Area-is-any | Thomas' Work Space

LRC training animated-gifs

2013/03/18 plagwitz Leave a comment

This link gives you a nice overview list of the LRC animated gif’s for training.
1. Chrome users need to install this first, still can view get only a subset.
2. Neither Chrome nor Firefox offer a search-within like Internet Explorer.
They are meant for display on the left lrc teacher station screen.
whether you display them as student training material on the projector
or display them as guidance for yourself
Did you miss something?
1. The animated gif’s cycle in an infinite loop. Just wait for the next round.
2. If you want to restart the video now, press F5 or click the Refresh button in your browser address bar.
3. Or use one of the slower speed videos I made.
I also made clickable versions that you can hand-browse (more control. More effort also).

Categories: animated-GIFs, audience-is-teachers, e-learning, Presenter-Computer, table-of-contents, training, web-browsers Tags: rss

How to prevent squealing noise on the brown headphones AKA audio feedback

2013/03/13 plagwitz Leave a comment

Symptom:high-pitched squealing sound, usually when logged into the computers along the wall (listening stations –other computers have different black headsets which are not as prone to this problem,) and not wearing the headset.
Short answer: LRC Assistants will let the student who causes the squealing noise know:
1. ”Turn the volume knob on the brown headset down!”
2. “You can turn it back up once you have put the headset on”.
Explanation:
1. The brown (analog) headsets on the listening stations exhibit this squealing noise when
  1. the students do not wear the headset
  2. AND the microphone is too close to the headphone speakers
  3. AND the headphone volumne knob is turned up to high.
2. This phenomenon is called an (audio) feedback loop:
  1. The headphone speakers echo what is spoken into the microphone (this is called sidetone).
  2. This is an important language learning feature (helps you control your pronunciation).
  3. However, it spirals out of control when students do not wear the headset. They also need to “wear the headset!” (general recommendation in the language lab) to have the benefit of the sidetone (and then their head insulates between speakers and microphones).

Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff, audience-is-students, digital-audio-lab, Glitches&Errors, Listening-Stations Tags: audio, FAQs, sanako-stuy-1200

How a teacher can organize a student-controlled high-stakes assessment recording session using the Sanako in the LRC

2013/03/12 plagwitz Leave a comment

How:
1. An initial central microphone and speaker test (animated step-by-step) is recommended. Clear the session afterwards.
2. Recording: Have the student operate the Sanako recorder to individually record (like during a self-access assignment)
  1. For starters, teacher can display this narrated individual recordings with the Sanako Student Recorder training screencast, it auto-starts and auto-cycles):
  2. And/or explain:
    1. Red Record Button to record;
    2. Blue Stop button to stop recording
    3. Green Play Button to play their assignment for review (also use the recap button to jump back)
    4. Menu: “File / New”, if they want to redo the assignment.
    5. Button: call/envelope to call the teacher on the teacher station for help (an audio connection between student and teacher should pause the recorder automatically)
3. Submitting:
  1. Individually by students:
    1. Menu “File” / “Save” (opt to save as student track mp3), to save locally, once student is happy to submit.
    2. (recommended:) upload the save file to a Moodle single-file upload assignment. Requires the teacher to create a Moodle Single file upload assignment, with optional attached file first.
  2. From the Sanako tutor at the teacher station:
    1. For entire class (If you do not need the flexibility to have students end at different times). TBA
    2. Group-wise (varying (staggered) recording times): TBA
Pro’s:
1. Less distraction from language learning by having to operate technology (editing audio rather then practicing L2) and more language-learning-specific features (sidetone, recap) than if using Audacity.
2. Works with the Sanako Study 1200 teacher stations (e.g. automatic pause of recorder when remote connecting to student during monitoring of recording task).
Con’s:
1. noise interference with dozens of student speaking in a confined space simultaneously. Nobody wants to return to the language lab station of yore, i.e. in a cubicle. However, a teacher-controlled oral exam (sample video, step-by-step video),
  1. can play a soothing background sound to students over the headphones which insulates them from their neighbors (prevents both distraction and cheating);
  2. there is no room for distracting unrelated chit-chat;
  3. there is no need for distracting conversation when students do technical troubleshooting, during highly structured question/response exams.
2. More user flexibility/control is achieved by more individual distracting operation of computer technology, which always implies more opportunity for user error. To reduce (not eliminate!) the error ratio:
  1. Students
    1. have to have received the general digital audio lab introduction for students.
    2. have to double-check their recordings for quality before submitting.
  2. Teachers
    1. have to monitor students’ recording progress closely
      1. which the Sanako Study 1200 teacher station (link cannot replace hands-on training) greatly facilitates (provided Students use the Sanako Student Recorder, as described above).
      2. however, even with a classroom management system like Sanako Study 1200, it is impossible to completely monitor a class size of students operating computers. Therefore teachers
    2. have to check the validity of submissions before students leave.
      1. If you use submission through Moodle, here are 2 tips how to do this quicker:
        
        how to quickly download their Moodle file submissions
      2. Whether you use submission through Moodle or collection through Sanako tutor:
        
        view end of this video for how to quickly check validity of all file submissions in a folder using Audacity
      3. are advised to have a make-up assessment plan not only for those students missing the exam, but also for those that miss to complete the computerized multimedia assessment correctly.

Categories: audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, digital-audio-lab, documentation, lms, multimedia-recording, Presenter-Computer, step-by-step-guides, Student-Computers, training Tags: audacity, moodle, sanako-study-1200, student.exe

How a teacher can adapt a Sanako teacher-controlled class recording activity for individual student recordings

2013/03/12 plagwitz Leave a comment

Pedagogical need:
1. A teacher wants her students to record a presentation,
2. but allow the students to move around freely in their recording afterwards, when evaluating it, and submit the best out of 3 tries:
Technical implementation:

Using Sanako activity:model imitation of differing for multiple groups
1. offers maximum control, least flexibility: students have to speak their presentation linearly
2. if you anticipate presentations of considerably different lengths
  1. first try asking your students – might be useful to them anyway to realize if theirs turns out to be much shorter than others,
  2. if students are unsure about the length of their presentation,
    1. conduct the first recording with the entire class and
    2. have students note what time their recorder time counter is at when they finish, and send you the time as text via the button:envelope
    3. group your students (grouping step-by-step) into Sessions A-F by incrementing time according to what the student icon bubble shows
  3. then differentiate class into as many groups as necessary (if <= the 6 “sessions”A-F Sanako Study 1200 offers) end the recording at a different time for each group
3. for each group (one or more up to 6),
  1. choose from dropdown activity: model imitation recording
    1. and from dropdown: source: none) with more than one group at a time,
    2. and (optionally) for not more than one group at a time (suggest choosing the biggest group for that) from (dropdown: source: file ) the background noise to play
  2. and after each group’s allocated time (+ buffer) is up,
  3. press button:end to end the recording
  4. after collection of the recordings from students is finished, you can
  5. press button:replay , to let each student listen to her recording (linearly, without control), and
  6. press button:free , to let students freely move back and forth on the timeline)
  7. eventually, press button: clear, to be ready:
4. for tries 2 and 3: repeat above steps.
using Sanako activity: self access:
1. provides
  1. the teacher some control (none over this turning into more of an editing than coherent language practice exercise),
  2. and students more flexibility (hence requiring prior recording training for students);
2. students individually
  1. record
  2. move around freely in the file
  3. replay
  4. record over prior footage and/or start completely over (menu: File / new)
  5. press button:envelope to text message the teacher that they are finished and want their (final ) recording to be collected by the teacher
3. teacher
  1. moves signaling students into a group (grouping step-by-step) that is
    1. dedicated for collecting recordings (TBA:does this not empty their buffer?)
    2. and button:pc control: locked (= no further or accidental changes)
  2. once an appropriate (compromise between finished students wanting to leave and teacher not having to collect each recording individually) number of students have been added to this group, presses
    1. button: end to collect and
    2. button: clear session to clear the button
  3. assesses the recordings in the folder that opens with audacity;
    1. in case of problems, moves students back to the group dedicated to recording
    2. else lets students leave