I designed this stack for the Mac mini-lab in my media center here at East Coweta High School in Sharpsburg, GA. It was written for a civics class to input their presidential trivia research, but obviously it could be adapted for many purposes.
It is self-working (I hope) in that the student-user does not have to do any little programming bits. I think I've got it bug-free, but there's always some new way for kids to screw it up, so double check all the cards after your kids have put their info in before you release it to your public.
For students to use it, all they have to do is hit the NEW Q & A button on the first page. It will open up a new card and then they can type in their question and answers. [You may have to tell them to TAB to the next field.]
When they are through, they need to hit the SET DATA button. That does some housekeeping things, like filling in the script of the card with the correct answer and the name of the biographee. It also gives them credit for the question and gives them a chance to write the bio card right then and there. If they want to put that off, then they can.
IT IS probably IMPORTANT that all the questions about a president use the same biographical name for him. Otherwise, you'll end up with a bio card for John Kennedy and another for John F. Kennedy, et al.
It is my suggestion to your students that the bio cards include the answer to the question. So what if it gives away the answer? This is an instructional program, not a trap!
I've already put in some questions and one biography just to fill in that card. It is supposed to be humorous filler (although accurate), so you may wish to replace it with more seriously worded information. We used an Apple scanner and the Dictionary of American Portraits to scan in the portraits.
KEY INSTRUCTION here: when you are ready to release your quiz stack to the public, type the command "through" into the message box. This will take you to the first card and give you a button called FINALLY THROUGH! Clicking it will hide all the little construction buttons so that users can't go around messing up your stack with blank cards. It also sets the userLevel to 1.
If you ever want to add on to your stack, then the command "ux" will give you a button called UNDO THROUGH, appropriately enough. It will bring back all the little construction buttons.
I'd love to hear from anyone who finds this stack useful. My Genie address is D.LYLES1. My paper address is Dale Lyles, East Coweta High School, 400 McCollum-Sharpsburg Rd., Sharpsburg, GA 30277.
