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Screencasts for Fall 2011 Workshop: Computer classroom management in the LRC using Sanako Study 1200
2011/12/08
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- The workshop stayed “this side of the digital audio lab”, i.e. focused on those generic teaching tasks that the Sanako Study 1200 can facilitate which have the widest teaching application (including in, but also beyond language-skill-courses):
- remote controlling student computers,
- screen sharing, collaborating with students,
- launching applications on students computers,
- sending students to webpages,
- launching handout files to students and collecting their input back
- locking their computers, screens or keyboards,
- “clicker” classroom polls, for which I have written a PowerPoint Template you can base your own clicker-like face-to-face class exercises on.
- and more…
- Here are two screencasts of my presentation:
- one for the right screen/participant screen (using the Study1200 teacher to student screen casting). Requires Windows Media Player on PC, like in the LRC: download from MS-SkyDrive.
- one for the left screen/projector, where I displayed mostly a PowerPoint. You can watch this in parallel using another player, e.g. the VLC player, like in the LRC. However, it can also stream from MS-SkyDrive.
A PowerPoint Template to base your clicker-like face-to-face class exercises on
2011/12/08
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- Enables easy exercise creation:
- Resides on S:\coas\lcs\labs\lrctest\templates\Teacher.pot;
- Requires MS-PowerPoint 2010, as installed on the teacher computer in LRCRoomCoed434.
- Training videos are available for download here (requires Windows Media Player on Windows, as installed in the LRCRoomCoed434).
- powerpoint_template_overview_default_slide.wmv
- powerpoint_template_sequential_slides.wmv
- powerpoint_template_interactive_slides.wmv
- Usage samples available on request from
- German Beginners,
- Intermediate
- and Advanced Classes.
How to do model imitation recording exercises to improve language learner pronunciation in the LRC and beyond
2011/11/22
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- Sometimes teachers ask about support for voice recognition in the LRC. The term voice recognition or speech recognition (the former appears to be analogous to face recognition in authentication and other security contexts?) is usually reserved for software that can transcribe your voice into text – still no free option for this, AFAIK. Dragon naturally speaking is the oft recommended market leader outside of education (and within, Auralog Tell me more, see below). Update summer 2012: We are working on enabling the Speech recognition built into Windows 7 Enterprise for English, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), French, Spanish, German, and Japanese.
- Often times, what is actually desired is a digital audio recorder with voice graph, ideally a dual track recorder.
- In the LRC student computers, we have for exactly this purpose a digital audio recorder as part of the SANAKO Study 1200language learning system
- It features a dual track recorder (allows to listen to teacher track which can be a prerecorded model to imitate on the left channel while recording the student track on the right channel of a stereo track) with a voice graph:
. See this dual-track-voice-graph screencast demo from the vendor and also our student cheat sheet from the vendor documentation. - The Sanako is available in the LRC, as well as in many other educational institutions around the world, but neither free nor web-based (although a web-based version seems to be in the works). It currently requires MS-Windows to run.
- It features a dual track recorder (allows to listen to teacher track which can be a prerecorded model to imitate on the left channel while recording the student track on the right channel of a stereo track) with a voice graph:
- A popular and free audio editor (but not an SLA – specific application, let alone geared towards model imitation; also, for all practical ends and purposes, requires an extra download and installations of an MP3 encoder to be able to save recordings as compressed MP3) is Audacity. To use for model imitation exercises,
- the student can open a model track (mp3 recommended)
- and manage within the program the imitation portion, using the voice graph:
- then export back out as mp3,
- either her responses individually (see my demo screencast, requires Windows Media Player on Windows, which actually shows a question/response rather than a model imitation, but same principle),
- or, by deleting the model track, the response parts mixed down to one track,
- or also, if, like in my demo screencast, the timeline sequence of model (with pauses) and responses is carefully managed (so that model and imitation do not overlap), mixed down to one track.
- In one language program, I have worked extensively with Auralog Tell me more
- which was (not exclusively, but arguably too much) based on this pedagogic concept of having students compare the voice graph of their imitation with the model voice graph (while it do did not allow for teachers to upload their own content, and was certainly not free).
- To my knowledge, Auralog Tell me more does not allow for adding teacher-produced content as models.
- I did like the self-reflective and repetitive practice element. However, I found that students – apart from intonation and (not useful for not pitch based languages) pitch -, did not benefit as much as one might have expected from viewing the voice graph, indeed tended to get overwhelmed, even confused by the raw voice information in such a voice graph.
- And automated scoring of pronunciation (or speech recognition” – not free form, but on a level that has been commoditized in operating systems like Windows 7, the level of voice-directed selection between a limited set of different options, like menu options, and in the case of Auralog, choosing between different response options) seemed iffy and less than transparent in Auralog Tell me more, even though this is their primary selling point. E.g. when I made deliberate gross mistakes, the program seemed to change its standards and wave me through ( English pronunciation example; also observed by me when testing Auralog with East Asian speakers of English).
- which was (not exclusively, but arguably too much) based on this pedagogic concept of having students compare the voice graph of their imitation with the model voice graph (while it do did not allow for teachers to upload their own content, and was certainly not free).
- In the LRC student computers, we have for exactly this purpose a digital audio recorder as part of the SANAKO Study 1200language learning system
- A voice graph is not the same as a more abstract phonetic transcription (although I do not know whether language learners can be trained in phonetic symbol sets like the IPA). There are now experimental programs that can automate the transcription of text into phonetic symbol sets for e.g. Portuguese or Spanish. Maybe you will find that practice with recording and a phonetic transcription of the recorded text is more useful for your students’ pronunciation practice than a fancy voice graph.
How students access language learning materials on the Library ereserves system
2011/11/11
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- Note the important update in red below.
- This has been tested at post date with Firefox. ereserves seems to be not compatible with Internet Explorer 8: i
- On the Library home page, from the top menu: “Research & Course Help”, choose menu item: “Course Reserves” (or, if this menu changes again, I have a hunch that deeplinking may be more stable: http://library.uncc.edu/caos/coursereserve, what’s in a URL…),
- sign in with your Ninernet ID,
- enter search term
- select from the dropdown “search by name”, an enter part of your course name in the textbox,
- or click on tab:”Course Reserves Pages by Instructor”, and from the dropdown, select your instructor,
- click search,
- then select your course from the results grid.
- Enter the password, which has been given to your by your instructor.
- In the results grid, click on the desired chapter and tracks. Note: You need to disable your web browser”s “popup blocker”.
- In the popup window, click on link: “More information”,
- when offered, , like in this screenshot:
- you cannot save the file, or rather: only a text file with links to the audio which you cannot play, like rtsp://dlib4.uncc.edu:554/e_reserves/CD1bonneforme12-16.rm). That is by design.
- Instead of trying to save, select to “open” the file. You need have a streaming audio playing software installed, like Real Player or the open source VLC-Player.
- instead of VLC, as offered by default, like so :
- choose “Open with”, “Other”, pick “RealPlayer” from the list, like so:
- Here is a more on what does not work with ereserves. The only combination I could get to work with eReserves streaming audio is – see resulting screencast (requires Windows Media Player) of streaming a long file successfully – is RealPlayer 14, Firefox 3.6 on Windows XP3, and that only after resetting the Winsock catalog which I can do for the entire LRC only nownext time the lab is reimaged. For now, use instead audio from Moodle metacourses where possible.
How to use the online Portuguese pronunciation help to generate phonetic alphabet transcriptions and text-to-speech
2011/10/20
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- Go to http://www.co.it.pt/~labfala/g2p/
- Write or paste your text into the textbox:“Grafemas”
- Choose your preferred phonetic alphabet (IPA, SAMPA) and other options.
- Press button: “Converter” to see results.
- Press button: “Sintetizar” to hear results.
- Like so:
- Or click here to view a demo (requires Windows Media Player) with audio (download requires Windows Media Player). Our example was:
- Input: Tudo bem? É o jeitinho brasileiro. Oí, árbitro! Cadê o penalty? Não, não posso faze-lo.
- Output: tˈudu bɐ̃ĩ ˈɛ u ʒɐitˈiɲu bɾɐzilˈɐiɾu oˈi ˈaɾbitɾu kɐdˈe u pˈenalti nˈɐ̃ũ nˈɐ̃ũ pˈɔsu fˈazɘlu
LRC Assistant Start of Year Training: The Screencast
2011/10/19
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Click here to view a sample LRC assistant training presentation.
Our Office 2010 natural language features upgrade: A running log
2011/09/15
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- Just logging some notes, observations, issues, step-by-step instructions… – other than non-natural-language, most collaboration features, which are being logged here.
- Office 2010 proofing tools (proofing-tools2010-install.wmv),:
- again, we select custom install, “run all from Computers”
- install is extensive, but uneventful
- Office 2010 proofing tools (proofing-tools2010-first-run-German-set-language.wmv), first run:
- German is not autodetected. You have to set the language of the selected text manually, and first find the button on the ribbon:reviewing
- While choosing the language, you can see from the checkmark which languages now have proofing tools installed
- Foreign Language Support
- One of the strongest benefits of upgrading to MS-Office 2010 in the language center is the improved foreign language support licensing for so called “Language Packs”, and that we have a complete set of licenses to the MS-Proofing Tools.
- In addition MS-Office supports free download of so called “Language interface packs” which seem essentially downscaled language packs for LCTL (usually come only with (see feature list) a spell checker and help in the language). Compare: “If a language is available in a language pack or as a fully localized version, it is not available as a language interface pack”.
- Unfortunately multi-user (= learner of different language) support is not the primary usage scenario of these tools. It is, however, possible, to set the language to a default (e.g. Spanish, Arabic or Chinese, depending on your environment). Switching to another language is relatively easy for a user
- changing the screen-tip language: http://skydrive.live.com/embedicon.aspx/screencasts/office-2010-switch-screentip-language.wmv?cid=4fa3329905d7e1ce&sc=photos
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