Sounds like an app certainly worth checking out. Thanks for the detailed description.
Rafael ________________________________________ From: [email protected] [[email protected]] On Behalf Of Esther [[email protected]] Sent: Saturday, September 17, 2011 8:57 PM To: [email protected] Cc: [email protected] Subject: Statistics Pro (currently free) iOS alternative to SPSS for Mac [Re: SPSS for Mac?] Hi Rafael and Al Puzzoli, If either of you or the student that Al speaks of has access to an iOS device, there are currently some free math educational apps for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad that appear to be accessible and capable of doing statistics. There may be others. but the one that I just tried out because it has currently gone free (usually $0.99) is called "Statistics Pro" by Larry Feldman: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/statistics-pro/id353217077?mt=8 I've tried the first few modules on Data Analysis and Linear Regression, and these seem to work accessibly. I'd recommend using a Bluetooth Keyboard and turning QuickNav on for data entry navigation. There are a few caveats. First, the data are limited in the number of points that can be handled, with a maximum of 30 data entries, and also a minimum number of data points for some functions (or you obviously won't be able to calculate some statistical measures like variance). The "Data Points" text box will tell you the allowed range of number of data points. You must enter a number here before you double tap the "Analyze" button (or activate it by pressing the up and down arrow keys simultaneously on a Bluetooth keyboard if QuickNav is on). By default, empty entries will be treated as 0 (and this is announced at the start: "Data (blanks are 0)"). VoiceOver will announce the heading for the "Data Points" text box out of sequence if you flick through, because the data entries (x1, x2, x3, etc.) are in one column, and the buttons/text boxes for "Clear Data", "Data Points", and "Analyze" are in a second column in the top half of the screen. (You can verify this if you run your finger vertically down from the "Data (blanks are 0)" label near the top of the screen about a quarter to a third of the way across from the left edge; then when you are on the text box for "x1", move your finger horizontally to the right to the "Clear Data" button, and switch to moving vertically down. You'll hear "Clear Data" button, "Data Points", "[4,30] text field, double tap to edit", then "Analyze" button.) So when you do a "read all" two finger flick up, VoiceOver will alternate between reading the two columns, and you'll hear the "Data (blanks are 0)" message, then "x1 text field", "Clear Data" button, "x2 text field", "Data Points", "x3 text field", "[4,30] text field", "x4 text field", "capital S button", "x5 text field", "button", "capital R button", and "Analyze button". I would just navigate with the keyboard to each field in sequence, and realize that in the previous instance I will be entering the first 3 data points (x1, x2, and x3) before coming to the text box for the total number of data points, then continue entering data values until I want to move to the "Analyze" button (last element in the screen, so do a four finger tap on the bottom of the screen to move there, or use Control+Down arrow on the keyboard). You'll get announcements of the mean, standard deviation, median, maximum and outliers. The "capital S" button saves your entries, and "capital R" restores them. The unlabeled "button" is an info button that tells you this. There are a few other concerns. VoiceOver reads out the text summary of the analysis quite well, but it won't read Greek letters (e.g., "mu" for the mean), or certain symbols for square root, etc. On the Mac I handle this be sending the output to TextEdit. I'm not sure how to work around things here. It may be possible to do an image capture and OCR with another app. However, if you know what is going on, you can still follow the formulae results based on the written text summaries. I've only done some quick testing, but this may be usable. Each menu item listed in the app, such as "Data Analysis", "Linear Regression", "Normal Distribution", etc. has two sub menus: Solver (where you input values) and Tutorial (where there are general explanations of the concepts behind the calculation). Try taking a look at this, and possibly other iOS apps for statistics. As I noted, this one is currently free, so you can experiment. I'm cc'ing this to the viphone list, since this is an iOS app. HTH. Cheers, Esther On Sep 17, 2011, at 11:31, Bejarano, Rafael P. wrote: > I looked into SPSS a couple of years ago, and the Mac version was no more > accessible than the Windows version. > > The best bet, I think, is to write software to calculate whatever stats one > needs (or to have someone else do so, if one does not know how to code). The > Python programming language appears to be a good candidate for this purpose. > Your student might get some pointers as to how to go about this by reading a > recently released book. The author's name is Alan Downey, and the book is > entitled Think Stats. > > I wish your student luck, and please do post any useful information about > accessible statistical software on this list. I'm sure more than one of us > would find such information useful. > > Cordially, > Rafael Bejarano > ________________________________________ > From: [email protected] [[email protected]] On > Behalf Of Al Puzzuoli [[email protected]] > Sent: Saturday, September 17, 2011 2:39 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: SPSS for Mac? > > Just wondering if anyone has ever used the Mac version of SPSS? If so, is it > any more accessible than the Windows version? We have a student who is > fighting with the Windows version right now. > Thanks, > Al > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
