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How to use a drawing tablet and Windows XP writing pad IME to write Japanese and Mandarin characters with autosuggest

2012/02/04 2 comments
  1. Our small group work spaces each now have a Wacom Bamboo drawing tablet installed.
  2. You can use these tablets in conjunction with the Windows XP writing pad IME to input Mandarin/Kanji character strokes and receive autosuggest options you can pick you character from which make not only writing faster, but also reward you for remembering your characters, expose you to more and help you identify the correct one from a list of options.
  3. Here is what the Windows XP writing pad IME and Wacom tablet looks like in action: (behind the pen: our Japanese tutor).
  4. Here is how to access Windows XP Japanese IME keyboard and handwriting:
    1. Open the application you want to write in, e.g. MS Word (the language input option is specific to the current window and defaults to”English-US international”  in the LRC if you open a new window).
    2. In the taskbar, in the language toolbar section, select Japanese or Chinese or Korean.
    3. If only the language identifier is showing in the language toolbar, right-click on it and choose “Show additional icons”
    4. Select as input method for the chosen language from icon “Options” or “Tools”” , the “IME pad” / “Handwriting”
    5. Prerequisites
        1. you need to have the handwriting IME installed for Japanese or  Chinese or Korean in Control Panel / Regional and Language Options / Text Input, and East Asian language support).
        2. For simplified Chinese, the IME Pad may not be checked to be displayed by default. Access the Tools icon menu to check it.
        3. For both simplified and traditional Chinese, if checked, the IME Pad becomes a separate top-level ion in the language bar.
        4. Some screenshots may help:

      korean-ime-pad-enable  chinese-simplified-ime-pad-enablechinese-simplified-ime-pad chinese-traditional-ime-pad

Categories: Advanced, audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, e-languages, Intermediate, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Near-Native, Videos, Writing Tags: , , , , ,

How to make a tally on student staff performance

2012/01/30 Leave a comment
  1. We have a “Do’s and Don’ts” checklist for student workersas a Word web app
    1. easy to view/print for student staff,
    2. easy to update/print (and stash the work places with) for permanent staff – where each item has their point value.
  2. We have a tally of points earned (sorry, permanent staff only)  by temp staff member with date+time and explanation in Excel Web app which can be easily updated with observations by permanent staff when walking the LRC floor
Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-staff, audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff, Metrics, service-is-hr-managing, Spreadsheets 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 to record your speech with Audacity

2012/01/11 Leave a comment
    1. For a cut-and-dry recording session, the LRC has a simple instruction on
      1. Recording_an_MP3_Audio_File_Using_Audacity_in_the_LRC here.
      2. Uploading an mp3 recording into a Moodle Forum here.
    2. For more advanced editing with Audacity, I have a detailed screencast here.
Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-staff, audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff, audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, documentation, e-languages, lms, Screencasts, Screenshots, service-is-learning-materials-creation, software Tags: , , ,

Protected: LRC Outlook/Exchange Resource mailboxes update for Winter 2012

2012/01/05 Enter your password to view comments.

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Categories: audience-is-IT-staff, e-infrastructure, Institution-is-University-of-North-Carolina-Charlotte, Metrics, Spreadsheets Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

How we improve LRC assistants’ and tutors’ visibility using name tags

2012/01/05 Leave a comment
  1. We posted name tag holders on lanyards at the bulletin board behind the reception desk.
  2. When you come in, take one, insert your student id card, and wear it during your shift.
  3. At the end of your shift, do not forget to return the name tag holders to the bulletin board for the next LRC assistant/tutor.
  4. CIMG0008
Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff, Photos, Reception-desk, service-is-hr-managing Tags:

Calendaring: How to view all your Moodle course assignments in Ninermail, OWA or MS-Outlook – Shortest

2012/01/05 3 comments

Start in Moodle here, then do steps –1 to 2. Open NINERMAIL, continue with steps 1 to 8:

moodle-calendar-OWA-subscribing renaming-all-in-1

Want a longer step-by-step?

 

Categories: audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, documentation, lms, Screenshots, step-by-step-guides Tags: , , , ,

Sharing and reusing Moodle learning content using backup and restore, part III: Shared intermediate courses

2012/01/03 1 comment
  1. You can facilitate the sharing process if you link source and destination Moodle courses via a Moodle course that is itself shared between the teachers (= all teachers can backup from or restore/import into this shared course), but not to students.
  2. By backing up to and restoring from such a shared Moodle course, you can more easily inspect the shared course content than
    1. if you’d import into the destination course to inspect,
    2. or either inspect the unzipped XML of the Moodle course backed-up content format, like here:
      1. moodle-backup-xml-in-excel
      2. which can be a daunting perspective on your content:
      3. moodle-backup-xml-in-excel1
      4. A little more instructive are the Moodle course export file columns in a handy list, with sample content (where available in our case – sample content does not represent an actual “row”, but merges multiple “rows”, using Excel’s “Paste Special’/ “Skip blanks”):
      5. As you can see, there are fewer than 254 column (meaning you can even load this into Excel <2007), and apparently you get to actual teaching content already on nesting level 3.
Categories: audience-is-teachers, documentation, e-infrastructure, lms, service-is-learning-materials-creation, Spreadsheets Tags: