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LRC training animated-gifs

2013/03/18 Leave a comment
  1. 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.
  2. They are meant for display on the left lrc teacher station screen.
  3. whether you display them as student training material on the projector
  4. or display them as guidance for yourself
  5. 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 image in your browser address bar.
    3. Or use one of the slower speed videos I made.
  6. 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:

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

2013/03/12 Leave a comment
  1. 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
  2. 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).
  3. 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:
            1. how to quickly download their Moodle file submissions
          2. Whether you use submission through Moodle or collection through Sanako tutor:
            1. 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: , , ,

General digital audio lab introduction for student users of the LRC

2013/03/02 Leave a comment
  1. The LRC has been upgraded from use of  solely Audacity to a digital audio lab and classroom management system geared towards language learning, and teaching. The Sanako Study 1200 is a professional software suite that includes a remote-controlled dual track audio recorder with many specialized features not found in OSS audio editors and simple free web-based recorders.  It successful use, even by so-called “digital natives”,  requires, for lack of exposure, training .
  2. Archived online versions of overview training (for your review; sorry: viewing is NOT equivalent to taking the training) were published here when the Sanako was first set up:
    1. Recorded LRC Director overview training screencast
    2. Student interface overview and summary
  3. Specific tasks:
    1. How student downloads, edits and submits files sent from the teacher with Sanako Study 1200 Homework –the ultimate training summary….
    2. How students can do voice insert recordings with Sanako Study 1200 student recorder – the ultimate training summary…
    3. More student task training videos are being added continuously as time permits, check back at this link: Sanako step-by-step training videos for students.
  4. Sorry, we have no self-study online tests to check learning outcomes in digital audio lab proficiency. However, we offer interactive live trainings for classes.
Categories: animated-GIFs, audience-is-students, digital-audio-lab, screenshot-albums, training Tags:

How to copy your tried and true Moodle course into the new term/sections

2013/01/24 Leave a comment

Just another shout-out for some useful documentation from the CTL: Instructions on how to copy your Moodle course: Text | Video. Plus a recommendation: stop being hard on yourself and refrain from manually adding content to individual sections of the same course, instead, use the copy (import) feature at term start in each section. Requires preparing your Moodle course when you do not teach and grade – which seems preferable and for which the LRC aims to offer Learning materials Clinics.

Categories: announcements, audience-is-teachers, clinics, e-learning, learning-materials, lms, training Tags: , ,

How teachers can record audio materials here

2013/01/10 Leave a comment

The purpose of doing a recording of learning materials for the SANAKO during a faculty workshop is merely to get you started. The use of the SANAKO is not limited to the LRC. After taking the workshop, you can:

  1. if needed,
    1. check out one of the LRC faculty headphones (we have now 5 for faculty use in our list of LRC resources),
    2. install the Sanako standalone recorder on your office or home PC,
  2. start the recorder and press the red record button,
  3. read your questions into the headset microphone, preferably after you have put them in the format of my exam template  (consider this sample exam recording a model),
  4.  use something like a bell, whistle (or simply clap your hands) to create audible cues for when you want to start/stop speaking cues
  5.  watch the timer on the Student Recorder to leave the same amount of response time for the students as you announced after the questions
  6. save the file to the proper location that I listed here: https://thomasplagwitz.com/2012/11/06/how-teachers-find-their-sanako-materials/ .

    That’s all. If you need a refresher, please come to one of my bi-weekly LRC “Sanako Clinics” that will appear in the LRC hours&events calendar.

Categories: audience-is-teachers, clinics, digital-audio-lab, documentation, e-languages, Institution-is-University-of-North-Carolina-Charlotte, service-is-learning-materials-creation Tags:

The big LRC SANAKO “How do I…?”

2012/12/05 Leave a comment

(Work in progress).

View larger Word version than this embed:

Categories: all-languages, animated-GIFs, audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, classroom-management-system, digital-audio-lab, documentation, e-languages, Institution-is-University-of-North-Carolina-Charlotte, learning-usage-samples, Listening, LRCRoomCoed434, Presenter-Computer, Reading, recording-software, Screencasts, screenshot-albums, service-is-documenting, service-is-training, Speaking, Student-Computers, training, Writing Tags:

Fall 2012 Faculty Workshop II: Clinic on creating teaching materials for use with the Sanako

2012/11/22 Leave a comment
      1. (Being planned and scheduled, therefore this post is a work in progress, please stay tuned: ).
      2. As a continuation (and practical application ) of our previous Intermediate Sanako Teaching Techniques Workshop (and a repetition of our Learning material creation Clinic from the summer), we will create learning materials.
      3. Bring some ideas and materials. The Sanako and entire LRC infrastructure aims to lower the technical authoring requirements.
        1. We can record remotely, all authoring teachers at the same time, your source (model/question material) which you will be able to distribute as easily (“ loop induction”)  from the Sanako teacher station. Bring some questions your students should be able to respond to in L2, and be prepared to read some text that you want them to repeat, for pronunciation practive
        2. We can author hand-outs for so-called “homework” (actually reading and writing, with supervision and collection by the teacher as easy as the handout): It just takes opening one of our customized LRC MS-Word templates. I will hand out (more loop induction) “homework” files to aid your work. Bring some texts and essay writing tasks
        3. PowerPoint exam files with visual cues: bring some ideas for vocabulary quizzes.
Categories: announcements, audience-is-teachers, digital-audio-lab, documentation, e-languages, Institution-is-University-of-North-Carolina-Charlotte, learning-usage-samples, Listening, LRCRoomCoed434, Reading, service-is-learning-materials-creation, Speaking, workshops, Writing Tags: , ,

Fall 2012 Faculty Workshop I: Intermediate Sanako Teaching Techniques

2012/11/22 Leave a comment
  1. (Being planned and scheduled, therefore this post is a work in progress, please stay tuned: ).
  2. Using the Sanako classroom management system for training (“loop induction”),
  3. we will present learning usage models, based on the work done by our language teachers in the LRC Sanako this term.
  4. We will then provide you with hands-on practice how you can do the same with the Sanako system.
  5. This will hopefully give you some ideas for for writing LRC visits into your face-to-face teaching syllabus next term.
  6. To facilitate this, we will continue with a follow-up Workshop II: Clinic, where we will help you prepare your Sanako-based learning materials for next term.
  7. You can review our past Sanako Workshops (online screencast).
Categories: announcements, audience-is-teachers, digital-audio-lab, documentation, e-languages, Listening, LRCRoomCoed434, Reading, service-is-applying-learning-tools, service-is-training, Speaking, workshops, Writing Tags: