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How to workaround SkyDrive embed codes not working WordPress.com

2013/06/07 3 comments
  1. Problem: I cannot seem to get the new embed code that SkyDrive offers now to work on wordpress.com.
    1. Example:https://skydrive.live.com/embed?cid=4FA3329905D7E1CE&resid=4FA3329905D7E1CE%2162359&authkey=AHmbh-apEmizw-8
  2. Cause: No idea. Guess somebody did not get the memo? Hope it is not me. Smile
  3. Workaround: 
    1. Old skydrive embed code still works in wordpress (E.g. https://thomasplagwitz.com/tag/lists+resources/), but is a completely different syntax than what skydrive offers for embedding now (insert office code into [] to try it out): 
      1. office width="750" height="1300" src="http://r.office.microsoft.com/r/rlidExcelEmbed?su=10634757809471938&Fi=SD25C841818181C2!126&kip=1&AllowTyping=True&Item=Table2&wdHideGridlines=True&wdDownloadButton=True"
    2. However, you can still convert the current embed into the old one:
    3. by inserting the new parameter values into the old ones:
      1. "cid" becomes "su" and
      2. "resid" becomes "Fi" .
    4. This example  successfully embeds into a WordPress.com code now. (insert office code into [] to try it out):
      1. office width="750" height="1300" src="http://r.office.microsoft.com/r/rlidExcelEmbed?su=4FA3329905D7E1CE&Fi=4FA3329905D7E1CE%2162359&kip=1&AllowTyping=True&Item=Table2&wdHideGridlines=True&wdDownloadButton=True"
  4. No we seem to have been here before, so we shall see how long this workaround lasts.
Categories: blog, Glitches&Errors, service-is-documenting, service-is-testing-troubleshooting-debugging Tags: ,

How to provide students with blended human/computer-automated feedback on their speaking using a dictation with speech recognition assignment screencast

2013/05/08 Leave a comment
  1. Teachers often feel there is never enough time for grading students’  speaking proficiency. Fortunately, we can now automate feedback on pronunciation using Windows 7 dictation with speech recognition.
  2. This feature will be  available for 7 languages on Windows 7 in the LRC, here is a demo for a reading exercise dictating German.
  3. An assignment step-by-step could look like this: Students
    1. record a screencast of their dictation,
    2. read a text to the computer in MS-Word,
    3. turn track changes on in MS-Word and correct the text (immediately or after dictation) where the computer could not recognize their speech,
    4. upload their screencast to Kaltura in Moodle.
    5. To grade the performance, the teacher has to review only at the very end of the screencast to see how many corrections the student needed to make (when it doubtabout the speech recognition validiiy, the teacher can easily jump to the screencast segment in question and, if necessary, override the speech recognition).
  4. This could be a regular assignment type since it provides the following benefits:
    1. immediate automated intelligent feedback for the student
    2. little grading overhead for the teacher, so that the teacher can concentrate her work on providing aural feedback on student recorded speech as a highlight maybe twice per term, maybe after mock exams  before a midterm and final exam
    3. some multimedia pieces demonstrating language proficiency for the student’s ePortfolio.
  5. Requirements:
    1. a quality headset (we use Sanako SLH-07Sanako SLH-07 USB)
    2. Windows 7  Enterprise/Ultimate with Language Packs,
    3. knowing how to switch the display language, (optional/recommended:) TBA:a simplified language switching facility,
    4. individual voice training data: speech recognition users have to train the computer  – once, even in a deepfrozen computer enviroinment,  since we enabled you to save this data to and restore it from a flash drive or personal network share space,
    5. a reading text (often authentic texts can be taken straight from the textbook, to fit in with the syllabus, like in this example from Treffpunkt-Deutsch 1st-year German),
    6. MS-Word with track changes
    7. screencast software (we use MS community clips)
    8. a way to submit the results to the teacher (we use Moodle with Kaltura video uploading (example for teachers, students do it similarly), but email could be sufficient depending on screencast length and attachment size allowance).
Categories: assignments, audience-is-teachers, eportfolio, multimedia-recording, Screencasts, Speaking, step-by-step-guides Tags: , , ,

Voyant-tools.org

2013/03/22 Leave a comment

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Neat encounter at the ThatCamp2013 Digital Humanities Unconference at UNCC today. Certainly a simplification over Wordsmith tools. That’s all the reviewing I have time for right now. Smile

Categories: Corpus-linguistics, digital-humanities, Institution-is-University-of-North-Carolina-Charlotte, Translation, websites 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: , , ,

How to batch download all submissions as a zip file from a Moodle: Gradebook File-upload assignment column.

2013/03/01 Leave a comment
  1. I have no file upload assignment with submissions handy in my own Moodle course, so I am patching this together from other universities (thanks, umass.edu, cotc.edu).
  2. “ Another time saver you can use is the Download all assignments as a zip link.  This will package all uploaded documents from any submissions in the assignment into
    a zipped folder that you can download. Once downloaded, you can unzip the file and  access each paper. This can be a real time saver!”. Image:
  4. Extra: This procedure will add the student’s name to the file. No more wading through submitted audio files named by students trying to identify submitters.
Categories: e-learning, grading, lms Tags: , , , , ,

Web-based Greek to Roman characters transliteration using Greeklish

2013/02/28 Leave a comment

image

http://speech.ilsp.gr/greeklish/, 255 characters max. Or 5000 max at http://services.innoetics.com/greeklish/:

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Categories: audience-is-students, Greek (modern), Reading, Speaking, websites, Writing Tags: ,

Keyboarding game and Typing tutor for ESL students unfamiliar with Roman letters keyboards

2013/02/27 Leave a comment
  1. For ESL learners unfamiliar with Roman letters keyboards, the LRC features only a few keyboards with non-Roman character overlays, and otherwise software transliterators integrated into Windows that, while allowing typing in L1 for dictionary lookup and note taking, still require familiarity with the Roman letters keyboards. To help ESL learners getting started, here are a 2 websites I found:
  2. A typing tutor: image
    1. pros: pedagogically sound: English words are given as cues, and an on screen keyboard that can be operated from the hardware keyboard, but gives hints when needed by highlighting the next letter on the keyboard after a waiting period
    2. cons: a bit drab.
  3. An arcade-like keyboarding game (Missile command/Tetris): image
    1. cons:
      1. bit too much sound,
      2. not advertisement free
      3. letters only, not practice of English words
    2. pros:
      1. autostarts and thus can be directly launched for students from the teacher station as a divertissement during slow times in the LRC ,
      2. reasonably entertaining,
      3. Levels that start slow, but adaptive.
Categories: Arabic, Farsi, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Russian, websites, Writing Tags:

Bab.la.com: Arabic–English Online Dictionary

2013/02/27 Leave a comment

Bab.la features:  easy lookup (1,2,3), and for each lemma: grammar information (4), synonyms (5, with lookup (6)), usage samples (7), pronunciation help (8: audio, but not IPA), reverse lookup (9).

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And an example for the reverse lookup: image.

In short, this is a real dictionary, unlike Google Translate, which is amazing in itself, but often misused  by language learners. Unlike Google Translate, Bab.la helps with lookup by Arabic letter, but does not come with a phonetic transliteration to make it usable with a Roman letters keyboard. Fortunately, the LRC features to phonetic transliterators integrated into Windows: MS-Maren and Google Arabic Input.

Categories: Arabic, audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, Dictionaries, English, Speaking, websites, Writing Tags: