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Archive for January, 2012

Deutschland Radio

2012/01/12 Leave a comment

On popular request: Deutschland Radio still does live streaming, but their on demand archive is also very good. Unlike Deutsche Welle  which has discontinued    live streaming geared neither  towards  expats, nor language learners  though.

Categories: audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, e-languages, German, Media Tags: , ,

Treffpunkt Deutsch Companion Website with Online Exercises

2012/01/11 Leave a comment
  1. This first-year German textbook comes with a Companion Website with free online exercises, organized by chapter, on the publisher’s website (different from the Quia.com –based workbook and lab manual exercises).
  2. From the instructor guide: “The Companion Website is a robust online resource designed to give students a chance to practice and further explore the vocabulary, structures, and cultural themes introduced in the text. For each chapter, students will find self-grading practice exercises on vocabulary and grammar topics as well as Web-based reading and writing activities. Web links to carefully selected sites in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxemburg, Liechtenstein, and South Tyrol (Italy), accompanied by interesting activities, provide additional interaction with the cultures of these German-speaking areas of Europe. Also available on the Website are the audio components of the Student Text and the SAM, as well as an interactive vocabulary flashcards tool. ”
  3. These exercises include vocabulary practice, even flash cards.
  4. The auto-correction feature provides:
    1. some useful feedback for further study, feedback1
    2. summary grades feedback0
    3. and an email to teacher function that should facilitate Syllabus integration of this useful resource: feedback2
Categories: Absolute-Beginner, audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, Beginner, e-languages, German, learning-materials, Listening, Reading, service-is-evaluating-learning-tools, textbooks, Vocabulary, websites, Writing Tags: ,

How to batch convert image files with IrfanView

2012/01/11 Leave a comment
  1. Had to make a large number of screenshots recently without being able to set the most convenient file format.
  2. Fortunately, IrfanView has powerful conversion options:
  3. irfanview-batch
  4. and makes batch-converting easy:irfanview-batch2
  5. Limitation: IrfanView uses only one processor core here (Windows7 home): irfanview-batch3
Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-staff, e-infrastructure, service-is-documenting, software Tags: , ,

UNCC LCS Language Placement Exam Information

2012/01/11 Leave a comment
  1. Short URL of this page for over the phone inquiries: http://goo.gl/ezQLu.
  2. The dates for the language placement exam are listed
    1. on the LCS department webpage. If you have trouble locating this page, use this canned Google search “placement exam site:uncc.edu”;
    2. on the calendar of the LRC main classroom (where the exam is held).
  3. The requirements, limitations and step-by-step procedure off the exam are explained here: https://plagwitz.wordpress.com/2011/06/08/uncc-lrc-language-placement-test-cape-online-placement-exam-step-by-step/
Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff, audience-is-students, e-languages, service-is-assessing, step-by-step-guides Tags: ,

How to record your speech with Audacity

2012/01/11 Leave a comment
    1. For a cut-and-dry recording session, the LRC has a simple instruction on
      1. Recording_an_MP3_Audio_File_Using_Audacity_in_the_LRC here.
      2. Uploading an mp3 recording into a Moodle Forum here.
    2. For more advanced editing with Audacity, I have a detailed screencast here.
Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-staff, audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff, audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, documentation, e-languages, lms, Screencasts, Screenshots, service-is-learning-materials-creation, software Tags: , , ,

How to make changes to a meeting request to update/alter a reservation

2012/01/10 2 comments
  1. You can easily release a reservation of an LRC room or resources, completely or partially (e.g. some of the time when you return an item earlier than anticipated), from your calendar in OWA/NINERMAIL:
  2. By opening the meeting request 
    1. In (staff:)OWA,
    2. go to your calendar
    3. find and open your meeting
    4. make changes to the meeting, e.g. start and end time
    5. click “Send Update”
    6. (students:)NINERMAIL: looks like you have to cancel the meeting and recreate it with new times. This may change once we get the calendars used by students set up to  autoaccept.
  3. More conveniently, without opening:
    1. right-click on and choose delete the appointment (if necessary, the system is smart enough to ask you whether you want to delete an entire series of appointments or only this occurrence; on cancelling, see also here). owa-update-recurring2_thumb[1]
    2. Or to release the reservation partially (= reduce the time), drag the upper or lower margin to the new desired start or end time. owa-update-recurring_thumb[2]
    3. If you are working with a meeting request (which by definition has more than the organizer as participants, unlike appointments you make for yourself on your calendar; be wary of making changes to meeting requests which you are not the organizer of (= you did not initially create the meeting request)), the system offers you – and should should accept – to notify the other participants automatically. owa-update-recurring3
    4. Which in this case is not a person, but only (unless other people have been included in the resource booking which can be done) a resource mailbox which, if configured to autoaccept, may still respond to you like so, in this case with an acceptance, since you can  not cause a conflict when releasing a resource that had been reserved for you):
    5. owa-update-recurring4
    6. This also only affects the occurrence you are currently working with, as you can see from the stricken-out recurrence icon that results: owa-update-recurring1_thumb[2]
    7. This flexibility is one of the main reasons (= better resource utilization) why we introduced this system: so that users who want to visit the LRC with their class/borrow a resource on short (often happens, depending on pedagogy, with a couple off days or less ) notice don’t have to be turned away with no good reason.
    8. Just do not try updating from the publically viewable web calendars, those are for “view”-ing only, including by students: owa-update-don-not-do-this-from-the-publically-viewable-web-calendar_thumb[3]
Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-manager, audience-is-language-learning-center-staff, audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff, audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Evaluating Student Writing with Adobe Acrobat Pro

2012/01/09 Leave a comment
  1. Interesting article on how audio comments (which save grader time) get through through to students better, by an language teaching practitioner in the EDUCAUSE Quarterly Magazine 2011.
  2. Using simple standard and readily available  tools: your version of Adobe Acrobat Professional is ready for your use under Novell Applications.
  3. Thinking through the observation that students tend to read only the bottom line grade of a returned paper, and do not even bother looking at the teacher’s comments, and that forcing them to the latter by assigning them to revise their papers is less popular, leads one to the question: what more advanced technology is available to take advantage of the teachable moments when writing? Maybe a blend of automated corrective feedback by natural language processing tools like the MS-Office proofing tools and – for the demise of the advanced real-time online collaboration platform Google Wave – a face-to-face writing tutorial emporium where a tutor monitors the writing progress of many students using screensharing applications of classroom management systems like NetOp School or Sanako Study 1200, like here (in a better resolution than this thumbnail, obviously, but you get the idea):
Categories: grading, Writing Tags: , , , ,

Transcribe sounds into Arabic letters on the web using Yamli

2012/01/06 Leave a comment

How do you compare this to Microsoft Maren and Google Arabic keyboard input?

Categories: Absolute-Beginner, Advanced, Arabic, audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, Beginner, e-languages, Intermediate, mental-notes, Uncategorized, websites, Writing Tags: