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Archive for the 'the webapp' Category
June 3rd, 2008
Well, I haven’t updated this site in quite some time, but not because I’m not motivated to do so! My nanny was out of town last month, meaning that not only did nothing get done here but also nothing got done on that other project, the one that I absolutely must finish before I can turn my attention back to programming. But she is back! And slowly, slowly I am making progress again.
I want to share some of my plans for the coming site overhaul, more for me than because anyone else will actually read this. A big piece will be redoing the database backend to make it easier to associate cardsets that are the same but slightly different. For instance, let’s take the cardset with farm animals. There are different languages for this cardset — English and German. Let’s say I also want to add some new things, like a set that does animal sounds and a set that tells what the baby animals are called. Still, they are the same basic set.
Under the new schema, each cardset will have 3 identifiers. First will be the cardset ID. All the cardsets that cover basically the same content will have the same ID. Next will be the language. This will be tied to a little list of flag images, and the flag image will appear as an overlay in the lower left corner for non-English cardsets. Third will be the level. The level is not really a difficulty level (names of presidents are still way harder than animal sounds), but just a way for differentiating aspects of the cardsets. The level number will appear in the lower right corner.
The other thing I want to accomplish with the next overhaul is a robust user application for adding and editing cardsets. Right now, the image and sound must be uploaded directly into the card. In the future, the images and sounds will be uploaded first, into an image and sound repository on the server. Then the images and sounds can be dragged onto cards to create the actual content. I also want to add a nicer text editor, maybe something like the free one used in vbulletin, and have the cards display more user formatting choices.
The plan is that the kids will go to Houston next week and stay 2 weeks with Grammy, and if this happens I think I can make some big progress on my planned overhaul. However, Grammy fell recently and hurt her tailbone. She has a doctor’s appointment today and maybe after that we will know if the visit can still happen as planned. If not, this overhaul will still happen, but it will obviously take a bit longer.
Posted in the webapp | 2 Comments »
February 7th, 2008
I have been noticing lately that it seems like sometimes when I click on the flashcard sets, the server takes a long time to respond and sometimes gives a timeout error. I am currently hosting this site with the GoDaddy! economy hosting package which allows 250 GB of transfer bandwidth per month. Since I am only using about 5 GB per week, I thought everything should be working, so I called GoDaddy! technical support to ask what the problem could be.
Apparently the problem is with the flash wrapper (soundmanager2.swf) file that I am using to play the audio files. Since this file is fairly large and since it is accessed each time a flashcard set is selected, this file was getting too many simultaneous connections and slowing down the server. For now, my solution was to make multiple copies of this file. Every time a flashcard set is selected, it will now randomly access one of five copies of the flash wrapper. Hopefully, this will improve performance and reduce the time spent waiting for a set to load.
Posted in the webapp, traffic | No Comments »
January 31st, 2008
I just added a “multiple choice” mode to the flashcards application. In this mode, the word is displayed and read, 4 pictures from the set are shown, and the user must select the correct picture before moving to the next question. There is no multiple choice mode for flashcards in the “story” and “math” categories; these will display as flashcards even if multiple choice mode is selected.
Many homeschooling (and especially unschooling) advocates warn about the dangers of testing, including Glenn Doman himself, who calls testing unrewarding and unpleasant. John Holt also warns against testing and cautions that judgment can dampen the desire for learning.
However, I personally enjoy testing in a relaxed and non-judgmental atmosphere. Something about searching my mind for the correct answer seems to strengthen the neural pathways more than just being told the correct answer. I can say that while testing the multiple choice feature, my knowledge of geography has definitely expanded! One of my favorite websites right now is Freerice.com, a vocabulary building website where you select the correct definition of some scarily difficult words from among four choices (and every correct answer donates 20 grains of rice towards ending world hunger). I am hoping that adding this more interactive dimension will draw in older children (like my 4-year-old) who are not entertained by mere flashcards.
So try out the multiple choice and see how you like it, but please don’t pressure your little ones to move into testing before they are ready. Enjoy!
Posted in the big girl (11/03), the webapp | 1 Comment »
January 21st, 2008
It has been almost a month since I updated anything on this site, and that is because I have been working on restructuring the database and rewriting the flashcard builder interface. And Christmas. I have some really neat plans for interface upgrades in the future, but it will probably take me about 3 months to implement them.
In the meantime, my friend Sara visited me this weekend, and she is from Germany, so please enjoy learning some German words with my new language sets. THANK YOU SARA! I still have more recordings to process, so more German sets are to come. I also have some number sets up in Spanish and Arabic, thanks to Ray and Komal.
I have been watching the traffic of this site, and I have noticed that I am starting to build a small base of users who return again and again. It is so encouraging to know that a few other people out in cyberspace are using my flashcards! I wanted to launch this blog to try to connect with regular users, to let you know what updates are in the works and to get your feedback and experiences with the flashcards. I may also write some technical posts on how to design web applications with PHP, mySQL, and Javascript. This blog uses WordPress with the Tm Clear n 1 1.0 theme, with very little modification, just my menu bar at the top. Please leave me a comment if you have time.
The other thing that is encouraging is using the flashcards with my younger daughter, Liane. She will turn 2 in February, and she has been playing with the flashcards since about 18 months. Her favorites are the animals and the household words, but maps and presidents and famous paintings all take their turns, too. Whenever she sees me on the computer, she runs up and demands flashcards!
Posted in the content, the little girl (2/06), the webapp, traffic | No Comments »