Using Computers as an aid in the teaching and learning process - Part Two

A custom computer software can be made to help teachers monitor the performance of their students. An alternative to a custom made software are spreadsheets. Spreadsheets can be easily used to record marks of students. A sample spreadsheet for recording student marks can be downloaded from here. You will require Microsoft Excel to be able to view and modify the spreadsheet. In the sample excel sheet, I have made use of functions such as SUM, AVERAGE, RANK. Use of CONDITIONAL FORMATTING can also be made to, for example, highlight marks of students below the passing mark.

To learn about Microsoft Excel and what it can do, the following links may be helpful:

(1) http://www.baycongroup.com/el0.htm

(2) http://www.functionx.com/excel/

(3) http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/me/microsoftexcel.html

(4) http://www.fgcu.edu/support/office2007/Excel/index.asp

Using Computers as an aid in the teaching and learning process - Part One

Teachers often make use of teaching aids so as to help their students gain a better understanding of a particular topic. Various forms of teaching aids are used in class including diagrams glued on walls of classroom, watching clips on a particular subject and going on educational tours.

Nowadays, computers as well is being used to facilitate the teaching and learning process. Computers can play multimedia, that is text, diagrams, sounds, videos and images. With various computer software, teachers can create different aids that can be very effective in the teaching and learning process. Teachers can also make use of computer software for monitoring the performance of their students. In the next few articles, a few practical examples will be given of how computers can be used to help in the teaching and learning process.

Setting up visual c++ 6.0 for using OpenGL

1. The files opengl32.dll and glu32.dll should already be in the system folder. System folder path is "C:\WINDOWS\system32" in windows XP.

2. The files opengl32.lib and glu32.lib should already be in the "lib" folder of visual c++. The path for the "lib" folder is usually as follows: "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VC98\Lib"

3. The files gl.h and glu.h should already be in a subfolder called "GL" under found under the "include" folder of visual c++.

4. OpenGL Utility Toolkit (GLUT) allows windowing, menus or input functionality. To use it, the files glut32.lib, glut32.dll and glut.h are required. These files are freely available and pointers to these files can be obtained from the website http://www.opengl.org. Place the file with dll extention in the system folder. The file with lib extension in the lib folder specified in step 2 above and the file with h extension in the GL folder specified in tep 3 above.

5. Once the files have been placed in their proper folders, open your project file in visual c++.

6. Under "Project" on menu bar, select the "Settings" option.

7. A dialog box should appear containing several tabs. Click on the "Link" tab and add the files Opengl32.lib, glu32.lib and glut32.lib.

8. Visual C++ is now set to build programs using OpenGL.

Radio Stations on the Web

(1) Radio Stations for Mauritius

Links to Weather Website

Weather Websites for South Africa:
(1) General Weather
(2) Aviation Weather


Weather Website for Mauritius:
(1) General Weather