Hi, David Joyner escribió: > On Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 1:32 PM, William Stein <[email protected]> wrote: > >> On Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 10:29 AM, Alec Mihailovs <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> Another alternative, for using Sage in class, instead of using a >>> (non-existing) native Windows port, or one of the virtualizations, is to use >>> it from a live CD, booting Linux. The CDs are easy to distribute in class, >>> and students don't have to download and install anything. >>> >>> Alec >>> >> With no preconceptions I ask: >> >> 1. Has anybody reading this list ever actually done this (i.e., >> distributed a live CD for a particular class they taught)? >> > > > Yes. For a Differential equations class last semester. > > >
Yes the last semester in differential calculus and linear algebra. It was not a LiveCD, but a home made DVD with Virtualbox and a puppy Linux + Sage + TeXmacs virtual disk image for it. For other classes I have tried the livecd approach and virtualization works better. >> 2. If so, how well did it work? >> > > > Not too bad but not great either. Somehow saving or printing the > worksheets was difficult. The students ended up using print screen > and emailing me the graphics file. Got the job done but was limiting, > especially when a student made a mistake and needed my help to > fix it. IMHO, a live dvd with an "install Sage now" desktop icon would > be useful too. > > The server is much better. I finally got a local linux > server set up at the USNA (closed to the outside world) > and it seems to be working out well. > > > It worked fine. The idea of having a personalized Linux distro for academical stuff like teaching and writing was tried years ago when livecds where not so easy to do and not very well known, but virtualization solved a lot of issued with hardware recognition and give the students a familiar environment to do things. Having TeXmacs as an interface for Sage was also a good thing because the web notebook interface is fine for quick calculations but writing something which requires LaTeX for reporting, for example a solved exercise with equations, explanations and calculations, give the students a stepped learning environment and distracted them from problem solving and main course concepts. After doing the exercise in TeXmacs + Sage over virtualized puppy they publish their results on the Rice Connections repository (www.cnx.org). The procedure is still not as smooth as we like and give the students some problems, but on that issue we rely on "humanware" to solve the problems and get them publishing academical content on web. In fact when Rob Beezer on this list told us about his experiments with LaTeX + Sage --> Sage Web Notebook conversions I thought about something similar for TeXmacs + Sage. I was giving them the CD/DVDs personally and they they copied between them, because getting things working quick in Latin American Universities involves fighting against bureaucracy and institutional inertia, so "I am the server" approach worked well on this set up (as someway says: never underestimate the bandwidth of a car wagon full of CDs), but I hope to have the Math Department server this semester and put Sage there. I'm thinking also in making some of the most interested students with technical/mathematical concerns/talent from the last semester "co-developers" of the virtualiced distro this semester, making it more easy to share, change and publish their work. Having "real users", I mean, real undergraduate students with their complains and contributions, made this project go forward as never before and I think that this is why sharing educational experience in the sage-edu list is so important. In fact would be nice to have a space in Sage Days for teachers using Sage and chatting with devs and between them. Thanks for asking, Offray --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sage-edu" 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/sage-edu?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
