Presenter-Computer | Thomas' Work Space

How to set up PowerPoint show on dual screen computers

2011/08/10 plagwitz 1 comment

Before trying to show your PowerPoint on the classroom projector, with your PowerPoint file open on the teacher computer, go to the dialogue: “Set up Show” and choose from the dropdown: “secondary monitor”, click “OK”, like so:

Then proceed as normal.

Categories: Area-is-any, audience-is-teachers, LRCRoomCoed434, Presenter-Computer Tags: coed434, dual-screen, FAQs, ms-powerpoint

Protected: How to conduct an easy oral exam with Sanako1200 (Model imitation/Question Response) – Part II: Implementation/instruction of examined students

2011/05/04 plagwitz Enter your password to view comments.

Foreign Language Character Input on Windows XP in the LRC

2011/04/14 plagwitz 1 comment

The LRC offers the following foreign language characters writing support:

American English	us international	not needed	us-int
Arabic	Google;MS;MS-maren;fontboard	maybe later, now osk	demo
British English	us international	not needed	us-int
Dutch	us international	not needed	us-int
Farsi	Google;MS	maybe later, now osk	demo
French	us international	not needed	us-int
German	us international	not needed	us-int
Greek	Google;MS	maybe later, now osk	demo
Italian	us international	not needed	us-int
Japanese	MS	not needed
Korean	MS	maybe later, now osk	demo
Mandarin	MS;pinyinput	not needed	pinyin
Portuguese (Brazilian)	us international	not needed	us-int
Russian	Google;MS	maybe later, now osk	demo
Spanish	us international	not needed	us-int

The support is best accessed from the “international toolbar”, like so:

You can also use the windows on-screen keyboard to input non-Western characters on a computer that has not the corresponding keyboard overlay stickers. In the small-group workspaces, which have writing pads, you can also use the MS-Handwriting IME for East-Asian languages.

The on-screen keyboard (OSK) for foreign language character input on MS-Windows

2011/04/14 plagwitz 4 comments

A little known, but useful tool for non-western languages which can not be represented by the us-international keyboard layout, when no hardware keyboard is available:

The Windows on screen keyboard reflects the soft keyboard installed via Control panel / Regional and language options / Text input languages. and selected via the language toolbar, like so:

Easiest access, click Start, click Run, type “osk”, click “OK”. Or try this on XP:

Categories: audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, e-languages, Listening-Stations, Presenter-Computer, presenter-computer, Reception-desk, small-group-work-spaces, software, Student-Computers, Writing Tags: ms-windows, osk

Multi-monitor setup on teacher podium in the LRC main classroom

2011/04/14 plagwitz Leave a comment

Like most modern computer workplaces, the LRC main classroom teacher podium needs multiple monitors, if you want to truly take advantage of gathering up to 28 students at 28 multimedia-enabled, networked computers which, thanks to classroom management systems like NetOp School and Sanako Study1200, can be remote controlled by the teacher.
That’s why we built a simple extension on the teacher podium to connect a 2nd screen and more than double (resolution-wise) your on-screen teaching space.
Note: MS-Windows is set to “extend my screen onto this monitor”, except “maximized” windows still only maximize across 1 of 2 screens. De-”maximize” a window to be able to drag a window from one screen to the other (e.g. to prepare it on the teacher screen and then display it on the classroom projector) or to span a window across both monitors (note that, while this could be very useful to display larger thumbnails of more students computer screens, the Sanako Study1200 apparently cannot be spanned across two monitors. I yet have to test whether the Mosaic/separate thumbnail window can, but even if, this one lacks the feature of being able to take advantage of the great class overview by jumping to where teacher assistance is needed).
The left monitor is monitor 1 for Windows and being projected to the classroom. The right monitor, monitor 2 for Windows, is your staging area and control room.
Note, however, that both NetOp School and Sanako Study 1200, normally housed in the control room, are able to project the right monitor: onto (some or all of) the student’s computer screens. While I prefer not to hog the students computers for extended periods of time (effectively “dumbing down” computers to TV screens), this feature can give you more flexibility:
E.g. during a recent workshop on the Sanako Study, with the Sanako feature “Teacher screen to students”, I could demonstrate live operation of the Study 1200 software on my right monitor to participants’ computer screens while being able to keep up the PowerPoint overview slide show onto the classroom screen (after setting up my PowerPoint slideshow to display on the secondary screen).
Note that, even though multicast is being used for projection, only still images, including PowerPoint Slides, and, to some extend, computer screen video can be projected in high resolution over the network at reasonable speeds. The Sanako Study 1200, Version 5 also allows for an extremely low resolution video projection to students. For high resolution video streaming, you need the add-on module Sanako Video Live, which comes with its own streaming server hardware.

Categories: Area-is-any, audience-is-teachers, e-infrastructure, LRCRoomCoed434, Presenter-Computer Tags: dual-screen, FAQs, presenter, teacher-podium

Improved Lighting situation in the LRC

2011/03/21 plagwitz Leave a comment

The lighting situation in the LRC caused problem both when using the teacher computer and when showing videos.
We removed the fluorescent tubes right above the teacher screen. You can get an idea how strong the glare from the ceiling lights was from the next picture:
The teacher screen which was flickering has been replaced.
By clicking on the button”menu on the Sympodium screen of the teacher computer, you can adjust the screen more to your liking. While not an optimum display setting, under the current ambient light circumstances, we found it an improvement to the brightness and also the contrast.
You can also adjust the projector by accessing the projector menu from the NEC remote control.
Note that increasing the projector brightness will lower the life-span of the expensive projector bulbs.
Note that the menu also contains presets for displaying video, computer and other sources.
Presentation …… Recommended for presentations from a computer.
Video …………….. Recommended for standard video such as a TV program.
Movie ……………. Recommended for film based video such as a movie (DVD or HDTV).
Finally, we made sure that the blinds cannot be raised, just tilted, to make it easier and quicker to darken the room as much as possible.