Advice for use

This software, used for preparatory lessons at pre-school level, is not only intended to present images that are discovered using the mouse.

It was devised to encourage the use of speech. Thus the children can :

Call to mind a more or less recent class activity
Call to mind a particular event (a visit, a party, an anniversary etc.)
Anticipate the contents of the image while only a small part of it is visible
Etc.

Five possible modes of use

Hover : the hidden section within each cell becomes visible as soon as the cursor enters the cell
Click : the hidden image only appears under the cursor if you click with the left mouse button within the cell
Double-click : as before, with a double click
Click-hover-click : click on one end of the trail with the left mouse button, hover over the trail, then click on the other end of the trail
Drag-and-drop : sections have been extracted from the original image and placed at the right of the screen. Drag and drop them into place (relation of parts/whole)

With or without menu for the pupils?

With AbulÉdu, the teacher can choose to hide the menus from pupils of certain classes. This may prove necessary when the users are young, non-readers, clumsy, etc.

Adding/Deleting folders/image(s)

After adding or deleting it is extremely important to close the application and restart.

If not the application may appear to behave strangely.

See below.

To add a folder

RAS

To add image(s)

Use images suitably modified with image editing software, for example the GIMP

Choose for preference the image format jpg, but you can use .png or .gif (and others?). The height/width ratios 3/2 and 4/3 work well, for example images in the format 600x400.

N.B.

In GNU/Linux and AbulÉdu, images are automatically resized
In AbulÉdu, only teachers may add/delete folders/images
Outside AbulÉdu, a password is necessary to add/delete folders/images
By default, the password is defined in the folder mulot.conf and set to terrieradmin

You have two possibilities :

1.Add images to an existing folder (no particular problem)

2.Create a new theme that you place in a new folder. To do this use the following procedure ;

Create the new folder

Copy the images into the folder

To Delete a folder

RAS

To Delete image(s)

RAS

Pupil Profiles

Pupil profiles are stored in the files pupil's_name.log and pupil's_name.csv in the folder leterrier/mulot/.

The latter, in csv format, may be read and dealt with in a table.

Score reports are possible

For the user (menu File > Scores > My Score)

N.B. in the case of class use, the pupil can copy/paste or email the files pupil's_name.csv and pupil's_name.html to the teacher

For all users (menu File > Scores > All

A file n_eleves.log and n_eleves.html are produced with n=number of users.

What processes have you done?

Let us know at

utilisations@abuledu.org

Notes for developers

Adding “sourire” images from the end of the sequence

These images are found according to the language used in the file

sysdata/fin_sequence/<user'sLanguage>, for example sysdata/fin_sequence/en.

Their size is 350x350 maximum and their extension is png.

The name of an image is composed

of the prefix sourire
followed by a qualifier
of the extension division . (dot)
of the extension png

Proceeding in this manner allows the software to present the various images at the end of the sequence in the language of the user. By default the language is set to French.

Add/Modify/Delete a trail

The trails are contained in the index pistes

A trail is described by means of the numbers of cases in a table ( 10 rows x 15 columns )

Row 0 : 0-14
Row 1 : 15-29
Row 2 : 30-44
Row 3 : 45-59
Row 4 : 60-74
Row 5 : 75-89
Row 6 : 90-104
Row 7 : 105-119
Row 8 : 120-134
Row 9 : 135-149

Therefore, a trail_file is a list of whole numbers contained between 0 and 149 (inclusive)

The name of a trail_file is composed

of a figure representing the difficulty of the trail (on a scale of 0-9)
of the extension division . (dot)
of a word (evocative) constituting the extension

The trails thus named are listed according to their degree of difficulty.