Updates - working offline - new blog section

Finally the latest shiniest version of the website is live, this includes the blog section which you are now reading. Many more updates listed below, the biggest change though is now the activities will work offline.

Working Offline

A popular feature request has been to be able to use the activities offline. This can be important as sometimes classrooms have poor internet connections. How it works is when you launch an activity, the files are stored on your computer. So next time you visit the page without an internet connection the stored files are retrieved. Note it is important to realize you must use an activity once while online before it is available offline.

Since files are stored locally you should also find that the website feels a lot faster. Please note offline feature is not available in older web browsers.

Updates to activities

Many speed improvements have been made as well as bug fixes. You can now resize your browser window and the activity will automatically resize too. A number line for addition and subtraction facts has been added to improve the activity.

New theme and improved icons and layouts

You will notice that new large icons being used in the interface. For example a dice has replaced all the "R" buttons that have a random action. To complement the new icons a different user interface theme is now being used. Many tweaks have also been made across all the activities.

New Videos

A couple of new tutorial videos have been added to the visnos you tube channel.

Visnos Blog section

Since you reading this in the blog then you already know about this one. The blog section has been added as a way to share information. This can include info about updates, but as a way to share insights into how to use the various activities in lessons. For example this blog post demonstrates why exterior angles sum to 360° using the polygon explorer. Short videos in these posts can show quickly how to do something as opposed to the longer tutorial videos that can be launched in an activity.

Improved tablet support

Because visnos is written in HTML5 as opposed to flash, it works on all devices. Obviously this depend on the limitation of any given device. However a lot of work has gone into testing on first an ipad and the site now works extremely well on that device. Coupled with offline storage and the site starts to work and feel more like a native app.