The
objective here is to show some ways to take
the drag and drop template and adapt it for different
purposes. I
have not produced completed activities, just
enough to show you how you might produce your
own ideas.
The
information below explains how the movies work
and how they were created without having detailed
instructions on how to produce them from the
template. You can use these files as more specialised
templates or have a go at reading the code to
find out how they work. The key thing to remember
is that no code was altered from the starting
template.
The pdf version of these pages can be
downloaded here.
Here are the sections on this page so that you
can jump to them individually:
The
activity is based on text labels (they could
also be images) that drag on to two target
boxes (true and false). Since the activity is
designed for the whiteboard, the scoring system
has been removed (although not the code) and
replaced with a tick or cross message.
This template can be adapted for any sorting
/ categorising activity - you can have any number
of target boxes, the key thing is that more than
one object can be dragged into each one.
The look of the movie can be adapted in the
same way as has been described earlier. Create
target boxes for each category of answer and
then as many text labels to drop on them as you
need.
You might want to have a look at the movie
clip symbol called message in
the library.
The message movie clip has
three states (off, correct,
and wrong). The off state
shows nothing on the screen. When the movie clip
is told to go to correct,
a simple animation called a motion tween plays
producing a tick. The clip then returns to off so
that it is hidden. When the clip is told to go
to wrong, a cross appears for
a few seconds before disappearing as the clip
goes back to off.
Each message is played with the following code:
_root.message.gotoAndPlay("correct");
or
_root.message.gotoAndPlay("wrong");
The
key change to the code was to set the value
of duplicateDrop so that the movie allows you
to set more than one draggable item to each
target and so that the items disappear once
they are dropped.
// this variable sets if more than one text
label can be placed on the target boxes
// 1 = no, 2 = yes
var duplicateDrop = 2;
This
variation shows that the draggable "labels" can
be images as well as text.
The point to remember is that the instances
of the symbols are still called word1 etc.
so that the code works!
The basic steps to altering the word movie
clips are:
Delete the text box from the text layer.
Import an image into the text layer
and resize it if necessary.
Lock the text layer and
then select the background layer.
resize the background shape so that it is the
same as the image. It will be hidden anyway
but remember that the background movie
clip instance has some important code on it
so you must not delete it.
The options variables are set so that the
movie works as you would like it.
Half
way through producing this one I decided that
it is one of the slowest activities to produce
using the template. You might want to look at
clozemaker as
an alternative.
Here are the steps to produce a cloze activity:
Place a large static text box on
the decoration layer
and type in the cloze passage. Adjust the text
to a suitable size and remember the font and
size for later.
Lock the decoration layer and then place
target boxes over the words that you want hidden.
Size the target boxes so that they cover the
words and will be large enough to drop word
labels into.
Edit the text label movie clips so that they
display the missing words and are the same
size as the text.
Edit the options code so that it behaves
as you want.
You can have extra "distractor" words.
Make the answer for these 0 (zero)
in the code so that they are always treated
as wrong since there is no box0.
The idea
of this one is that the user drags words or phrases
across so that they end up in a logical order.
The sequence will then for example, describe a
process.
The words or phrases are just text label
movie clips (word1 etc.).
Create them in the correct order so that word1 should
end up in box1 but then mix
them up when you place them on the stage. The
template also includes a shuffle routine to
make sure that they come up in a different
order if the user tries it again.
Create and place the target boxes.
Add prompts to the decoration layer e.g.
numbers beside or behind them. The example
has numbers behind the boxes. The box movie
clip was edited in the library, removing the
background so the text shows through. Alternatively,
if you want them to have a background, drag
the decoration layer above
the boxes layer
but below the words layer.
If you want to create a grouping activity, where
a number of objects can be placed in any one
of a number of target boxes, you have to dispense
with the show option (by deleting the button),
at least in this version of the drag and drop
template.
Edit the answer array so that each draggable
object shares the same number of target but leave
duplicateDrop = 1.
You can then use tick = 1 to confirm to the
student that they have dropped correctly.