Genre-is-any | Thomas' Work Space

How to work around a possible bug of Sanako Study 1200 collecting student files opening multiple explorer windows?

2013/09/09 plagwitz Leave a comment

Problem: To great confusion of my teachers, Sanako version 7 often seems to open multiple collection windows (1 per student recorded?) when collecting files, like so:
Possible Cause: From the screenshot above,
1. where only 1 collection event out of 3 shows this undesirable behavior,
2. and the 2 that did not, collected all file either under student computer name or all under student login name:
3. is it possible that Sanako has a bug which causes it to open one Windows explorer window per student file collected, if
  1. some students are displayed under their computer name,
  2. while other are displayed under their login name?
4. This is aggravated by another limitation (or bug): Students that come online after I chose show student computer names, are not affected by this setting, but display with their login name (the default).
Possible Workaround:
1. Make sure all students display under the same naming scheme.
2. This is best achieved by waiting until every student icon shows up in the classroom map before changing the classroom map student display option.

Categories: digital-audio-lab, e-languages, Glitches&Errors Tags: naming, sanako-study-1200

How to set up your computer to access ASCM URLS with Adobe Digital Edition for DRM-protected eBooks

2013/09/09 plagwitz Leave a comment

I downloaded the Adobe digital Edition from here: http://www.adobe.com/products/digital-editions/download.html
I installed the downloaded Adobe Digital edition like so:
I can now run the Adobe Digital Edition program:
However, File / open / paste url won’t work.
Also, if I download the ASCM file, Windows still does not know which application to open ASCM file with
I CAN HOWEVER DOWNLOAD AN ASCM FILE AND DRAG drop this into an open digital edition window, to get this at least
I went down the "authorize your computer" route:
Here is my first example (from the Adobe samples website):
From now on, I can simply click on adobe digital edition links with ASCM files.
When getting the download dialogue, I can skip saving and click "open":
Note: you are consuming a license if you open te ebook with your account.

Categories: audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, documentation, e-infrastructure, service-is-library Tags: copyright, drm

"Server busy” error?

2013/09/08 plagwitz Leave a comment

This dialogue appears regularly on student log in:
Update: This seems to have disappeared in the 2nd half of the term.

Categories: e-infrastructure, Glitches&Errors Tags: 7, image2013, ms-windows

Creating site-specifically useful learning content for the Sanako Study 1200 vocabulary testing

2013/09/06 plagwitz Leave a comment

The usefulness of the Sanako Study 1200 new (from ver 6) vocabulary test activity hinges on the availability of site-specific vocabulary lists.
Sanako UK
1. seems aware of this and publishes vocabulary collections for textbooks and assessments commonly used in UK secondary education.
2. Sanako favors using the built-in format and saving it on the network share that is required for the Sanako study 1200.
3. Vocabulary tests are organized and can be discovered and browsed by file name only.
TBA: How could something similar be done in a US HE context? One would need:
1. establish which textbooks are (and will remain) in use?
2. are they e-books or would the material need digitization?
3. is the chapter vocabulary easily accessible as a list? Appendix glossaries encompass usually much more than the vocabulary required to study, so testing on these would quickly become frustrating
4. how best to reformat the materials (from turning into a table to handling linguistic metadata) for easy use with the Sanako vocabulary test?
5. how best to publish the material?
  1. to make it manageable for the updaters: crowdsourcing? copyright issuew?
  2. to make it easily selectable for the teacher: filter by integrated linguistic and course metadata?
6. Last not least: How to do all this economically? Taking into consideration teacher preference, enrollment, preexisting materials…?
  1. cost lowered if tabular lists of vocabulary already exists
  2. benefit is lowered if online flash card applications already exist.

Categories: audience-is-teachers, digital-audio-lab, Presenter-Computer, projects, service-is-learning-materials-creation, Student-Computers, Vocabulary Tags: sanako-study-1200, vocabulary-test

First steps with the Sanako Study 1200 vocabulary test activity

2013/09/06 plagwitz Leave a comment

Click to watch an example below of the new (in version 6, we are now on 7) activity:”Vocabulary Test” which allows you to administer during a face-top-face-class just exactly what its name says –
with these benefits:
1. needing no paper,
2. digital contents
  1. “can” and reuse past tests with ease
  2. TBA: can you swap target and source language?
3. blending automated and teacher feedback:
  1. the example I give below is based on what the teacher gave me: single words and very short idiomatic expression.
  2. You can use longer phrases (I prefer teaching and studying vocabulary in context), but then it become increasingly unlikely that the automated feedback is accurate (The automated feedback is limited to exact, up to case-insensitive string matching – now distance metrics).
  3. You can override the automated feedback before sending the results back to the student. This is somewhat practical, since the submitting is fast and not all students will finish at the same time, and if you provided students with the follow up activity after submission, The teacher overriding the feedback gets unpractical in large classes, so it is recommended restricting the test to short source/target language pairs. Also be clear about or minimize punctuation and, if required, the format of other metalinguistic information (gender, plural forms etc).
Issues:
1. not communicative, how can this be used or fitted in with other activities to make best use of a fully computerized face-to-face teaching environment?
2. simplistic autocorrecting algorithm (case-insensitive, otherwise exact, right or wrong, my way or the highway” string matching)
3. no tracking, no memory, personalization only via the other built-in Sanako personalization features (groups – to be left to the teacher to handle)
4. no learning content – at least no vocabulary learning materials usable out of the box for us (TBA).

Categories: audience-is-teachers, digital-audio-lab, e-languages, Learning-logs, Presenter-Computer, Screencasts, service-is-evaluating-learning-tools, Student-Computers, Vocabulary Tags: sanako-study-1200, vocabulary-test

New issues with Respondus-lockdown-browser

2013/09/04 plagwitz Leave a comment

Problem description:
1. Upon starting the quiz, Students are asked to select the right Moodle server (assuming Moodle2 is the right answer – how long will this step be necessary?)
2. When they are finished with the quiz, Students receive a combined “Ar required parameter is missing” (a link with “more information on this error” is offered underneath the red error message, but cannot be opened) and “Link is blocked” error
3. before they reach the “SAVED” screen with the “submit all and finish”button: Meaning their attempt was not saved and since it cannot be submitted, will be lost.
4. When logging in on a different computer, and starting the quiz in Lockdown browser, it tells students that the attempt is in progress,
5. upon continue, they have to start afresh (nothing has been saved).
6. This is on version from Dec 6 , 2012.
Workaround: Restarting the quiz on a different computer has been the best workaround I have seen so far.