N.B. The content of this blog post is out of date. Please see this post instead:

http://textivate.posthaven.com/fine-tuning-your-activity-urls-now-made-much-simpler-dot-dot-dot

Most textivate users will be aware that you can share links to textivate (shareable & public) resources in a number of ways, as explained on this post:
textivate.posthaven.com/sharing-and-embedding-textivate-activities

To recap, you can share a link to...:

1. the home page (i.e. the edit screen containing the text). e.g. www.textivate.com/aocjn1
2. the menu page (with the thumbnails for all the activities). e.g. www.textivate.com/menu-aocjn1
3. an activity page. e.g. www.textivate.com/3x4-aocjn1

You'll notice that all of these end in a 6-character resource identifier -- in this case "aocjn1".

This blog post looks at how you can fine tune the urls for individual activities (case 3 above) to configure the exercise screen when the student lands on it. This fine tuning involves adding extra info to the resource identifier.

IMPORTANT: The modification can work in 2 ways:

1. use "e" to enforce the configuration (i.e. the configuration can't be changed on the screen)
   
2. use "s" to specify the start configuration (i.e. the configuration can be changed)

Read on for a guide on which activity urls can be fine-tuned and how to go about it...

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Basically, without subscription, there isn't much that you can do on textivate: you can access resources created by others, provided that you have the url to access the resource, or the resource is embedded on another website or blog.

Here's what you can do if you do subscribe:

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This post explains how to submit your work at the end of a textivate sequence.

(This post relates to textivate sequences, available to users with Premium or Group subscriptions, where students submit their work using the teacher's username plus the shared student password.)

At the end of an activity sequence, exactly what happens (and in what order) depends on whether or not you are already logged in to textivate, and whether or not you are using the shared student password or an individual student password.

Individual student password

Logging in

If you have an individual student password, you should log in as soon as you arrive on a sequence page (if you haven't already).

Log in using your teacher's username, plus your individual student password, which you should type into the "Student password" field, leaving the "Password" field empty, as shown below.

Updating progress

Each time you finish an activity, your progress in the sequence is uploaded to our servers (even if you don't complete the activity successfully). Once your progress has been updated, it is safe to click on the "next" button (or "restart" if you need to do the activity again).

Keep doing this until you have completed all the activities.

Unfinished sequences

If you are unable to finish the sequence in one session (in class, for example), as long as you are logged in using your individual student password, you will be able to pick up the sequence again on a different device.

You should finish the activity that you are on, allow the progress to be updated, and then LOG OUT.

Resuming a sequence on a different device

Use the sequence url provided by your teacher. As soon as you arrive at the sequence page or first activity, LOG IN using your individual student password. This will download from our servers any progress you have made on a particular sequence and move you on to the next un-completed activity.

Using individual student passwords makes the whole process work much better, and it is so easy for teachers to set up passwords for students. See this blog post for more information.

Shared student password

N.B. You should avoid using the shared student password if at all possible. Set up classes of students and assign them their own passwords as described on this blog post. But if you are still using the shared student password, please read on...

...

If you are not logged in to textivate, you will see this screen:

You should click on the link. Then you will see this screen:

Fill in the teacher's username and the student password, and then click "Submit log in data". You are now logged in as a student. See below.

If you are logged in as a student, you will see this screen:

Fill in your name, your group (this is optional - you can leave it empty) and click "Submit". You should then see this message:

That's it. Your work has been submitted.

What if I close the first notification box? What can I do?

Don't panic! You can get the box back by clicking the rosette icon at the top of the screen:

You can also log in or out using the "log in" / "log out" icons at the top of the screen, then click the rosette to get the box that allows you to submit your data.

Just make sure you don't leave the page if you want to submit your work... (If you do this, you'll have to start the sequence again!!)

What if I don't get any of the above notifications?

This will be because you are already logged in, but not as a student.

If you are logged in as a teacher (maybe you are testing how the sequence works...?) you will just see a message that you have completed the sequence. If you want to test out the work submission thing, here's what you shoud do:

1. Close the "All activities completed" notification.
2. Click "Log out" at the top of the screen.
3. Then click "Log in" and enter the username and student password (remember, you can only submit work if logged in as a student).
4. Click the rosette icon, enter your name, and Submit.

Hope all of this helps. Please contact us via the textivate website if you have any question, doubts etc.

See this video, too:

Related posts:

Introducing Sequences on textivate

More on textivate sequences

LIGHT - an embedded KS3 Science sequence of 10 activities

Chez moi (a textivate sequence = a substantial bit of homework)

Resource preview option.

"Protected" resources.

Sequences based on activities from more than one resource

This post features a textivate sequence, based on the following text:

J'habite une petite maison dans un village à la campagne.
Chez moi il y a six pièces en tout.
Au rez-de-chaussée il y a une cuisine, un grand salon et une salle de bains. Il n'y a pas de salle à manger chez moi.
Au premier étage il y a trois chambres.
Dehors il y a un grand jardin avec beaucoup d'arbres. Il y a aussi un garage.
J'aime bien ma maison parce que j'aime le jardin, et j'adore habiter à la campagne.

...and the following vocab items:

1. on the first floor = au premier étage
2. there is / there are = il y a
3. at my house / at my place = chez moi
4. in total = en tout
5. in the countryside = à la campagne
6. in a village = dans un village
7. on the ground floor = au rez-de-chaussée
8. there isn't (a) / there aren't (any) = il n'y a pas (de)
9. because = parce que
10. also = aussi
11. outside = dehors
12. I really like = j'aime bien
13. I love = j'adore
14. I love living = j'adore habiter
15. with = avec
16. a lot (of) = beaucoup (de)
17. a bedroom = une chambre
18. a house = une maison
19. a room = une pièce
20. a kitchen = une cuisine
21. a dining room = une salle à manger
22. a bathroom = une salle de bains
23. a garden = un jardin
24. a garage = un garage
25. a tree = un arbre

Read more »

This post features an activity sequence based on this text:

Light can be reflected from a shiny surface like a mirror. It can be made to change direction by the shiny surface. If a ray of light passes into an object with different density - like air to water, or air to glass, the light will also change direction, but this is called refraction. The light is slowed up as it passes into something which is more dense, like air to water, just like we go slower when we try to run through shallow water. The light bends towards the normal. Light speeds up when going from water to air, (from more dense objects into less dense objects). This will refract the light away from the normal. A prism refracts light rays and splits up white light into the colours of the spectrum - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.

The text was provided by a KS3 Science teacher a few years ago, along with a whole load of other texts and lists of keywords which were used in a series of TaskMagic activities (they're still available to TaskMagic3 users now from here).

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Why sequences?

Textivate is used primarily in the following ways:

1. to create resources for students to use in class or at home.
2. to create resources for use in class with an IWB.
3. to print worksheets for use in class or for homework.
   
4. to allow students to practise their own texts in preparation for assessments.
   

Many teachers and students use it as a way of practising language, learning vocab in context, learning a text etc. It is a great practice tool, a really easy way of providing lots and lots of repetitions of the key structures and vocabulary that you want your students to learn.

The addition of sequences greatly enhances and expands number 1 in the above list and adds a whole new dimension to textivate. Here's why...

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Sequences

Textivate has a facility for creating a sequence of activities, which students must complete in the order that you specify. For most activities, you can also specify a target score which the student must achieve in order to pass on to the next activity.

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You know that if you click on the blue screen icon with the number 2 on it on the textivate edit screen, you can create a user-defined gap-fill where you choose the words that are gapped? Right?

Well... we've now added a bit more functionality.

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