digital-audio-lab | Thomas' Work Space

How speech recognition speaking practice integrates with LRC activities for oral practice, assessment and ePortfolio

2014/09/12 plagwitz Leave a comment

My use of Windows7 Automated Speech recognition in 7 languages integrates with
other LRC activities for oral practice, assessment and ePortfolio.
1. A lower-key and more frequent homework assignment
2. than our Kaltura student presentation webcam recordings NRBFS (using a URL shortener, as in http://goo.gl/NRBFS),
3. and with better feedback than our voice-insert recordings with Sanako mV1DR,
these homework assignments prepare for in-class assessments
1. chapter tests with textbook audio recordings z2KYtk,
2. screencast recordings of student presentations Cmd3gQ, pair conversations l6H12, and question-response midterm/final exams ZL7DG using Sanako digital audio lab.
All except Kaltura (incompatible with Mahara) also produce language learner ePortfolio pieces.

Categories: assessments, assignments, audience-is-teachers, digital-audio-lab, e-languages, Speaking, table-of-contents Tags: 7, kaltura, ms-community-clips, ms-powerpoint, ms-windows, mylanguagelab, sanako-study-1200

Request to download the digital audio lab classroom audio configuration on the fly, program and source for Windows XP

2014/08/22 plagwitz Leave a comment

UPDATE: A Windows7 (and Vista) version is in the works, check back for a new post here.

Name

Occupation

Institution

How do you plan to use this software?

Questions or comments?

sanakoaudioconfigonthefly(=THE SOFTWARE) - even though it has been extensively both tested (strongly suggested you do the same first) and run in production by THE AUTHOR - is provided "AS IS" and "WITH ALL FAULTS," without warranty of any kind, including without limitation the warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. Although THE AUTHOR has attempted to find and correct any bugs in THE SOFTWARE programs, THE AUTHOR makes no warranty that THE SOFTWARE is free of defects or is suitable for any particular purpose. In no event shall THE AUTHOR be responsible for loss or damages arising from the installation or use of THE SOFTWARE, including but not limited to any indirect, punitive, special, incidental or consequential damages of any character including, without limitation, damages for loss of goodwill, work stoppage, computer failure or malfunction, or any and all other commercial damages or losses. The entire risk as to the quality and performance of THE SOFTWARE is borne by you. Should THE SOFTWARE prove defective, you and not THE AUTHOR assume the entire cost of any service and repair. THE AUTHOR is under no obligation to provide support, service, corrections, or upgrades to THE SOFTWARE programs. For more information, please send an email to THE AUTHOR (trpsoft@outlook.com).

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Back to description of reset of classroom audio configuration on the fly program

Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-manager, compiledcode, digital-audio-lab, e-infrastructure, forms, service-is-programming, sourcecode Tags: audio, autoit, ms-windows, sanako-study-1200, sanakoaudioconfigonthefly, xp

Interpreting against audio files sources with live feedback in Sanako Study 1200

2014/04/25 plagwitz Leave a comment

How will we be recording
1. Individual recording
  1. Voice insert: student control how much time they have interpreting
    1. students can stop the source where they want, they can rewind and review the source, they can overwrite their initial interpretation, they can interpret at the speed they want.
    2. We could insert cues at sentence ends in the source; and also (but little need,) slow the source down or insert pauses
  2. Student track
    1. students have to follow along at the speed of the source can stop the source where they want, they can rewind and review the source; they can with some difficulty overwrite their initial interpretation/
    2. More difficult: We likely should slow the source down or insert pauses
2. Model imitation: like an exam,
  1. students all speak in parallel, without individual control
  2. Most difficult: We most likely need to slow the source audio down, including inserting pauses as "breathers")
What audio track will we be collecting?
1. If student saves manually, student can save either or both tracks , but need to be taught.
2. If model imitation, we collect only student recording.
3. If lock player/collect buffer, we collect both source and student track
4. Listener can focus on one track by controlling the balance during playback: https://thomasplagwitz.com/2014/03/31/how-to-manage-balance-on-stereo-audio-using-audacity-sanako-student-recorder-or-any-audio-player-on-windows/
5. Listener can also split the audio tracks (= delete the source track),
  1. more easily (file / save as) in the sanako recorder
  2. More
Teacher listening in
1. Is always possible,
  1. just click the student icon in the classroom layout
  2. or use screen control / autoscan: the audio switches with the screen, this has a bit of overhead, and our computers are network are not the fastest, but we made some changes to optimize speed; best reserved for when you also need to see the student’s screen.
Teacher speaking: Teacher providing on-the-fly feedback via "Discuss":
1. Playlist Launch and open (goo.gl/2awRG/): then you can stop each individual student (students do not work in sync, remote-controlled) .
2. Model imitation (goo.gl/ZL7DG/) : then you cannot talk to one (all students record in sync).
3. Teacher providing non-live feedback :
  1. Teacher can provide aural feedback later when grading the student submissions from your office pc:
    1. How a teacher can use Sanako voice insert to easily add spoken comments to students’ Sanako oral proficiency exams- step–by step
    2. We recorded here how it is being done for Business Spanish: Protected: How a teacher can give students aural feedback on oral exams using the Sanako Study 1200 Lite Recorder
    3. For that voice-insert, you need to install the Sanako Recorder on your office PC.

Categories: audience-is-teachers, digital-audio-lab, Interpreting, Speaking Tags: sanako-study-1200

Slowing source audio for interpreting classes in the digital audio lab

2014/04/25 plagwitz Leave a comment

To judge from listening to Simult. Lesson 1, text 2 on Acebo Interpreter’s Edge (ISBN 1880594323), I am wondering whether some of our students (= personalization) would need this audio to be simplified, to gain the benefit of a well-adjusted i+1? I can pre-process the audio :
1. Where the flatlines = natural pauses are in above graph, insert a audio signal as where students can press voice insert recording, Example:
2. We can also insert a pause and a cue at the beginning and end to set students a limit how long they can interpret, but if students operate the player manually, there is no teacher control and no exam condition, and the students having to manage the technology tends to distract from the language practice.
3. Slow down the audio without changing the pitch (just have to make sure not to overdo it, else will sound like drunken speech – my time stretching software would be able to avoid “drunken speech” syndrome, but I have not been able to work on it since briefly for IALLT in Summer 2011 for 3 years now…)
4. We can use this adjusted with the Sanako grouping feature to personalize instruction (find the right i+1 for each of your student, useful if there are considerable variations in their proficiency): How to group students into sessions (in 3 different ways) goo.gl/JgXUP/.

Categories: audience-is-teachers, digital-audio-lab, Interpreting, Listening, service-is-learning-materials-creation, Speaking Tags: audacity, differentiated-instruction, sanako-study-1200, timestretching

Our tutorplayer installation which comes with Sanako study 1200 tutor on the teacher computer is broken

2014/04/04 plagwitz Leave a comment

What’s with the non-existent path hard-coded here? Missing path delimiter? But that is not enoguh to fix the path: There is a student.settings in C:\ProgramData\Sanako\Study\Student\Tutor.Settings – not sure why tutorplayer is not accessing this file.
Which is double annoying since I just had to enable MFF as default recording save format for some teachers that need dual track support which is buggy with MP3.

Categories: audience-is-vendors, digital-audio-lab, e-languages, Glitches&Errors, service-is-documenting, service-is-testing-troubleshooting-debugging Tags: sanako-study-1200, tutorplayer.exe

Manage some of your teacher computer settings per logged in user

2014/04/03 plagwitz Leave a comment

Another day, another hack, and inconsequential, unless of course you are in my situation:
If you need a simple way to change some of your Sanako settings per logged in user
but cannot use the logged-in user system built into Sanako Study 1200:

$path = "C:\ProgramData\Sanako\Study\Tutor\"


If (@UserName = "PRTOTECTTHEINNOCENT") Then	

; change the sanako default save to dual track supporting mff

	; prereq: customized settings files in the folder ready to rename 

	FileCopy($path & "mffTutor.Settings", $path & "Tutor.Settings", 1)

ElseIf (@UserName = "tplagwit") Then 

; change the sanako default save to dual track supporting wma, for testing

	FileCopy($path & "wmaTutor.Settings", $path & "Tutor.Settings", 1)

Else 

; keep the default mp3, but we may have to reset the tutorsettings on this unfrozen computer

	FileCopy($path & "mp3Tutor.Settings", $path & "Tutor.Settings", 1)

EndIf

; tutor.exe could be hardcoded to (re)load here

If ProcessExists("Tutor.exe") Then

	; determine: we could kill tutor to reload it, but that could be disruptive of a class

Else

	Run("C:\Program Files (x86)\SANAKO\Study\Tutor\Tutor.exe")

EndIf

Exit