Textivate was launched in August 2012. (Time flies...) It was launched as 'beta' and was free for anybody to use.
It's no longer free, of course. But it's no longer the same resource as it was back then...
Here's what we've added since the beginning: (note that items are listed in reverse chronological order rather than order of importance)
-
Audio embedding
Add the ability to create resources based on an audio transcript -- ideal for a variety of listening and scaffolded dictation activities.
See this blog post.
-
Parallel texts
Add a L1 translation, a response to a text, some vocab, notes etc, so that students have the option to view this additional text while they complete the interactive activities.
See this blog post.
-
Big image along with textivities
Adds the facility to create resources based on an image: a response to an image, a description of the image content, etc.
See this blog post.
-
Menu-screen glossing
Adds a clickable gloss feature to the menu screen for all Text+Match resources, meaning that students can read through the text and click on words to check their meaning.
See this blog post.
-
Video embedding
Adds a whole new dimension to textivate -- the facility to create resources based on a video script (e.g. dictation), a response to a video, a description of the video content (e.g. movietalk), etc.
See this blog post.
-
URL fine-tuning
These allow you to configure the page that students land on via a link you provide to a particular activity.
See this blog post.
-
Sequences
Textivate sequences now mean that you can set learning homework, reading homework, assessments etc via textivate, AND record completion, AND access scores and time taken via the textivate gradebook.
See this blog post, which includes 3 video tutorials + links to further posts related to sequences.
-
Multiple-word gaps
Facility to create multiple-word gaps for your user-defined gap-fill activity.
See this blog post (which includes a video).
-
Maze match
New game added to the match-based suite of activities.
See this blog post.
-
On-screen keyboard for text entry activities
What the title says... We added on-screen text entry options to make textivate easier to use with touch devices and interactive whiteboards.
See this blog post.
-
Images
OK, this is not widely known, but you can add images to textivate match resources. (You just can't upload them -- they need to be already hosted elsewhere...).
See the examples on this blog post.
-
Worksheets
Many textivate screens now have a "Print worksheet" button, allowing users to print a range of worksheets based on their resource content.
See this blog post (which includes a couple of videos).
-
Video tutorials
These are growing in number as we add all these extra features.
See this blog post.
-
Text+Match in the same resource
We then added the facility to include a text and matching items in the same resource, providing over 50 activities from a single textivate resource.
See this blog post and this video.
-
Match activities
In addition to the 20 or so text activities, we added the facility to create a similar number of vocab based / Q&A / definitions>keywords / matching activities.
See this blog post and this video.
-
MySite resources
These allow the creator of a resource to limit its access, making it available only via a specific domain / web address.
See this blog post .
-
User-defined gap-fill
We added the facility to create a user-defined gap-fill, in addition to the automatically generated random gap-fill.
See this blog post and this video.
So, as you can see, we've come a long way. Textivate really isn't what it used to be :0)