Computable Document Format

I've recently become aware of Wolfram's Computable Document Format or CDF as it's referred to. It adds interactivity to documents in a manner similar to Apple's iBooks Author, that allows anyone to create interactive textbooks for reading in iBooks. You need to download the CDF player, which I've done, but it's a hefty 2.2 GB in size. With the player installed you can then open CDF files. The format is clearly proprietary and it remains to be seen how much traction it will get in the marketplace.

Here is what Wikipedia has to say about CDF:

Features 

Computable document format supports GUI elements such as sliders, menus and buttons. Content is updated using embedded computation in response to GUI interaction. Contents can include formatted text, tables, images, sounds and animations. CDF supports Mathematica typesetting and technical notation. Paginated layout, structured drill down layout and slide-show mode are supported. Styles can be controlled using a cascading style sheet. 

Reading 

CDF files can be read using a proprietary CDF Player with a restrictive license, which can be downloaded free of charge from Wolfram Research. 

Authoring 

CDF Files can be created using Mathematica. Online authoring tools are planned. 

Uses 

Computable Document Format has been used in electronic books by Pearson Education, to provide the content for the Wolfram Demonstrations Project, and to add client-side interactivity to Wolfram Alpha.

Now that I'm aware of the product I can monitor its fortunes. 

Raspberry Pi

I read today that Raspberry Pi had set up its Pixel OS so that it could run under Windows and OS X. Consequently, I downloaded the ISO and ran it successively under VirtualBox. It's certainly lightweight and is very responsive when running in the virtual machine environment. As explained on the Raspberry Pi website:

PIXEL represents our best guess as to what the majority of users are looking for in a desktop environment: a clean, modern user interface; a curated suite of productivity software and programming tools, both free and proprietary; and the Chromium web browser with useful plugins, including Adobe Flash, preinstalled. And all of this is built on top of Debian, providing instant access to thousands of free applications.

Unfortunately, Minecraft and Wolfram Mathematica are missing because the licensing agreement only applies to the OS running on a physical Raspberry Pi. No matter, it's still good to be able to experience and work with the software in a virtual environment.

Stoodle and Web Whiteboard

Reading Richard Byrne's Free Technology for Teachers site the other day, I was reminded of Stoodle that provides a free whiteboard that is shareable and downloadable. You don't even have to register to use the site, all that's required is the URL that's generated and which is passed on to the participants. It can be used in mobile browsers on Android and iOS where the touch screen capability makes the whiteboard even more useful. Just one of tools to bear in mind when the occasion requires the use of such a tool.

You can also use Google Hangouts to create a whiteboard by going to a site called Web Whiteboard and clicking on the Google Hangouts icon. Again, you don't need to sign up to Web Whiteboard but the boards only last for 21 days before they're wiped. If you sign up, the boards are permanent but the cost is $8 a month.

Here's a video describing how to do it.

STEP

I just noticed a tweet by James Grimes concerning STEP. Here is what it looked like:

I went to the site to investigate and it looks an interesting and useful resource. I've signed up to the site and this is what my profile currently looks like:

Assignments can be downloaded in PDF format and looking at the first assignment, the site should provided a good source of questions that are compatible with the sort of 4 unit HSC questions that I'm currently working through.

Here's the central STEP question in Assignment 1:

Symbolab

I've just had a look at a website called Symbolab that offers a many tools for the mathematics student and even the chemistry student. I tested it out with the following rather difficult integral:

I was impressed with the step-by-step solution provided for the problem. It was quite thorough. It seems to be largely free, although there is a modestly priced paid option, and there is both an Android and iOS app that I'll download and test out. It seems a worthy competitor to WolframAlpha that doesn't offer free, step-by-step solutions on its website or apps.

I was made aware of the site thanks to Richard Byrne's tweet:

https://twitter.com/rmbyrne/status/775696157171253248

I used to follow this guy but hadn't been doing so over the past year since I retired from full-time teaching. However, I reconnected yesterday and the reconnection is already paying benefits. I've opened a free account using my Facebook login.

UPDATE: having now downloaded the Android app, I've found that the step-by-step solutions are only available with a one-off payment of $9.99 (US dollars presumably) which is a lot more than WolframAlpha is asking. The iOS app is the same except that it wants $10.99. Consequently, I've uninstalled both the Android and iOS apps and will simply use the desktop version while it still provides the steps for free. The web version is still limited in various ways. For example, the full range of practice questions on various topics is only available via a subscription. 

Creating Online Courses and Classes

moodlecloud offers a free service along with paid plans

Despite my retirement from active teaching, I remain interested in education and am engaged in intermittent mathematics tutoring. I'm always on the lookout for ways to extend the tutoring session beyond the hour or so that I spend face-to-face with my student. To this end, I've made use of moodlecloud that provides a free service as well as paid options. Having so far only one student at any given time, I've found that the free service is quite adequate. Even though only 250 MB of storage is available, I've only used a small fraction.

The free service is adequate for those with a small number of students

Of course, it means that you can't upload large video files but you can link to them and that's enough. The free option is an excellent choice for people who work with only a small number of students.

When I was teaching full-time, I used the school-based Moodle installation most of the time but I did dabble with Edmodo and I still have an account. I recently archived my old courses and even posted to the Mathematics Forum. I may begin to experiment with it again. The site has an app that enables access via smartphone or tablet, so that's useful.

My Edmodo profile

I've also been experimenting with a site called Versal, that amongst other things offers an excellent tool for rendering mathematical expressions.

An example of the rendering of mathematical expressions

Of course, there's a hundreds of similar sites out there but these are three that I am using or have used, and they are all free. While writing this I was reminded of an excellent educational blog that I used to reference but haven't done so since leaving teaching. Here is the link. 

This site offers excellent reviews of educational resources

WolframAlpha

For the PRO version of the desktop WolframAlpha, there is a charge $6.99 per month (on a month by month basis) and I'm not sure whether the quote is for United States or Australian dollars. However, the mobile version of WolframAlpha seems to offer some, perhaps all, of the features of the desktop PRO version for a one-off cost of A$4.99. Whether it's totally equivalent to the PRO version or not I'm not sure but it certainly provides the step-by-step solutions that the former offers.

Anyway, I've made the mobile purchase and am experimenting with it. I tried the step-by-step solution to integrating ln(x^2+1) and it's displayed in the mobile app but I can't see how to copy it. Screenshots can of course be taken and this is what I've done below. The result is OK I guess.