

hr.po (UTF8) attached.
(Croatian translation of TuxMath, v.2.0.3.)

I like this game (my children too) - i`m glad that i could help - when can  
i expect translation to be included?



greetings
-- 
Davor Buday

Re: [Tuxmath-devel] updated german translation

[Michael B. <beh...@us...>]

Am Donnerstag, 23. Juni 2011, 10:19:14 schrieb Michael Behrisch:
> Dear TuxMath developers,
> attached you will find a patch updating the german translation.
> It is against version 2.0.3.

Sorry, there was still a typo in it,
here is an updated version.

Best regards,
Michael

[Tuxmath-devel] updated german translation

[Michael B. <beh...@us...>]

Dear TuxMath developers,
attached you will find a patch updating the german translation.
It is against version 2.0.3.

Best regards,
Michael

Re: [Tuxmath-devel] tuxmath subitation wave?

[David B. <dav...@gm...>]

Hi Christopher,

> I was wondering if you had considered doing a wave for developing
> "subitation skills. Subitation is the process by which children learn
> to rapidly perceive the number of objects in a group.  I've recently
> read that this ability seemed to be an important determinant for a
> childs ability to understand mathematical concepts. I'll see if I can
> find the reference but I remember reading about it in the New York
> Times.
>
>  I was imaging having groups of up to 6 -10 asteroids (the "natural"
> subitation limit is said to be 6). You could then count them and enter
> the numbers as you do with the other waves.

It would be quite easy to modify Factoroids to display a random number
of asteroids and have the player simply count them.  When the correct
number is entered, they could all be zapped simultaneously (Factoroids
in tuxmath 2.0.x introduced this cool "multizap" feature as a
powerup).  We could omit the "ship" for this exercise and just show
Tux at the console.

It could also be a mod of the regular tuxmath comet zap game - omit
the comets and have groups of things fly horizontally across the
screen - the player would only earn points if the objects are
"subitated" before the group disappears.

Best,

David Bruce

[Tuxmath-devel] Wrong Translation

[Rafael M. V. <val...@gm...>]

Hello, I have installed Qimo 4 kids and in tuxmath, at the menus, it
says "dijitos" everywhere. The correct word is "dígitos".

Thanks for your atention.

Rafael Moreno Valtierra

Re: [Tuxmath-devel] segfault in adapted play

[David B. <dav...@gm...>]

Hi,

> BTW is there any tutorial on gettext around or should the makefile
> update everything automagically whenever I edit a .po file.
>
> Best regards,
> Michael

A plain "make" doesn't generate the updated .gmo files, but "make
dist" will update everything.  More specifically, "make dist" runs
"make update-po" when it recurses into po/, IIRC.

Best,

-- 
David Bruce

For all your software needs, visit The Apt Store:
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian stable main

Re: [Tuxmath-devel] segfault in adapted play

[Michael B. <beh...@us...>]

>> I just noticed that (according to the release notes)
>> the segfault bug has probably been fixed in version
>> 2.0.2 which has no source release, unfortunately.
>> Is there a reason for that?
>
> None other than "hadn't gotten around to it".  I'll try to do that
> today.  I haven't had much time for tux4kids stuff in the last few
> weeks.

Never mind, I just found out that there are file releases on alioth
as well as on sourceforge and alioth even as 2.0.3 sources which I
am trying now.

BTW is there any tutorial on gettext around or should the makefile
update everything automagically whenever I edit a .po file.

Best regards,
Michael

Re: [Tuxmath-devel] segfault in adapted play

[David B. <dav...@gm...>]

Hi,

On Tue, Jun 14, 2011 at 9:06 PM, Michael Behrisch
<beh...@us...> wrote:
> Hi,
> I just noticed that (according to the release notes)
> the segfault bug has probably been fixed in version
> 2.0.2 which has no source release, unfortunately.
> Is there a reason for that?

None other than "hadn't gotten around to it".  I'll try to do that
today.  I haven't had much time for tux4kids stuff in the last few
weeks.


-- 
David Bruce

For all your software needs, visit The Apt Store:
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian stable main

Re: [Tuxmath-devel] segfault in adapted play

[Michael B. <beh...@us...>]

Hi,
I just noticed that (according to the release notes)
the segfault bug has probably been fixed in version
2.0.2 which has no source release, unfortunately.
Is there a reason for that?

Best regards,
Michael

Re: [Tuxmath-devel] segfault in adapted play

[David B. <dav...@gm...>]

Hi,

On Mon, Jun 13, 2011 at 11:45 PM, Michael Behrisch
<beh...@us...> wrote:
> Hi tuxmath developers,
> thanks for providing such a nice game.
> I updated the openSuse build service build
> https://build.opensuse.org/package/show?package=tuxmath&project=home%3Abehrisch
> and needed to add two patches to make it work.
> One fixes a segfault but probably introduces a
> memory leak. Maybe you want to have a look
> at them.

Thanks for updating tuxmath in OBS!  I'll look at the patches, and
presumably put them into our git repo.

David Bruce

[Tuxmath-devel] segfault in adapted play

[Michael B. <beh...@us...>]

Hi tuxmath developers,
thanks for providing such a nice game.
I updated the openSuse build service build
https://build.opensuse.org/package/show?package=tuxmath&project=home%3Abehrisch
and needed to add two patches to make it work.
One fixes a segfault but probably introduces a
memory leak. Maybe you want to have a look
at them.

Best regards and keep up the good work,
Michael

Re: [Tuxmath-devel] Cloning problem.

[David B. <dav...@gm...>]

Hi,

Here is some more info on how to set up ssh key-based login on Alioth
- this was sent to me by one of the Alioth admins when I learned of
the issue.  For me, I did the following (typing from memory, not
testing as I go):

1. ssh-keygen -t rsa
2. ssh-add (to add new key to ssh-agent)
3. gvim ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub and copy the newly created key.
4. log in to alioth with web browser, go to
https://alioth.debian.org/account/editsshkeys.php and paste in the new
key, following directions about only having line breaks between keys.
5. wait for alioth's cron job to process the newly added key.

Then it should work.

HTH,

David

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi David

1) alioth.debian.org no longer exists

2) ssh -v dbr...@al... should redirect to wagner.debian.org

3) "Password-based logins have been disabled on purpose.
Login to your account on https://alioth.debian.org and setup an SSH
key, see http://wiki.debian.org/Alioth/SSH#Installing_SSH_keys for
details."

http://titanpad.com/yyhfwA9Pyr

4) You'll probably need to generate both a key for wagner.debian.org
and a key for vasks.debian.org

http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2011/05/msg00007.html

http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2011/05/msg00008.html

5) See

http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2011/05/msg00009.html

http://groups.google.com/group/linux.debian.devel/browse_thread/thread/2e36010f833636f7/82270c7b15a9958b?q=status%20update&lnk=ol&


-
David Bruce

For all your software needs, visit The Apt Store:
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian stable main

Re: [Tuxmath-devel] Cloning problem.

[David B. <dav...@gm...>]

Hi,

Alioth got rebuilt lately, and they have intentionally disabled
password-based login to the server.  Now, you must upload a ssh key in
order to connect with the server via ssh.

Re: [Tuxmath-devel] Cloning problem.

[Siddharth K. <sid...@gm...>]

Hi blucalvin,

One possible reason is that recently Alioth has lost access to ssh keys in
Debian LDAP - http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2011/05/msg01128.html

<http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2011/05/msg01128.html>Following this
should solve the problem:
http://wiki.debian.org/Alioth/SSH#Installing_SSH_keys.

Thanks,
Siddharth
On Sat, Jun 11, 2011 at 8:17 PM, blucalvin <blu...@gm...> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I was trying to clone the tuxmath repository and I had the following
> problem.
>
> gora@lorien:~/tux$ git clone git+ssh://
> MY_...@gi.../git/tux4kids/tuxmath.git
> Initialized empty Git repository in /home/gora/tux/tuxmath/.git/
> Permission denied (publickey).
> fatal: The remote end hung up unexpectedly
>
> I have an account in alioth.
>
> Can anyone help me with the problem?
>
> Thanks,
> Haris.
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> EditLive Enterprise is the world's most technically advanced content
> authoring tool. Experience the power of Track Changes, Inline Image
> Editing and ensure content is compliant with Accessibility Checking.
> http://p.sf.net/sfu/ephox-dev2dev
> _______________________________________________
> Tuxmath-devel mailing list
> Tux...@li...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/tuxmath-devel
>
>

Re: [Tuxmath-devel] Cloning problem.

[Holger L. <ho...@la...>]

On Samstag, 11. Juni 2011, blucalvin wrote:
> gora@lorien:~/tux$ git clone git+ssh://
> MY_...@gi.../git/tux4kids/tuxmath.git

does 

ssh -v $YOU...@gi...

work?


cheers,
	Holger

[Tuxmath-devel] Cloning problem.

[blucalvin <blu...@gm...>]

Hi,

I was trying to clone the tuxmath repository and I had the following
problem.

gora@lorien:~/tux$ git clone git+ssh://
MY_...@gi.../git/tux4kids/tuxmath.git
Initialized empty Git repository in /home/gora/tux/tuxmath/.git/
Permission denied (publickey).
fatal: The remote end hung up unexpectedly

I have an account in alioth.

Can anyone help me with the problem?

Thanks,
Haris.

[Tuxmath-devel] Comment

[munchies <zmm...@gm...>]

This is one of the best math games I have ever played, but can you add
different types of math in different levels other than space. I mean
can you add Algebra 1 and so on in different exiting levels other than
blowing up comets. Thank-you.

-- 
zmmunchies

Re: [Tuxmath-devel] GSoC project on "Personalized, adaptive game-play to improve learning in Tuxmath"

[Tim H. <ho...@wu...>]

Hi Siddarth,

I'd also add that perhaps it might be best to confine this to "training 
academy." The intent behind the arcade games is that everyone is on equal 
footing, so getting the high score for your class represents an "absolute" 
achievement rather than "you did very well given what we expected of you" 
(i.e., what the Bayesian algorithm decided to set as problems). But for the 
training academy, the latter is indeed probably more appropriate .

Best,
--Tim


On Tuesday, May 31, 2011 11:55:44 am David Bruce wrote:
> Hi Siddarth,
> 
> > Also, I would like if the question generation happens for every wave
> > instead of happening once in a game.
> 
> The question list is generated at the beginning of the game.  The
> waves affect things like the background image and the speed of the
> comets, but not the questions.  The question-generation code is in
> mathcards.[ch], which doesn't know anything about waves.
> 
> Depending on a few config file variables (see e.g. ~/.tuxmath/options
> or any of the files under data/missions/),  answered or missed
> questions are handled differently (I apologize about some of the
> variable names, which now seem rather confusing)
> 
> PLAY_THROUGH_LIST (boolean) - if set to 1 ("true"), correctly-answered
> questions are removed from the list, so that the game ends in victory
> when there are no remaining questions.  If set to 0 ("false"), the
> questions are reinserted in a random question and the game goes on
> indefinitely ("arcade mode").
> 
> REPEAT_WRONGS (boolean) - controls the equivalent behavior for
> questions the player misses (i.e. the ones that hit the igloos).
> However, for this one, 1 means the questions are reinserted, and 0
> means they are discarded, the opposite of the behavior for
> PLAY_THROUGH_LIST.  This is set to 1 for all of the bundled lessons.
> 
> COPIES_REPEATED_WRONGS (int) controls how many copies of the missed
> question get put back in.  For example, if this is set to
> 2, if a player misses "3 + 3 = ?", he/she will have to answer it twice
> correctly after that to "win" the game.  This provides a minimal form
> of adaptive learning, but it could be extended to include questions
> closely related to the question that was missed.
> 
> > The reason is to account for learner's
> > performance of the past waves for question generation of the present
> > wave. This wouldn't affect a Math command training lesson, but on tux
> > missions and for arcade games, this can make a difference in the
> > question selection.
> 
> All very valid goals!  It seems clear that our current scheme isn't
> sufficiently flexible to do everything needed for your project.  If
> you are going to have "intra-game/inter-wave" feedback, we need to add
> some functions to mathcards to support generating and inserting
> additional questions during the game.
> 
> Best,

Re: [Tuxmath-devel] GSoC project on "Personalized, adaptive game-play to improve learning in Tuxmath"

[David B. <dav...@gm...>]

Hi Siddarth,

> Also, I would like if the question generation happens for every wave instead
> of happening once in a game.

The question list is generated at the beginning of the game.  The
waves affect things like the background image and the speed of the
comets, but not the questions.  The question-generation code is in
mathcards.[ch], which doesn't know anything about waves.

Depending on a few config file variables (see e.g. ~/.tuxmath/options
or any of the files under data/missions/),  answered or missed
questions are handled differently (I apologize about some of the
variable names, which now seem rather confusing)

PLAY_THROUGH_LIST (boolean) - if set to 1 ("true"), correctly-answered
questions are removed from the list, so that the game ends in victory
when there are no remaining questions.  If set to 0 ("false"), the
questions are reinserted in a random question and the game goes on
indefinitely ("arcade mode").

REPEAT_WRONGS (boolean) - controls the equivalent behavior for
questions the player misses (i.e. the ones that hit the igloos).
However, for this one, 1 means the questions are reinserted, and 0
means they are discarded, the opposite of the behavior for
PLAY_THROUGH_LIST.  This is set to 1 for all of the bundled lessons.

COPIES_REPEATED_WRONGS (int) controls how many copies of the missed
question get put back in.  For example, if this is set to
2, if a player misses "3 + 3 = ?", he/she will have to answer it twice
correctly after that to "win" the game.  This provides a minimal form
of adaptive learning, but it could be extended to include questions
closely related to the question that was missed.



> The reason is to account for learner's
> performance of the past waves for question generation of the present wave.
> This wouldn't affect a Math command training lesson, but on tux missions and
> for arcade games, this can make a difference in the question selection.

All very valid goals!  It seems clear that our current scheme isn't
sufficiently flexible to do everything needed for your project.  If
you are going to have "intra-game/inter-wave" feedback, we need to add
some functions to mathcards to support generating and inserting
additional questions during the game.

Best,

-- 
David Bruce

For all your software needs, visit The Apt Store:
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian stable main

Re: [Tuxmath-devel] GSoC project on "Personalized, adaptive game-play to improve learning in Tuxmath"

[Siddharth K. <sid...@gm...>]

Hi everyone,

I have worked on the question
generation<http://gscbbn.wordpress.com/2011/05/23/question-generation/>part
and the structure
for the BBN<http://gscbbn.wordpress.com/2011/05/31/student-modelling-using-bayesian-belief-networks-bbn-2/>.
Though, some explanations might be hodgepodge. Let me know the feedback on
this.

Also, I would like if the question generation happens for every wave instead
of happening once in a game. The reason is to account for learner's
performance of the past waves for question generation of the present wave.
This wouldn't affect a Math command training lesson, but on tux missions and
for arcade games, this can make a difference in the question selection.

Thanks,
Siddharth

Re: [Tuxmath-devel] GSoC project on "Personalized, adaptive game-play to improve learning in Tuxmath"

[Tim H. <ho...@wu...>]

On Sunday, May 22, 2011 11:00:40 pm Siddharth Kothari wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> Adding Bart to the loop. :)
> 
> I added a new post on question generation, but it still needs work. I
> posted it since I won't be able to update it before a couple of days (i
> will be travelling).
> 
> Tim - The documentation for the "school mode" would be helpful.

Can't help you right now: I deleted my own git tree (I was a git newbie and 
managed to massacre it), and since alioth seems to be down still I can't check 
out a new one. But I _think_ this is pretty thoroughly documented in the doc/ 
directory.

--Tim

> 
> David - I had a brief idea of the code for generating questions. Thanks for
> the details.
> 
> Thanks,
> Siddharth
> 
> On Fri, May 20, 2011 at 11:02 PM, David Bruce 
<dav...@gm...>wrote:
> > Hi Siddarth,
> > 
> > >> 4. In your section on "modifying the game variables," certainly the
> > 
> > speed
> > 
> > >> is
> > >> an important parameter. But a more interesting---and more conceptually
> > >> challenging---issue is how to decide which _type_ of problems to pose.
> > 
> > Is
> > 
> > >> the
> > >> kid ready for addition facts up to 10, or should we stick with 0 to 5?
> > 
> > How
> > 
> > >> can
> > >> you tell when the kid is ready for multiplication?
> > > 
> > > There is an interesting approach Animalwatch (It's a tutor for
> > 
> > pre-algebra
> > 
> > > mathematics) uses for this which is described here Using the student
> > 
> > model
> > 
> > > to control problem difficulty. I am thinking of using a approach on
> > 
> > similar
> > 
> > > lines, will post it shortly.
> > 
> > I don't know how much you've looked at how tuxmath generates math
> > question lists, but basically a lesson file sets a series of criteria
> > for questions:
> > 
> > - allowed math operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication,
> > division) - ranges of allowed numbers for operands
> > - whether to allow negative numbers
> > - format of question (i.e. 1 + 1 = ?, 1 + ? = 2, or ? + 1 = 2)
> > 
> > and so forth.  There are also some variables related to how answered
> > questions are handled - in the "lesson" games, correctly answered
> > questions are considered "done", and the lesson ends with a win when
> > all the questions have been handled correctly.  In the "arcade" games,
> > all questions get reinserted into the list so the game goes on
> > indefinitely until the player runs out of lives.  In both modes,
> > questions which are not answered correctly get reinserted so the
> > player sees them again.  There is an option to reinsert multiple
> > copies of missed questions so as to give extra practice on those
> > facts.  Finally, the code contains functions to support the use of the
> > just the "missed questions" from the previous game as the question
> > list for the next game, although we've never implemented a way to use
> > this feature.  So, some of these features might be useful in your
> > project, but they might not be sufficiently flexible for your needs.
> > 
> > What tuxmath does not currently provide is the reading of a list of
> > arbitrary functions from a text file.  I think we may want to do
> > something like that for your project.
> > 
> > I read your blog, and am eager to hear more about specifics, or to
> > help you work them out.  It seems to me that there are at least two
> > ways in which this adaptive instruction can be applied:
> > 1. Within the same math game, use the player's initial performance to
> > adjust the subsequent questions.
> > 2. For subsequent games, adjust the questions based on results from
> > previous games.
> > 
> > >> 5. Given this tuxmath-as-the-teacher mode of thinking, do we need to
> > 
> > think
> > 
> > >> somewhat about creating mechanisms to explicitly teach, rather than
> > >> just let
> > >> them practice things they've already been taught?
> > 
> > Yes - I've thought for some time that this was a shortcoming of the
> > program.  The only "teaching" is when we show the answer when the
> > igloo gets hit, plus the factoring hints we put in at the start of
> > each level in factoroids.  But there isn't any illustration of the
> > concepts of math.  There are plenty of ways that new activities could
> > be designed for these purposes, e.g. having Tux combine groups of fish
> > to illustrate addition, or having him build stacks of ice blocks in a
> > grid layout to illustrate multiplication.
> > 
> > I think the existing games have been shaped a lot by the ages of our
> > kids at the time when the games were written.  My daughter was a
> > second-grader when I started trying to make Bill's original comet game
> > more flexible, and she was a fourth-grader doing a lot of factoring
> > stuff when I proposed the factoroids game.  Maybe we need someone with
> > pre-school or kindergarten kids to get interested in coding up a new
> > activity.
> > 
> > David Bruce

[Tuxmath-devel] Fwd: Re: GSoC project on "Personalized, adaptive game-play to improve learning in Tuxmath"

[Tim H. <ho...@wu...>]

Oops, forgot to CC the list.
--Tim
----------  Forwarded Message  ----------

Subject: Re: [Tuxmath-devel] GSoC project on "Personalized, adaptive game-play 
to improve learning in Tuxmath"
Date: Friday, May 20, 2011, 12:05:55 pm
From: Tim Holy <ho...@wu...>
To: Siddharth Kothari <sid...@gm...>

Hi Siddharth,

On Friday, May 20, 2011 11:04:52 am you wrote:
> > 1. When you say, "topic suggestion," are you thinking of some interactive
> > interface...
> 
> I had an interactive interface in mind, where the final decision would be
> on the player if he would like to follow the topic the game suggests or
> choose another one as per his wish.

Sounds like a good idea. If we got to the point where we "trusted" the 
results, we might want to give teachers an option to disable the choice. But I 
agree that this is the right way to start.

> > 2. What are your thoughts about per-user storage?
> 
> I will initially implement a storage structure for the Linux model, and
> than for the "school mode". Imo, this should be more valuable if I
> implement it for the "school mode", but I am not familiar with the code. I
> will try to do that :)

Again, good choices. If you want to learn more about the school mode, I did 
write up some documentation on how to use it. If you can't find it, let me know 
and I will look for it myself.

> 
> For 3.), modelling how much challenge a user is willing to take seems
> difficult. Rather than making decision on the latency in re-starting the
> game, we can base it on the progress: If the student is able to save the
> igloos, adjust the other game variables to provide more challenge; if a
> student is performing poorly, we may want to slow the speed of comets and
> likewise, adjust other game variables. But again, this approach assumes the
> amount of difficulty one is willing to take. What are your opinions?

Agreed on all counts---performance is much easier to measure, and far less 
ambiguous than trying to interpret latency. But (as you seem to understand), 
perfomance by itself doesn't define whether a student is doing "well" or 
"poorly," because there's the separate question of how high one's standards 
are. 

Maybe backing up a level: I suggested frequency-of-play simply because I 
envision that if we maximize the amount of time students play the game, we 
might also (roughly) maximize their learning rate. So the notion would be that 
the rate of ratcheting up the difficulty level could be tuned to try to maximize 
the total amount of time spent playing. But this is not trivial to get right. 

Now that I think about it, the user interface choosing the particular lesson 
solves much of the problem for you, particularly if you present the user with 
a choice of recommended lessons (maybe 3 choices, labeled something like 
"Challenge", "Middle"? (that name stinks, but can't think of something better 
now), and "Easy"). Not only does that give the user some control, but you may 
also be able to draw some conclusions if the user repeatedly chooses 
"Challenge" and use that to modify your choice of options.

> 
> > 4. ... how to decide which _type_ of problems to pose....
> 
> There is an interesting approach
> Animalwatch<http://animalwatch.arizona.edu/> (It's
> a tutor for pre-algebra mathematics) uses for this which is described
> here Using
> the student model to control problem
> difficulty<http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.38.7068
> &rep=rep1&type=pdf>. I am thinking of using a approach on similar lines,
> will post it shortly.

i'll read about it.

> 
> 5. Given this tuxmath-as-the-teacher mode of thinking, do we need to think
> 
> > somewhat about creating mechanisms to explicitly teach, rather than just
> > let
> > them practice things they've already been taught?
> 
> iiuc, this means using different teaching strategies to cater to the
> varying needs of the students (like some may like to receive more feedback
> to stay motivated, a pedagogical agent may be more of help to others).

Sorry, what I meant was "gosh, this student has completely mastered addition 
and subtraction, and is ready for more challenge. But no one has ever taught 
him/her multiplication, so we're stuck." In other words, tuxmath lets kids 
practice stuff they've been taught, but does not in and of itself teach them 
mathematics.

--Tim


> But
> given that the domain here is elementary Mathematics, I find it hard to
> think of an explicit teaching mechanism. Do you have some suggestions?
> 
> Thanks,
> Siddharth
> 
> On Fri, May 20, 2011 at 7:29 PM, Tim Holy <ho...@wu...> wrote:
> > Hi Siddarth,
> > 
> > I like it very much. Some concrete feedback, mostly a set of questions
> > asking
> > for more detail:
> > 
> > 1. When you say, "topic suggestion," are you thinking of some interactive
> > interface from which the user chooses a task? Or is the "suggestion" an
> > internal one, and the game will execute whatever parameters are
> > suggested?
> > 
> > 2. What are your thoughts about per-user storage? Are you going to employ
> > the
> > Linux model (store in the user's home directory), or are you going to use
> > the
> > infrastructure in the "school mode"? Or are you planning on not saving
> > data across sessions at all? (Without saving, it will be hard to test
> > and debug, so
> > I don't recommend the latter.)
> > 
> > 3. I have the sense that kids differ quite a lot in terms of how much
> > negative-
> > outcome they can tolerate: some will plunge right back in after they lose
> > all
> > their igloos, others will be bothered if even a single igloo gets hit by
> > a comet. Those that enjoy the tension will appreciate being challenged,
> > those that do not will probably feel more comfortable if they are
> > consistently performing at 95% or higher.
> > It would be really interesting if it were possible to model not just the
> > student's mastery, but also what level of failure/challenge is acceptable
> > to
> > the student. Naturally, this seems hard. One option would be to ask for
> > feedback from the student, and a second might be to pay attention to the
> > latency in re-starting a new game of tuxmath. If it is a few seconds, the
> > kid
> > seems ready for more. If it's a few months, perhaps the kid got scared
> > off. But
> > obviously it's questionable how reliable such information will be.
> > 
> > 4. In your section on "modifying the game variables," certainly the speed
> > is
> > an important parameter. But a more interesting---and more conceptually
> > challenging---issue is how to decide which _type_ of problems to pose. Is
> > the
> > kid ready for addition facts up to 10, or should we stick with 0 to 5?
> > How can
> > you tell when the kid is ready for multiplication?
> > 
> > 5. Given this tuxmath-as-the-teacher mode of thinking, do we need to
> > think somewhat about creating mechanisms to explicitly teach, rather
> > than just let
> > them practice things they've already been taught?
> > 
> > Again, it looks like lots of fun ahead. I'm glad you're tackling this.
> > 
> > Best,
> > --Tim
> > 
> > On Friday, May 20, 2011 07:43:52 am Siddharth Kothari wrote:
> > > Hi everyone,
> > > 
> > > I made a blog (gscbbn.wordpress.com) which I will keep updating the
> > 
> > details
> > 
> > > with regards to the project.
> > > 
> > > I would appreciate a feedback. The approach and deliverables are
> > 
> > tentative,
> > 
> > > let me know if there is something I should incorporate.
> > > 
> > > Thanks,
> > > Siddharth
> > > 
> > > On Wed, Apr 27, 2011 at 10:11 PM, Tim Holy <ho...@wu...> wrote:
> > > > On Wednesday, April 27, 2011 08:01:22 am Siddharth Kothari wrote:
> > > > > Hi everyone,
> > > > > 
> > > > > My project proposal on "Personalized, adaptive game-play to improve
> > > > > learning in Tuxmath" has been accepted in GSoC
> > > > > (link<
> > > > 
> > > > http://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/project/google/gsoc2011/sidi/14001
> > > > 
> > > > > >). Bart Massey from PSU will be my mentor who would be helping me
> > > > > >in the
> > > > > 
> > > > > design of the Bayesian network for knowledge representation and
> > 
> > making
> > 
> > > > > inferences based on it. I look forward to the Tuxmath community
> > 
> > members
> > 
> > > > to
> > > > 
> > > > > have discussions regarding the implementation details, and some
> > > > 
> > > > occasional
> > > > 
> > > > > code-related help. I will start exploring the code-base in about a
> > 
> > week
> > 
> > > > > once my semester exams are over.
> > > > 
> > > > That's great! Congrats!
> > > > 
> > > > --Tim
> > 
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > 
> > > > ----- WhatsUp Gold - Download Free Network Management Software
> > > > The most intuitive, comprehensive, and cost-effective network
> > > > management toolset available today.  Delivers lowest initial
> > > > acquisition cost and overall TCO of any competing solution.
> > > > http://p.sf.net/sfu/whatsupgold-sd
> > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > Tuxmath-devel mailing list
> > > > Tux...@li...
> > > > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/tuxmath-devel

-----------------------------------------

Re: [Tuxmath-devel] GSoC project on "Personalized, adaptive game-play to improve learning in Tuxmath"

[Siddharth K. <sid...@gm...>]

Hi all,

Adding Bart to the loop. :)

I added a new post on question generation, but it still needs work. I posted
it since I won't be able to update it before a couple of days (i will be
travelling).

Tim - The documentation for the "school mode" would be helpful.

David - I had a brief idea of the code for generating questions. Thanks for
the details.

Thanks,
Siddharth

On Fri, May 20, 2011 at 11:02 PM, David Bruce <dav...@gm...>wrote:

> Hi Siddarth,
>
> >> 4. In your section on "modifying the game variables," certainly the
> speed
> >> is
> >> an important parameter. But a more interesting---and more conceptually
> >> challenging---issue is how to decide which _type_ of problems to pose.
> Is
> >> the
> >> kid ready for addition facts up to 10, or should we stick with 0 to 5?
> How
> >> can
> >> you tell when the kid is ready for multiplication?
> >
> > There is an interesting approach Animalwatch (It's a tutor for
> pre-algebra
> > mathematics) uses for this which is described here Using the student
> model
> > to control problem difficulty. I am thinking of using a approach on
> similar
> > lines, will post it shortly.
>
> I don't know how much you've looked at how tuxmath generates math
> question lists, but basically a lesson file sets a series of criteria
> for questions:
>
> - allowed math operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division)
> - ranges of allowed numbers for operands
> - whether to allow negative numbers
> - format of question (i.e. 1 + 1 = ?, 1 + ? = 2, or ? + 1 = 2)
>
> and so forth.  There are also some variables related to how answered
> questions are handled - in the "lesson" games, correctly answered
> questions are considered "done", and the lesson ends with a win when
> all the questions have been handled correctly.  In the "arcade" games,
> all questions get reinserted into the list so the game goes on
> indefinitely until the player runs out of lives.  In both modes,
> questions which are not answered correctly get reinserted so the
> player sees them again.  There is an option to reinsert multiple
> copies of missed questions so as to give extra practice on those
> facts.  Finally, the code contains functions to support the use of the
> just the "missed questions" from the previous game as the question
> list for the next game, although we've never implemented a way to use
> this feature.  So, some of these features might be useful in your
> project, but they might not be sufficiently flexible for your needs.
>
> What tuxmath does not currently provide is the reading of a list of
> arbitrary functions from a text file.  I think we may want to do
> something like that for your project.
>
> I read your blog, and am eager to hear more about specifics, or to
> help you work them out.  It seems to me that there are at least two
> ways in which this adaptive instruction can be applied:
> 1. Within the same math game, use the player's initial performance to
> adjust the subsequent questions.
> 2. For subsequent games, adjust the questions based on results from
> previous games.
>
>
> >> 5. Given this tuxmath-as-the-teacher mode of thinking, do we need to
> think
> >> somewhat about creating mechanisms to explicitly teach, rather than just
> >> let
> >> them practice things they've already been taught?
>
> Yes - I've thought for some time that this was a shortcoming of the
> program.  The only "teaching" is when we show the answer when the
> igloo gets hit, plus the factoring hints we put in at the start of
> each level in factoroids.  But there isn't any illustration of the
> concepts of math.  There are plenty of ways that new activities could
> be designed for these purposes, e.g. having Tux combine groups of fish
> to illustrate addition, or having him build stacks of ice blocks in a
> grid layout to illustrate multiplication.
>
> I think the existing games have been shaped a lot by the ages of our
> kids at the time when the games were written.  My daughter was a
> second-grader when I started trying to make Bill's original comet game
> more flexible, and she was a fourth-grader doing a lot of factoring
> stuff when I proposed the factoroids game.  Maybe we need someone with
> pre-school or kindergarten kids to get interested in coding up a new
> activity.
>
> David Bruce
>

Re: [Tuxmath-devel] Is Alioth down?

[Holger L. <ho...@la...>]

On Samstag, 21. Mai 2011, David Bruce wrote:
> Since yesterday I haven't been able to reach
> http://tux4kids.alioth.debian.org or http://alioth.debian.org on the
> web, or any of our git repositories using git.  I also can't log into
> the server with ssh.  Is anyone else seeing this problem?

yes - http://lists.debian.org/debian-infrastructure-announce/2011/05/msg00000.html


cheers,
	Holger