Archive

Archive for the ‘assessments’ Category

Protected: How to configure the LangLabEmailer for your school, and share back

2013/06/07 Enter your password to view comments.

This content is password-protected. To view it, please enter the password below.

Categories: Arabic, assessments, assignments, audience-is-language-learning-center-manager, compiledcode, digital-audio-lab, e-languages, English, Farsi, French, German, Greek (modern), Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Mandarin, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, service-is-programming, Spanish, Speaking, Swahili, Writing, Yoruba Tags: ,

How to update the LangLabEmailer

2013/06/06 Leave a comment
  1. LangLabEmailer updates automatically if an update is available when you start it.
  2. Your langlabemailer.exe.config should not be affected by an update. you can access and back up the previous version by restoring, the previous version from the context menu of the desktop shortcut: image.
  3. You may need to reapply changes after an update (automatic on application run that need not, but may overwrite your local settings, but will keep a backup (look for ".pre" files in a subdirectory of the data directory  (= directory with the langlabmailer.exe.config and without the many other (MANIFEST, DLL) files). 
  4. Next: uninstalling. Or up Langlabemailer (table of contents)
Categories: assessments, assignments, audience-is-language-learning-center-manager, compiledcode, digital-audio-lab, documentation, e-infrastructure Tags: ,

“Clickonce” to download Langlabemailer (BETA)

2013/04/26 Leave a comment

After receiving the response to your request for a download link, click the link in the response to go the download page, and on that page click the button: “Install”.langlabemailer-clickonce

Next:Install. Or Langlabemailer (table of contents).

Categories: assessments, assignments, audience-is-language-learning-center-manager, compiledcode, digital-audio-lab, e-languages, service-is-programming Tags: , ,

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

2013/03/12 Leave a comment
  1. 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:
  2. Technical implementation:
    1. 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 image, to let each student listen to her recording (linearly, without control), and
        6. press button:free image, 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.
    2. 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
Categories: Arabic, assessments, audience-is-teachers, digital-audio-lab, e-languages, English, Farsi, French, German, Greek (modern), Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, multimedia-recording, Polish, Portuguese, Presenter-Computer, Russian, service-is-assessing, Spanish, Speaking, step-by-step-guides, Student-Computers, Swahili, Yoruba Tags: ,

How teachers can conduct a 1-on-1 student oral assessment in their office using Sanako Lite Recorder

2013/01/22 Leave a comment
  1. If you need to conduct an OPI or other one-on-one oral exam instead of class-size oral exams we offer in the LRC,
    1. we have conducted 1-on-1 speaking assessments using the Sanako headsets and Student Recorder in the LRC.
    2. However, since this setting does not offer much privacy (and also because it blocks  the LRC classroom ), we would recommend conducting such exams in faculty offices. For this scenario, teachers can use:
      1. one of the headsets that can now be checked out by faculty, and in working condition,
      2. the Sanako LITE or standalone recorder – which could not be rolled out by IT on all teacher computers, but I programmed a workaround installer – and is friendlier (for recording and listening/grading) than Audacity. Sanako recently provided a useful guide for one-on-one examinations with the Study Lite recorder here (you do not need a desktop microphone like shown here, it is sufficient to position the headphone appropriately on the desk instead).
Categories: announcements, Arabic, assessments, audience-is-teachers, English, Farsi, French, German, Greek (modern), Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Listening, Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian, service-is-applying-learning-tools, Spanish, Speaking Tags: ,

How to create a visual cue exam file using Insert Photo album in PowerPoint

2012/12/18 Leave a comment

Once you have found (e.g. with a Google advanced image search) your desired images and saved them in a folder, open PowerPoint (e.g. by clicking “start”/ “run”/ typing “powerpnt”, click “OK”) and do this:    powerpoint-photoalbum powerpoint-photoalbum4 powerpoint-photoalbum1 powerpoint-photoalbum2

Result: an easy displayable list of images (you may want to drag&drop the slide thumbnails on the left in to a different sequence if you did not get the sequence right in the  above “PhotoAlbum” dialogue: powerpoint-photoalbum5

Categories: assessments, service-is-learning-materials-creation Tags:

How to retrieve students’ recordings under student login name if you saved under position or computer name in Sanako Study 1200

2012/10/30 Leave a comment
  1. Why? Most (though not all) times you will find it easier to manage student files if their names contain the student login names
  2. How?
    1. Change the classroom layout naming scheme from menu:”Tools”/ “Admin”/ “Change student names to” / “Student login name” image and
    2. collect or repeat a prior collection of the student recorder buffer by using the activity pane: files icon image(this requires that you have not yet used activity pane:button:”clear session”).
Categories: assessments, audience-is-teachers, digital-audio-lab Tags: ,

How to conduct a Sanako Study 1200 functionality test before oral exams

2012/10/30 Leave a comment
  1. Why? Before high-stakes oral assessments, it is best practice to test the functionality of all computers in the digital audio lab.
  2. How?
    1. Log into 2 computers with your own account (these will serve as a backup computers. Should you need backup computers later, there will be no delay waiting for them to start up and become operational).
    2. Change Sanako classroom layout names to computer or position name (whatever makes it easier for you to identify any non-functioning machines).
    3. If you are doing this for a first time with a class, load your test exam audio into Audacity and display the voice graph to students on a projector. This way you make sure that students  understand from the voice graph that they are supposed to
      1. hear an instruction over the headphones and
      2. respond to the instruction by saying their names into their microphones.
    4. Perform a name-test recording using Sanako activity:”Model imitation”and examine the results:
      1. Make sure the Sanako collection folder opens – meaning all student recordings could be collected. If not, identify the offending positions from the Sanako collection dialogue and open the folder with the remaining collected recordings manually from the Sanako collection dialogue
      2. Drag the recorded files into an empty Audacity window and examine the collected recordings visually, plus, where in doubt, aurally, by clicking “solo” and play on the track in question.
    5. React accordingly:
      1. If some positions show problems, move students to one of the backup machines that you logged into earlier.
      2. move backup machines not needed to a different session by right-clicking on their classroom layout icon.
      3. if more than one backup machine is indeed needed, Sanako – since it is you who are logged in on both – will ask you later for permission to number collected files for duplicate students sequentially. Allow that and rename the files manually.
    6. Don’t forget to change Sanako classroom layout names back to student login name. image. Or else here is how you can later recover student recordings by student login names.
Categories: assessments, audience-is-teachers, digital-audio-lab, headphones, Presenter-Computer, Student-Computers Tags: , ,