Archive

Archive for 2011

ECAR National Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2011 Report released

2011/10/28 Leave a comment
  1. The Educause ECAR for 2011 Lists among its top actionable survey results: “Nail the basics. Help faculty and administrators support students’ use of core productivity software for academic work.
  2. Not a language learning specific result , but a reminder also for the LRC to prioritize:
    1. LRC posts on “productivity software”,
    2. and most of our students’ “academic work” lives online in Moodle.
Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-manager, audience-is-language-learning-center-staff, office-software, software, websites Tags: , , , , ,

Chinese newspapers

2011/10/28 Leave a comment
  1. China Daily is the largest Chinese newspaper available in English. It has a variety of versions: here is the version for the US, for cross-cultural learning, while the English version for speakers of Chinese is valuable both for learners of Mandarin and English.
  2. The government-run newspaper People’s Daily has an English version, also with language learner glossing.
Categories: Absolute-Beginner, Advanced, Beginner, English, Intermediate, Mandarin, Media, Near-Native, Reading, websites Tags:

MS-Bing Dictionary for Chinese learners of English–and vice versa?

2011/10/28 Leave a comment
  1. Link: http://dict.bing.com.cn/?ulang=EN-US&tlang=ZH-CN#%3Ahome, powered by Engkoo:
  2. This looks like a pretty evolved learning tool: It has instant suggestions that include usage information and translations.engkoo-bing-china-dictionary-learn
  3. Rich results that include contextual, parallel web-as-corpus matches in text and text-to-speech (that, on spot-checking, seems barely noticeably computer-generated). engkoo-bing-dictionary
Categories: Absolute-Beginner, Advanced, Beginner, corpora, Dictionaries, English, Intermediate, Listening, Mandarin, Reading, Vocabulary, websites Tags: ,

Dell Studio XPS 16

2011/10/28 Leave a comment
  1. When coming to my desk today, my laptop made a grinding noise. Even worse, the noise later decreased, sounding like grinding to a halt.
  2. here is a recording:
  3. Fan? That cannot be good with a laptop that always ran hot (video card cannot be disabled during normal, non-gaming operation).
  4. keyboard developed a mind of its own after half a year: cursor began jumping at random.
  5. side panels: started peeling off within the first few weeks
Categories: hardware

Microsoft & the future of interpreting

2011/10/28 Leave a comment

Microsoft is at it again: making predictions on the future of interpreting right at the beginning of their new “FUTURE VISION video: In 5-10 years, how will people get things done at work, at home, and on the go?”. The glasses should state “Interpreting” instead of “Translating”, yet anything that aids in cross-cultural communication would be most welcome. But will it happen in “5-10 years”? (This movie is also about the past: viewing it from their own site in Google’s Chrome brought down my computer with a BSOD relating to video driver (phone camera did not start up quite fast enough to capture it).

Categories: Interpreting, second-language-acquisition Tags:

Easy adding and viewing GeoTags with your phone camera

2011/10/27 Leave a comment
  1. “Open your camera app, go to “Settings” (sprocket), menu item: “Geotagging”, “On”: android-camera-SETTINGS-GEOTAGGING
  2. Turning the phone’s the GPS on is not absolutely necessary, as this indoor basement shot proves:
  3. pixi-phone-wlgallery-geotag2-wireless-tower
  4. but will likely increase the accuracy of the Geotag in your photo greatly:pixi-phone-wlgallery-geotag-gps
  5. How to view depends on your photo viewer application, above examples are taken from the free Windows Live Photo Gallery.
Categories: assignments, audience-is-students, digital-humanities, GIS, phones Tags: , , , ,

Student peer assessment options for a more “social learning” experience in Moodle 1.9.

2011/10/26 Leave a comment
  1. The most simple solution, briefly explained:
    1. Add a forum: button: “Turn editing on”, dropdown: “Add activity:  “discussion”, Set dropdown “Forum type”: “a single simple discussion”/ section: grade, dropdown: “aggregate type”: “average rating” (also set your max attachment size if you want uploads of multimedia recordings).
    2. Set Permissions: course administration block / item:assign roles / tab: override permissions (we do not have this!) / section:forum, enable checkbox:”rate posts”, disable checkbox: “view any ratings”, “view ratings” .
  2. Visually explained (notes deviously: “if you do not have tab: override permissions, ask your admin”. If she says “no”, ask to enable the workshop module in Moodle 1.9. If she says “no”, ask to upgrade to the workshop module in Moodle 2.0. If she says “no”, ask her for other ideas how to do “social learning” in Moodle… Winking smile).
Categories: audience-is-IT-staff, audience-is-teachers Tags: , ,

New Teacher MAC Computer in Coed037 with Final Cut Pro 3

2011/10/26 Leave a comment
  1. A new Mac Mini on the teacher podium was installed today in Coed037.mac-mini-rear
    1. Because of case size difference, the new Mac Mini had to be installed on the right side wall of the podium, unlike the old one which was smaller and fit on the keyboard tray.
    2. It is still switched through the podium as before: CIMG0059
    3. For logging in, use the generic, not your personal account.
    4. Standard current ITS MAC image.
  2. Final Cut Pro 3
    1. was installed into the image, and run.
    2. Media components (Audio content, Motion content) allegedly have also been included in this install.
  3. We also added MPEG Streamclip 1.9.2. Note, however, that the non-beta version does not have the YouTube.com download capability mentioned here earlier (you will get this error  more focused): CIMG0051
      1. Because of podium monitor incompatibility, we could not increase the screen resolution to the minimum 1280*800 required Final Cut Studio 3. CIMG0036We nevertheless were able to start Final Cut pro. You can permanently bypass this warning dialog if you see it, and report problems. CIMG0037-screen-resolution
  4. We also permanently bypassed this firewire error: CIMG0041
  5. And here is the result: CIMG0042
Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-staff, audience-is-teachers, documentation, presenter-computer Tags: ,