Replacement for MyMaths?

[dhicks]

Would love to produce but they content they provide is massive and it would take years or a pool of developers to catch up with where they are.

Any idea what MyMath's plans are regarding Flash/iPads/etc? If their content doesn't work on the iPad then they're potentially missing out on a chunk of the market - have you been in contact with them to ask what their development plans are? Can they recompile their old Flash content with Adobe's new Flash-to-HTML tool?

Development of new resources might be able to keep pace with lessons being taught if you had some sort of rapid application development tool. Flash is good, if the above-mentioned tool works, but I also seem to remember Matlab showing off a tool that let you devlope interactive mathematical widgets - I think the output might have been Flash again, but it might be worth checking out. I don't suppose Matlab do a version for the iPad?

[plexer]

I didn't choose the device, its what we have to use as we are an APPLE TRUST!

Please read the whole thread or just offer something that is constructive.
The origin of this post is about finding an alternative app or site.

We are looking at development but will not be able to start that until later in the year at the earliest.

I did read it and yes you mentioned you are an apple trust but no mention that it had to be ipads actually.

Ben

[plexer]

Flash has become the defacto tech for interactive learning content and until html5 catches up it seems you're screwed unless there's an app for what you want.

Ben

[EduTech]

I did read it and yes you mentioned you are an apple trust but no mention that it had to be ipads actually.

Ben

Also, To be honest If you can't meet your requirements using APPLE Hardware/Software then I don't see a problem with you using another device. You may be an apple trust but if it's not meeting your needs then Bye Bye Apple and find another solution! I guess by saying you had to use them because your an Apple Trust, actually means you Had to use iPad's because you don't want to loose the Apple Trust Accreditation.

I am sure no one forced you to buy them, it's just that you probably had no choice because you are an apple trust and you don't want to loose that. But to be honest mate if you are not able to do what you want because of the iPad's then not much good to you.. and therefore the Apple Hardware has failed and you will either have to look for another solution and when asked you can turn around and say well Apple, If you can fix my problem then we will use iPad's if not the BYE!

But as others of said, on a serious note if you have no other option but to use iPad's then your pretty stuffed until Apple allow flash on there devices or/ as Plexer said until HTML5 catches up.

I would try what 'dhicks' has suggested though and speak with MyMaths they may have a way around it.. who knows! <doubtful> but at least you have tried all avenues.

James.

P.S. I have Apple Items myself so this is nothing against Apple because I have there products, I just don't think you can ultimately said you HAD to use iPads.

[LaTrustTec]

Any idea what MyMath's plans are regarding Flash/iPads/etc? If their content doesn't work on the iPad then they're potentially missing out on a chunk of the market - have you been in contact with them to ask what their development plans are? Can they recompile their old Flash content with Adobe's new Flash-to-HTML tool?

Development of new resources might be able to keep pace with lessons being taught if you had some sort of rapid application development tool. Flash is good, if the above-mentioned tool works, but I also seem to remember Matlab showing off a tool that let you devlope interactive mathematical widgets - I think the output might have been Flash again, but it might be worth checking out. I don't suppose Matlab do a version for the iPad?

We have spoken to MyMaths before putting this post up and they have no plan to redevelop any of their content to work with iPad/HTML5 due to the size of their development team. Which to be honest I can understand having worked in small development teams before but it is a bit short sighted. Out of all the companies I have spoken to so far they are the only one not planning alternative versions for non Flash devices.

I have tried the HTML5 output from Flash with some mixed results, heavy 3D stuff not outputting brilliantly but the majority of stuff was OK. To be honest I think the MyMaths Flash files would output fine but as I say they don't even seem to want to look down that avenue.

I will check the Matlab tools out to see if they can produce the goods for if we end up developing this ourselves.

[Butuz]

I can't say I blame MyMaths to be honest. It's Apple's fault that they refuse to allow Flash to be available on the iPad. Apple are the ones depriving you of access to 90% of animated educational websites, no one else is to blame.

It's apple you need to be speaking to and asking them why they have purposefully castrated the iPad so that it does not work with the majority of large educational websites such as MyMaths......

It's either that or Jailbreak the whole lot as I've said. I woudn't worry too much about the whole "Apple Trust" thing. It doesn't sound like being an Apple Trust is patricularly useful in your case. When you put your case studies out about how you were forced to Jailbreak a thousand ipads in order to make them educaitonally fit for purpose it will be apple that look stupid, not you (i can see the REgister headlines now). You'll look like a hero that overcame Steve Jobs massive and counter productive ego in order to simply help your kids learn!

Butuz

[localzuk]

I can see Apple's point. Flash is unnecessary now, as 'standard' web technologies can do everything it did, and Flash uses far too much processing power and battery power.

Companies should be looking at creating a product that works on as many systems as possible - and the only way of doing that is using standards, not Flash.

Any company that currently has an entirely Flash based portfolio of products and isn't investing in replacing that with non-flash technologies is shooting themselves in the foot.

[Butuz]

I can see Apple's point. Flash is unnecessary now,

You are entirely right. BUT why not give the user the choice of what web technology they use? Why not give the person that paid £300-£500 for the device in the first place the ability to run older web technologies if they NEED to for whatever reason???

The point is - Apple are dictating to YOU what YOU use in YOUR school with YOUR device that YOU paid good money for. Thats not how it's supposed to work, that's not the best thing for Apples customers, and this thread is conctrete proof of that.

Butuz

[localzuk]

You are entirely right. BUT why not give the user the choice of what web technology they use? Why not give the person that paid £300-£500 for the device in the first place the ability to run older web technologies if they NEED to for whatever reason???

The point is - Apple are dictating to YOU what YOU use in YOUR school with YOUR device that YOU paid good money for. Thats not how it's supposed to work, that's not the best thing for Apples customers, and this thread is conctrete proof of that.

Butuz

Look at it from Apple's point of view - more technologies usable on their platforms means more support requests. Apple have always been an 'end to end' systems provider. They spec every component themselves for their systems, and then design their OS around that. This increases software reliability and decreases support requests.

If Apple supported Flash, what about Silverlight? Java ME? Shockwave? etc...

Not to mention, people will still buy their products regardless of that lack of support. Me? I wouldn't buy an Apple phone or tablet, due to them not supporting the technology I want. But if you buy their product, knowing that support issue, and then complain that it doesn't support it, there is only one person to blame...

[dhicks]

We have spoken to MyMaths before putting this post up and they have no plan to redevelop any of their content to work with iPad/HTML5 due to the size of their development team.

Hmm - how small is their development team? Could a rival product be made by a distributed team - this is the twenty-first century and all, development can be done by individuals scattered around the globe, and maths strikes me as the kind of thing that can be split up into lesson-sized chunks quite well. If you're looking at developing your own solution, what sort of resources do you have avilable?

I will check the Matlab tools out

Sorry, I think I might have been thinking of Mathematica - I know I saw a demo of an output-to-Flash-widget at BETT a few years ago, I just can't remember exactly who from.

[LaTrustTec]

Hmm - how small is their development team? Could a rival product be made by a distributed team - this is the twenty-first century and all, development can be done by individuals scattered around the globe, and maths strikes me as the kind of thing that can be split up into lesson-sized chunks quite well. If you're looking at developing your own solution, what sort of resources do you have avilable?

We have a couple of iOS developers (myself now learning) and most our techs have experience in multiple programming languages like html/html5/php/javascript but as we are now moving one school into a new building and about to start building another any dev plans are on hold for the meantime.

Sorry, I think I might have been thinking of Mathematica - I know I saw a demo of an output-to-Flash-widget at BETT a few years ago, I just can't remember exactly who from.

I like Wolfram. I will check out how useful it is.

[dhicks]

We have a couple of iOS developers (myself now learning) and most our techs have experience in multiple programming languages like html/html5/php/javascript

iPad-compatible HTML5 strikes me as a better idea than a dedicated iOS app - wider audience / customer base, for a start. I think there's a way of getting a standard web-based application app-ised so it looks like a standard full-screen iPad app rather than appearing inside a web browser's window, although I doubt (although I could be wrong) that will include much support for iOS-specific events (device tilt) or input handling (swipes).

This sounds like the kind of thing that would work as an open source project of some sort - split the curriculum up in to individual classes, provide nice interactive widgets for each one. I'd be surprised if there wasn't already at least a couple of tries at this, although I wouldn't be surpirised if they didn't get off the ground - as you've pointed out, there's a fair volume of work involved in providing for all classes, all years.

Framework-wise, this would seem to be the kind of thing a VLE should be perfect for - the VLE should, hopefully, provide the class membership data, user handling, teacher-assigns-pupil-a-task and results tracking stuff. You should be able to write standardised widgets that simply slot in to a VLE, ready to be re-used next year or by whoever you want to give/sell stuff too. I'm guessing checking out Moodle 2.0's features might be an idea if you haven't already - I don't know exactly how well they handle SCORM-based content and so on these days. SCORM creation packages might also be an idea as development packages, although again I don't know how far along most of those are.

[HodgeHi]

The flash plugin on a Mac laptop is terrible. The CPU when watching a video on You Tube is around 90% use until you go stop the playback. Adobe have never released a single version on Flash that has been optimised on the mac platform. Only when Jobs said that Flash would not be supported on the i-devices has this started to slowly change. The last few versions have been better but still no where near the Windows version.

It is only when you have had to use Flash on the mac platform for a period of time can you really see how bad it is. The Plugin crashes often (less now though) and the battery drain on the laptops is bad. To have this sort of drain on a device that really requires a decent battery life to have any real use out in the wild would have a massive effect on how well it would sell IMO. I mean if you think about performance when browsing and battery life is shorter than it's rivals, who is going to choose it over the competitors?

But with Adobe releasing the flash to iOS converter, is this not an option for the developers?

[SYNACK]

The flash plugin on a Mac laptop is terrible. The CPU when watching a video on You Tube is around 90% use until you go stop the playback. Adobe have never released a single version on Flash that has been optimised on the mac platform. Only when Jobs said that Flash would not be supported on the i-devices has this started to slowly change. The last few versions have been better but still no where near the Windows version.

Maybe it is in retaliation for iTunes on the PC

[dhicks]

But with Adobe releasing the flash to iOS converter, is this not an option for the developers?

Hang on - is that Flash-to-native-iOS-app or Flash-to-a-bunch-of-HTML/Javascript/SVG/CSS-files?