Presenter-Computer | Thomas' Work Space

Does Pinyinput reset the default input language to Chinese?

2012/06/29 plagwitz 3 comments

Update: We are in the process of switching from Pinyinput (for other reasons), but I have a new suspicion what may cause the input language switch to Chinese on our teacher computer: Sanako Study 1200 tutor?
Problem: We observe that the default input language on a computer (Windows XP service pack 3, numerous input languages, US international is supposed to be the default)gets reset to Chinese whenever we log on. Numerous attempts to reset the default input language have not had any effect, despite the computer not being frozen.
Possible cause:
1. There was no configuration change that I can remember was done immediately before this behavior cropped up. Other computers that have the same base configuration but are deepfrozen do not display this behavior.
2. However, here is a wild guess for a cause: We have Pinyinput installed, a keyboard layout to facilitate typing Pinyin tone marks. It is advised to be installed under US-English input language since installing it under Chinese causes some [edit: only font display, I was reminded by the developer] problems with MS-Word.
Possible workarounds to be tested:
1. Is this admonition that Pinyinput should not be installed under input language Chinese still up to date with Windows 7, Office 2010 and the current version of pinyinput? If not, try installing Pinyinput under Chinese in Windows 7?
2. Freeze the computer while it does not display this behavior.

2012/05/23 plagwitz Leave a comment

The windows management improvement I use most in Windows 7, in order to view multiple windows simultaneously (after introduction of preemptive multi-tasking in the late 80s, the operating system was renamed from MS-DOS to MS-Windows, not to “MS-Window”) is the snap-to-edge which you can access
1. either by “throwing” your window (drag the title bar) to the left or right edge of your screen (top or bottom will maximize or minimize your window);
2. or if you rather use the keyboard, + left/right arrow (+ up/down arrow will maximize or minimize your window). Keep pressing the combination and you will cycle the window position. Note that this works also across dual-screens.
Also a welcome relief: In Windows 7 dual screen environments, you can drag and drop maximized windows between screens.
1. The fact that you could not in Windows XP (where you have to de-maximize the windows first before dragging it) has caused much confusion wherever I introduced multi screen computers for teachers;
2. in spite of the fact that you could not drag a maximized window away in the single screen environment that our users are more accustomed to.
3. Guess I can now rather focus on upgrading a 11-year old OS to Windows 7 than on coming up with a more memorable explanation. Actually, people are currently raving about the dual-screen management improvements in Windows 8, but I that will take a bit longer to trickle through.

2012/05/04 plagwitz Leave a comment

On the Control panel, click on “DVD”
This makes the DVD controls appear, which include play and FF.
By clicking on “Advanced Controls”, you can access another screen with more controls.
Or you can play your DVDs from the teacher podium computer which is more integrated with the rest of the computer use, and you do not have to walk over to the AV cabinet to insert the DVD. Read in…

2012/04/30 plagwitz Leave a comment

View screens (best viewed side by side, but note that left and right screen are not synchronized):
1. for full slide show (note the included short links for convenient further reading), left screen
2. for Sanako interface and full audio track, right screen.
Table of contents:
1. Overview of a Sanako Oral Exam
2. Examples of Exam teachers’ exam question recordings
3. Example of a Sanako Exam
4. Loop induction
5. Step-by-Step of administering a Sanako oral exam
6. Grading Sanako oral exam student files
  1. Sanako voice insert for
    1. facilitating recording oral assignments for student without hard-coded pauses
    2. commenting on student responses during grading
7. Sanako authoring tool for providing visual on top of aural cues to students

2012/04/25 plagwitz Leave a comment

All other things equal (given a limited amount of time), teachers can provide more and better corrective feedback on student oral proficiency recordings if, during their grading, they could easily insert their own oral comments into the students’ recordings (delivered as MP3 files to teachers’ desktops after Sanako oral exams).
Both the Sanako Tutor and Student Player have a voice insert mode that is much easier and quicker to use than (albeit not free as) editing the student audio in Audacity (which we still recommend for bare-bone viewing/listening because of Audacity’s capability of loading and displaying multiple tracks simultaneously).
Fortunately, Sanako tutor/student player are available on the teacher/student station PCs in the LRC (the latter’s insert function is available when the PC connected to the running Sanako Tutor on the teacher station).
How easy and fast is it to use this? As you can see in this demo screencast on how to use Sanako voice insert to add spoken comments into your students’ Sanako oral exams, voice insert only requires:

a click on the voice insert button in the center, whenever a user wants to speak during listening,
and, from the top left menu, a “file”/ “save as” at the end.

In a next step – not only during the grading process –, how easy is it to distribute student recordings made with Sanako to students? That is TBA:a different story.