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How a student uses the Sanako Recorder Voice Insert mode for Moodle comparative recording exercises

2012/01/25 2 comments
  1. to load a file
    1. from Moodle:
      1. Find your assignment with the model audio file, presumably in your Moodle course.
      2. download the model audio file
      3. open the Sanako Student Recorder (introduction).
      4. go to menu: file / open, and open the file you downloaded
    2. from student recorder playlist: double-click the file.
  2. enable voice insert:
    1. To activate voice insert (which is a toggle that changes the behavior of the other buttons)
      1. either go to tools/ voice insert mode
      2. or click the voice insert button sanako-student-player-voice-insert (darker shade of brown = OFF; tooltip should say “Toggle Voice Insert OFF”, meaning: it is ON now)
  3. press the green play button to listen until you reach the point (your teacher may have inserted a pause or aural cue) where you can repeat  or respond.
  4. Then click the red speak-button sanako-student-player-speak to repeat after/respond to the source/teacher
  5. When you are done repeating/responding, press the green play-button.
  6. At the end, press the blue stop-button.
  7. Rewind and review your recording (e.g. compare your pronunciation with the teacher’s model).
  8. When done, click file / save as and save only your, the student track, as mp3 or wma.
  9. Additional notes:
    1. TBA: you can overwrite your pronunciation where you deem necessary.
    2. Fixed in Sanako 7: you cannot show the voice graph when in Voice insert mode – both are incompatible.
    3. To see in action how to record with voice insert and save the student track, view
      1. this step-by-step screencast
      2. this demo screen cast
    4. The previous is just a step-by-step for our environment based on the Sanako Study 1200 documentation which follows here:
    5. sanako-student-player-voice-insert1
    6. sanako-student-player-voice-insert2
Categories: assignments, audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff, audience-is-students, multimedia-recording, software, Speaking, step-by-step-guides Tags: , , ,

How we reorganized the reception area to improve support of circulation and small group work

2012/01/25 1 comment

The new reception desk is meant to secure the entrance to Coed436. To secure the circulation equipment, we do not let students into COED436 anymore, whether they are trying to check out equipment or for other reasons (except if they need to see the LRC coordinator). Hand all equipment to students over the counter. The door to Coed436 has to  be locked when the LRC Assistant leaves the reception desk (it always can be unlocked from inside).

We also carved out 2 small group work spaces in the LRC entrance area. They can be used by language tutors with their students, and by other small student groups, including for assigned film viewing. These work spaces currently do not have to be booked, but they can be. Bookings take precedence over walk-ins. Send meeting requests to LRCRoomCoed433c@uncc.edu (Group1 next to entrance), LRCRoomCoed433d@uncc.edu (Group 2)). The calendar on the reception desk will display the bookings.

We moved 3 more iMacs (with built-in web cameras) into the main classroom (currently available to students only when all other iMacs are in use). All the iMacs in the main classroom actually have now also their own “room”: LRCroomCoed433b@uncc.edu (iMacs), but we are not requiring this “room” to be booked (yet). We are considering this in an attempt to avoid pile-ups of students trying to take video recording assignment. First we monitor actual usage patterns, especially nearing assignment dead-lines.

New “rooms”, and other equipment types are highlighted in green on our list of bookable resources.

renovation-hack

coed433-CIMG0013 Stitch

Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-staff, audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff, audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, documentation, iMacs, Institution-is-University-of-North-Carolina-Charlotte, Reception-desk, service-is-library, service-is-tutoring, small-group-work-spaces, TV-viewing-area Tags: ,

How a teacher best adds cues and pauses to an mp3-recording with Audacity to create student language exercises

2012/01/25 1 comment
  1. The first screencast example uses insert tones and a gut amount of pause, for an interpreting exercise, into an authentic German political speech
    1. 1:00 search for a break (button: play/stop  – pause prevents edits)
    2. 1:05 move the cursor to the break (mouse left-click on timeline)
    3. 1:20 insert a pause (menu:Generate / Silence )
    4. 1:25 zoom in (button:magnifying glass, CTRL + mouse scroll wheel)
    5. 1:45 generate a tone (menu:Generate / Noise), change the duration
    6. 2:10 do not replace the selection
    7. 2:20 use undo, just like in MS-word and other programs
    8. 2:30 move the cursor to the start of the selection (mouse left-click on timeline)
    9. 2:40 generate a tone (menu:Generate / Noise)
    10. don’t forget to review results before distributing to students
  2. the second screencast example, of post-editing a questions/response exercise in ESL, takes the amount of pause inserted from the recorded teacher instruction for the student, and uses copy/paste to speed things up even more.
  3. You can also only insert tones and not pauses, as in the 3rd screencast, and allow the students flexible pause lengths, if you can rely on the Sanako Student recorder Voice insert. Or if you must, let students use audacity for recording also, and have them learn how to move the recording cursor around manually, and throw away the source track.
Categories: documentation, e-languages, Listening, Media, Screencasts, service-is-learning-materials-creation, Speaking Tags: , ,

How a teacher creates audio recordings for use with Sanako Student Voice Insert mode

2012/01/24 Leave a comment
    1. One of the Sanako Student player’s useful features  geared toward language learning activities, is that it can save the teacher the time and effort for inserting pauses into their audio recordings,  so that students can record responses into them.
      1. Meaning the teacher can just press the red speak button sanako-student-player-speakand record through the entire file in one sitting.
      2. The teacher can still help students finding their way around the file, especially where to insert their own audio recording responses, by adding aural cues.
        1. This can be done in minimal time: I once saw a teacher use a bicycle bell – and why not, if it saves time.
        2. A spoken instruction “Respond”/”Answer in 10 seconds” is not more difficult to spot (unless only the voice graph is being browsed) and might be even better.
        3. If you have spare time: 
          1. You can post-edit the file with audacity, generating and inserting sinus tones.
          2. You can use the Sanako player to insert bookmarks instead of cues.
    2. As long as students have been instructed to how to use voice insert recording mode with the Sanako student recorder.
      1. This is for self access of students to teacher recorded files – be it during class or homework.
      2. If you want to record students under exam conditions, a similar insert recording feature is available within the activity: Model imitation, but not with a pre-recorded file, only when the live teacher is the program source students listen to for cues.
Categories: Arabic, audience-is-teachers, documentation, English, Farsi, French, German, Greek (modern), Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Listening, Mandarin, Polish, Portuguese, presenter-computer, Russian, service-is-learning-materials-creation, software, Spanish, Speaking, Student-Computers, Swahili, Yoruba Tags: , , , ,

How to bypass a Moodle Popup Window when using Respondus lockdown browser

2012/01/24 Leave a comment
  1. Problem: when starting the Moodle Lockdown browser to take an online exam, it opens with a popup window about messages. Popup window prevents access to the underlying main Moodle browser window (and exam). When closing the popup window, the entire lockdown browser closes, including main Moodle browser window. CIMG0088
  2. Cause: Moodle can be configured to show a notification window when messages have arrived since your last login. This notification window has poor compatibility with the lockdown browser.
  3. Workaround: In the popup window, click on the tab: “Settings” and uncheck (at least for this exam session) the checkbox to show the  message box as a popup when logging in. Close the popup window. CIMG0089
  4. Result: Even if this closes the main Moodle browser window once again, when you start the Moodle Lockdown browser again, the popup window will not appear again, and you can take your exam.
Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-staff, audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff, audience-is-teachers, e-learning, Glitches&Errors, lms Tags: , ,

Supporting Swahili – A running log

2012/01/18 Leave a comment
  1. Learned today that we will begin offering Swahili in the Fall. Here is the place to plan how the LRC can better support it.
  2. For starters, I am thinking of adding to the list of our custom configured languages for
  3. Windows 7
  4. Office 2010
  5. Learning materials?
    1. Existing?
      1. FSI, naturally.
    2. There should be more need for producing learning materials in this LCTL.
      1. automated?
        1. Note that the Stuttgart TreeTagger has a Swahili parameter file (gzip compressed, Latin1). The Swahili parameter file was trained on the Helsinki Corpus of Swahili (HCS) and uses a simplified version of the HCS tagset. The HCS was created by Prof. Arvi Hurskainen by means of his Swahili Language Manager (SALAMA) which uses Lingsoft’s TWOL compiler for constructing morphological analysers and Connexor’s CG2 parser for syntactic disambiguation.
  6. Keep an eye on the Swahili Category.
Categories: Institution-is-University-of-North-Carolina-Charlotte, mental-notes, Swahili Tags: , , ,

How a student reviews a Moodle MS-Word file upload assignment for writing

2012/01/18 1 comment
  1. The student can see the submitted grade in her user report:qw6-view-grading-as-permitted-student
  2. She can view the assignment: corrected-assignment-with-response-file-as-permitted-student
  3. from where she can open the corrected MS-word file w7-open-file-as-permitted-student
  4. for more detailed corrective feedback: w2
  5.  
Categories: Arabic, audience-is-students, documentation, e-languages, English, Farsi, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Mandarin, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Writing, Yoruba Tags: , ,

Students get an error when trying to open links from MS-Word file

2012/01/18 Leave a comment
  1. Error reads: “”this operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer”.
  2. Immediate workaround:
    1. right-click on the link, choose copy, open a web browser window CIMG0001and paste the link into the address bar, browse to it from there.
    2. File / Save as / Web page. From where you saved the web page, double click to open it in the your web browser, click the links form within there. CIMG0002
    3. Have you tried saving your MS-Word files to the new SkyDrive.live.com (login with your NINERNET password) yet? Students can choose to open MS-Word documents in either MS-Word or their web browser which should also bypass the problem.
  3. Solution: Investigating. Seems related to no “default browser set” in XP Control Panel / Internet options. If you cannot live with the workaround, do ask your System Administrator. Or stay tuned
Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-staff, audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff, audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, e-infrastructure, Glitches&Errors, Listening-Stations, office-software, Student-Computers Tags: , ,