You want to know what the problem with educational software for the classroom is? ItÕs designed by people who donÕt really know whatÕs needed in the classroom -- especially _my_ classroom. They donÕt know where my studentsÕ weaknesses are or their strengths; they donÕt know what kinds of tasks I wished someone (or some other intelligent agent) would take care of for me. Those tasks and needs might change next week or next month or next yearÑor they might not. Only I can tell. And even if they did know, they wouldnÕt do it because thereÕs no money in it, because I am a market of one. I want to create the programs needed in my room. And I want to do it quickly. I want to do it without having to learn C or some other life-consuming programming language. ThatÕs why I need HyperCard. ThatÕs why teachers need HyperCard. In 1990 at age forty I entered the Masters of Arts in Teaching program at Willamette University. I had no previous computer experience. Within six months I was creating my own classroom software using HyperCard. Over these past eight years I have refined a large group of very sophisticated HyperCard stacks which I use to manage my classroom and my students use to practice a variety of skills. There are no comparable products available commercially or as shareware. They work so well because they are ours and they suit us.
Comments to: Glen L. Bledsoe
LabanWriter introduced me to the Macintosh where I soon discovered that the notation created in LabanWriter (movement notation software) could be copied and pasted and that HyperCard provided a background for notation that could be "read" by animated stick-figure demonstrators in the foreground. Thus began my addiction to HyperCard, and thus, a choreographer/notator/teacher was transformed into a published software developer. A paper describing HyperCard's value as a positive teaching tool was presented at the 1991 conference of the International Council of Kinetography Laban and soon, several attendees began to use the software themselves. Students have learned so much more quickly and thoroughly as a result of this very user-friendly program. Literate dancers can be accompanied by music as they sightread excerpts from a score, and beginners who lack access to a teacher may learn the basics in front of a Macintosh. I have looked forward the the marriage of HyperCard to QuickTime and trust that the marriage will, indeed, take place.
Comments to: Georgette Gorchoff
HypoerCard for me is the core application of my Macintosh universe (and I AM a Macintosh evangelist!); I do almost everything with or together with HyperCard: - making educational software for my students at the Interlaken High School - teaching my students to have their Mac do what thay want it to do. - giving them their first experience in programming - controlling other programs through HyperTalk/AppleScript - making data management software for my fellow teachers at our school - defending the Mac by showing them the incredible power of good old HyperCard - making Mac evangelism by having them read several interviews with the Apple genius Bill Atkinson For me, HyperCard incorporates all the promises made by the famous 1984 TV spot.
Comments to: Kurt Keller
I use Hypercard to write programs to help students learn organic chemistry and the history of science. I also use it to test students ability to do quantitative reasoning, a new requirement at our college.
Comments to: John McClenon
Music & video production. Renaissance entertainment staffing. Table hockey statistics.
Comments to: Gary Parker
Business solution prototypes. Personal information tools galore.
Comments to: Jason Parker
I have used Hypercard for almost everything to help me run my home based business since I had my SE - which by the way still does service downstairs next to the phone running a stack I created which serves basically as a telephone message pad with database abilities. It also runs a recipe database stack. I pull recipes from rec.food.veg and reformat them with HyperCard. I manage entirely my graphics and illustration business with self-created HyperCard stacks for Invoicing, Time Logs, and Contacts. I use HyperCard to prototype multimedia projects for one of my clients and I also use it to format storyboards. I teach an Introduction to Macintosh course at the local community college. Most of these students have never touched a Mac, using only Intel/Windows products. I have built Stacks demonstrating Mac interface and networking basics as tutorials, and have showed many students the ease and power of English -like scripting languages - HyperTalk and AppleScript. I know the numbers arenÕt big, but out of 15 students at a time, over two or three sessions, that yields 10 to 15 Macs sold in this middle sized town based solely on first time experience through me and HyperCard. I canÕt imagine a more productive, creative, satisfying user experience on any platform without such a simple accessible and powerful, all around useful program.
Comments to: Doug Rogers
HyperCard is the best way for someone with no programming experience or knowledge to actually create programs. I started with HyperCard 2.0, which was a free version, but soon upgraded to HyperCard 2.3 for the additional features it offered such as color and stacks into standalones. Having no knowledge of a programming language, with nothing but a vision of what I wanted to create, HyperCard, and two HyperCard how-to books, I wrote a shareware game called Fortune Puzzles. I was awed by this wonder I had created. And found that my heart's desire was to create games. Killer Dice soon followed, and then internet access came my way via a gift from a friend, and Gypsy King Software was born. I now had the means to send my creations forth unto the world. Within days of it appearing in the Info-Mac Archives, Killer Dice was chosen as one of ChezMark's MacPicks of the Week. I've got several other games in the works, all created in HyperCard, and the excitement of creation is ! absolutely wondrous. Though I am utterly baffled by one small question... HyperTalk, which is HyperCard's programming language, is so intuitive, being in plain English, I do not understand why the rest of the languages are so cryptic, and why HyperTalk is not made into a full-fledged programming language. Programmer's would flock to a language as intuitive as HyperTalk, bundled with the ease of use of HyperCard itself, if it offered fully the features of the other languages without its current limitations. Programmer wanna-be's would be tripping over each other trying to get their hands on HyperCard if they had any idea what you can create with it. Clip art storage is another use I've found for HyperCard. It used to be that my clip art was in several different programs and formats, and I'd have to jump from program to program searching for that perfect piece of art for a project. RAM limitations complicated the search even further, as I had to quit one program to launch another, and then quit again and relaunch, wasting valuable time and energy. I organized all of my black and white clip art into stacks: Animals, Buildings, Holidays, Sports, Office, Nature, etc. Then created a card in the home stack with buttons linking to each of the categories. Now, all in one program, with a click of a button, I can go right to the piece of art I need. No muss, no fuss.
Comments to: Gypsy King Software
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Revised: November 6, 1998
URL: http://www.hyperactivesw.com/HCStories/stories.html