JClic Guide: Presentation

JClic

JClic is the latest version of Clic,a tool for the creation of didactic multimedia applications. During the last ten years many educators have used it to create interactive activities which work on procedures from different areas of the school curriculum from kindergarten up to secondary education..

JClic takes advantage of the fact that Internet has evolved and that computers are much more advanced technically especially in the area of graphics.

The objectives of JClic are:

• To make possible the use of applications Clic on line directly from Internet.
• Maintain compatibility with the applications already existent in Clic.
• Allow the use of JClic on different platforms and operative systems.
• Use a standard format in the Clic activity files which makes them compatible with other applications and which makes their integration into databases for resources easier.
• Widen the scope for the cooperation and exchanging of materials between schools and educators from different countries and cultures, making the translation and adaptation of both the programme and the created activities easier.
• Gather together suggestions for bettering and widening the programme which the users have been sending in.
• Make possible the growth of the programme through cooperation between different programming teams.
• Create a stronger, simpler but more intuitive environment for the creation of activities by adapting to the present day graphic environments of the user.

JClic consists of three applications:

• JClic

This is the main programme and is used to see and execute the activities. It allows us to create and organise the project libraries and choose between different graphics environments and functions.

• JClic Author

This tool allows us to create, modify and try out JClic projects in a very intuitive visual environment immediately. It also offers the possibility of changing the packets made with Clic 3.0, the publication of activities on a webpage or the automatic creation of files for the installation of projects JClic, to the newer format.

• JClic reports

A module that allows us to manage a database where the results obtained by the students are collected when they do the activities in the projects. The programme works online and also offers the possibility of producing statistical reports of the results.

The programming tool used is Java and the format wherein the data of the activities is kept is XML.

It is important to remark that in order to use JClic and create new activities it is not necessary to know how to programme with Java or write documents XML, the same as it was not necessary to know the language C++ to use Clic3.0.

To use JClic you must have installed the version 1.5 or later of the Java Virtual Machine.