User Guide
From XOCPWiki
This guide is intended to outline the basic use of Classroom Presenter for the XO (CPXO) in a classroom environment with one instructor and multiple students.
Contents |
Installation
To install CPXO, first open the Browse activity (screenshot). Next, type "http://xo.orderedpixels.com/downloads.html" into the navigation bar at the top and press "Enter" (screenshot). This is the CPXO downloads page that contains sample slide decks, as well as the CPXO activity bundles. Scroll down to the "Software" section (screenshot) and click on the link with the version of CPXO that you would like to install. We always recommend downloading the latest version under "Current Version". Wait until the download is complete (screenshot) and then go to the Journal. From here, find the file that was just downloaded, and start it (screenshot). This will install CPXO to your laptop and will also start the activity with the CPXO splash screen (screenshot). You can explore the activity here as much as you'd like! See "Obtaining a Slide Deck" below for details on how to get a full CPXO presentation slide deck.
Obtaining a Slide Deck
CPXO presentations are contained in files with the .cpxo file extension. These are zip files containing the slide graphics and a 'deck.xml' file that describes the slide deck. Currently the only way to obtain a slide deck is to either create your own (see [File_Formats] for more details) or download one from the website (screenshot). After downloading a slide deck from the website, it should appear in the Journal.
Starting and Sharing a CPXO Activity
To start a CPXO presentation as an instructor, go to the Journal and choose a CPXO presentation to start (screenshot: start_presentation.png). Once the activity has started, share it by clicking the "Share with:" drop-down menu on the "Activity" toolbar and choose "My Neighborhood" [http://xo.orderedpixels.com/media/screenshots/user_guide/ screenshot: sharing_presentation.png). Your presentation is now shared and can be joined by others. In the "Navigation" toolbar, you will notice it indicating that you are in "Teacher" mode (screenshot: shared.png).
Joining a CPXO Activity
To join a CPXO presentation, go to the Neighborhood View and find the CPXO icon of the presentation you would like to join. Then hover your pointer over this icon until a drop down menu of options appears. Finally, click "Join" to join the CPXO presentation (screenshot). The activity will launch, download and display the instructor's slide deck, and automatically move you to the slide currently being viewed by the instructor if navigation is locked. In the "Navigation" toolbar, you will notice it indicating that you are in "Student" mode (screenshot).
Using CPXO
- Note: The behavior of CPXO and what the user is able to do is very much dependent on whether the activity is in "Teacher" or "Student" mode (see "Starting and Sharing a CPXO Activity" above to see how to launch the activity in "Teacher" mode, and see "Joining a CPXO Activity" above to see how to launch the activity in "Student" mode). In this section, differences in behavior and usability between these two modes will be noted.
Navigation
There are four ways to navigate through a slide deck in CPXO.
The first way to navigate is by being in Student mode and having the instructor navigate while the navigation is locked. If navigation is locked, any time the instructor moves to a different slide, all laptops in Student mode will automatically move to the same slide. You can tell if navigation is locked by inspecting the pad-lock icon in the "Navigation" toolbar. If the icon is a closed pad-lock, then navigation is locked (screenshot). If the icon is an open pad-lock, then navigation is unlocked (screenshot). When navigation is unlocked, XOs in Student mode will not move slides with the instructor automatically and will be able to navigate through the slide-deck via the other three means of navigation (see below). Otherwise the student must wait for the instructor to change slides. If the instructor quits the activity while navigation is locked, navigation will automatically unlock for all students (see "Qutting" below).
Second, notice the sidebar on the right side of your screen. This sidebar has two tabs: "Slides" and "Submisssions". The Slides tab shows an ordered list of thumbnails for all slides in the presentation. Clicking on any slide will cause the slide viewer to jump to that slide (screenshot).
Third, in the Navigation toolbar, clicking on the arrows will navigate the slide viewer through the presentation. Clicking the left-pointing arrow will move you one slide back (screenshot), while clicking the right-pointing arrow will move you one slide forward (screenshot).
The fourth way to navigate is via the slide index in the Navigation toolbar (screenshot). This index has two numbers separated by a slash. The first number indicates the current slide that you are on. The second number tells you how many slides there are in the slide deck total. Clicking in the area around the first number, entering a new number, and pressing enter will move you to that slide (screenshot).
Drawing Ink
To draw ink onto the currently viewed slide, first click the "Ink" toolbar. Next, click the circle button filled with the color that you would like your ink to be (red, green, blue, or black). The next two buttons on the toolbar are the "Pencil" and "Brush" buttons. These determine the width of the ink. Click the Pencil button for narrow ink and the Brush button for wider ink. Now you are ready to draw ink. Move the pointer to the slide viewer, then, while holding the left-click button, move the pointer around on the slide. The ink will be placed on the slide following the pointer. As soon as you release the left-click button, the ink will stop being placed. This strip of ink is called an "ink segment". Each time you click, drag, and release, one ink segment is placed on the slide (screenshot).
If you are in Student mode, the ink you place on the slide will only be viewable by you until you make a submission (see "Collaboration" bellow). If you are in Teacher mode, the ink you place on the slide will be visible by you and all Students.
To erase all ink on the page, click the "Erase All" button, which is to the right of the Brush button on the Ink toolbar.
To undo placing an ink segment on the slide or an erase all operation, click the "Undo" button, which is the left-pointing U arrow button to the right of the Erase All button. To redo an action, press the "Redo" button, which is to the right of the Undo button.
Entering Text
Below the slide viewer is a text box. In Student mode, you may enter text here that will become part of any submission send for that slide (see "Collaboration" below). This makes it easy to answer questions on slides that require a longer, typed-out answer. (screenshot)
Collaboration
Intro
Collaboration is at the heart of CPXO and is where the largest distinction between Teacher and Student arises. When the teacher navigates to a slide that includes questions and/or prompts, students might be instructed to use ink (see "Drawing Ink" above) or type in the text box below the slide viewer (see "Entering Text" above) to complete the activity on the slide. When students are finished, they may 'submit' their work to the teacher, who may then review student submissions as they are received. The teacher may then choose submissions to broadcast back to the students. Once a submission has been broadcast, all student XOs will automatically begin viewing this submission. Submissions include the slide itself, any ink that the student who made the submission placed on the slide, any text that this student typed into the text box, and any ink that the instructor placed on the submission. By broadcasting submissions, the teacher is able to praise the work of students, correct common mistakes, and share interesting ideas. Students have more fun and motivation to do well when they know that their work might be viewed by not only the teacher, but all of their fellow students. This is the core of the educational paradigm that CPXO promotes and enables.
Submitting Ink (Student)
When a student is finished drawing ink and/or entering text into the text box, they may submit their work by clicking on the check-mark button on the far right side of the Ink toolbar (screenshot). After making the submission, the submit button will become inactive for ten seconds. After this, the button becomes active again, allowing the student to make another submission. This is intended to prevent the teacher's XO from becoming overloaded with student submissions.
Viewing Submissions (Teacher & Student)
Submissions can be viewed by clicking the "Submissions" tab on the sidebar and then clicking on the name of the submission to be viewed (screenshot). Teachers will be able to see all submissions made by students, while students will only be able to see submissions that the teacher broadcast to the students. When navigation is unlocked, students are free to revisit broadcast submissions, but they are not able to draw ink or add text to them. Also, the "My Ink" selection in the list of submissions will return the slide viewer to the original slide.
Broadcasting Submissions (Teacher)
Teachers may broadcast submissions by viewing a submission (see "Viewing Submissions" above) and clicking the check-mark button on the far right of the Ink toolbar (screenshot). Note that this is the same button that students use to make submissions. Clicking this button will send the submission over the network to all students. If navigation is locked, the slide viewer for all students will then display this submission. After the submission is broadcast, it will become available to all students in their list of submissions.
Quitting
To exit the activity, select the "Activity" toolbar in the top-left corner of the screen and then select the "Stop" button on the top-right corner (screenshot). The current state of the activity will be saved in the Journal, from where you may relaunch the presentation at any time.
- Note that if the instructor quits the activity, this will not cause the student XOs to also quit the activity. It will, however, cause navigation to unlock. This can be useful if the instructor needs to quit the activity but still give students the chance to continue exploring the slide deck.
Obtaining Help with CPXO
There are three ways you can obtain help with CPXO:
- (preferred) Add a ticket to our trac site. If you do this, please include as much detail as possible. Try to include log files and/or screenshots that help describe the problem you are experiencing. See the OLPC Bug Reporting wiki for information on how to gather log files or if you believe the bug you are experiencing is non-activity related; for example, it is a hardware problem or an issue with the Sugar operating system. If you're not sure, then file a bug with us, and we will move it up to OLPC if the problem is out of our hands.
- Sign up with the CPXO public mailing list and send an e-mail describing your problem. Not only do developers monitor this list, but other users do as well.
- CPXO is, after all, open source. So if you know a thing or two about Python, then by all means, find out how to gain access to CPXO source code on the Subversion wiki, make changes, and e-mail the developers with a patch. After a code review, you'll be given access to the source repository so that you may directly check in this, and future, changes.
