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Testing and semi-automatically changing the Sanako student audio configuration

2013/12/09 Leave a comment
  1. Problem
    1. We have had teacher complaints about too much background noise from neighboring students being recorded in our Sanako Study 1200, with SLH-07 headsets.
    2. In addition, upon looking through some recordings as samples for a workshop, I found cases of clipping audio, especially in pair recordings.
    3. We are using the default settings for the Sanako SLH-07 headset. However, the default recording level (67) seems high.
  2. Solution approach
    1. We need to test
      1. many other settings quickly for these recording levels. We use my sanakoaudioconfigonthefly utility for this
      2. in an acoustically realistic environment: 5 Lab assistants  site in tight lab area and read out sample English text during a Sanako reading activity
        1. Reading practice
        2. Todo: Pairing
    2. Here is a “window” into the recorded results set, a student’s audio recording shown in Audacity at various (but all lowered) recording levels from (visible) 30 to 5, you can see the diminishing waveform amplitude. image
    1. The waveform per se is not conclusive. You will have to listen in and compare, especially to evaluate background noise (the original complaint – we have no and will not be able to go back to language lab carrels). The Sanako SLH-07 headset microphones are supposed to be highly directional. However, our students to not always wear the headsets properly. And our acoustics is marred by large (almost 50%) window spaces and a tight positioning of the student seats.
    2. Any test recording is only as good as it can mimic the acoustics during an actual class session which we did as much as we could with only 6 concurrent LRC staff. This means  unfortunately some more testing will have to spill into actual classes, but this test is a start.
Categories: digital-audio-lab, e-languages, headphones, multimedia-recording, service-is-configuring-learning-tools Tags: , , , , ,

How to type phonetic symbols on a computer

2013/11/16 2 comments
  1. Web-based On-screen-keyboards (point-and-click; low learning curve, but no fast typing speed; typing into a textbox from where you can copy/paste the result into other programs):
    1. http://westonruter.github.com/ipa-chart/keyboard/: Sounds are systematically organized. Suitable for learners, but also good for teacher demonstrations. image
    2. Partially based on keyboard shortcuts: http://www.ipatrainer.com/user/site/index.php?pageID=ipawriter: image
      1. http://ipa.typeit.org/full/: Other than the English version, the full version includes non-English sounds. The interface is optimized for fast typing (sorted by keyboard key). Presumably better for teachers using a screen projector as a whiteboard. image
      2. i2speak.com (reviewed here earlier): imageimage
      3. Update: Richard Ishida’s seems also impressive,
        1. image
        2. and you can use phonetics terminology to get characters selected, like so: image
  2. Windows-based:
    1. http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/resource/phonetics/: MS-Windows keyboard layout. May be good for even faster typing, if you can memorize the keyboard layout or add keyboard stickers (we unfortunately have too many languages vying for our hardware keyboard space already). Requires download & installation (may be added to the LRC keyboards during next imaging if we receive enough requests).
    2. http://staff.washington.edu/dmontero/IPACharmap/.
    3. http://sourceforge.net/projects/allchars/: If you are use to the ALT+### method of entering characters and are still on XP, this may be for you: You can generate your own keyboard shortcuts for phonetic characters.
    4. MS-Word:
      1. http://email.eva.mpg.de/~bibiko/downloads/uniqoder/uniqoder.html: Allows to select IPA-Symbols from a toolbar. Untested.
  3. There are also always X-Sampa and CXS and ASCII-IPA: ways of writing IPA in plain ASCII messages  – but yet another thing to teach novices in phonetics may be a bridge too far.
Categories: Arabic, audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, English, Farsi, French, German, Greek (modern), Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, learning-materials, Mandarin, Operating-system, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, service-is-evaluating-learning-tools, Spanish, Speaking, Swahili, websites, Yoruba Tags: ,

Use CTRL+TAB to switch between tabs in Chrome kiosk fullscreen mode

2013/11/15 Leave a comment
  1. On the reception desk, when you open the NINERMAIL after logging into 49erexpress, Chrome opens NINERMAIL in another full screen tab (which hides the 49erexpress tab) – unlike full screen Internet  Explorer, which opened NINERMAIL in a new window, but which we had to abandon with the introduction of offfice365. 
  2. The 49erepxress tab is hidden, but still there, and you can switch between full screen tabs wit hthe keyboard shortcut CTRL+TAB (hold CTRL and pressing TAB repeatedly will cycle through all open Chrome tabs).
  3. So when a client is finished with NINEMAIL (meeting request), have them not only log out of NINERMAIL, but also CTRL+TAB back to the 49erexpress tab to log them out of 49express (and browse from the result window to the Sign-in link to be ready for the next client).
  4. No need to close the NINERMAIL tab. Next time somebody logs in to 49erexpress tab, Chrome will recycle the previous NINERMAIL tab.
Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff, e-infrastructure, Institution-is-University-of-North-Carolina-Charlotte, Reception-desk, service-is-library, service-is-testing-troubleshooting-debugging, web-browsers Tags: , ,

How to compare two MS-Word documents for plagiarism detection

2013/11/14 2 comments
  1. You could start with the document properties
    1. some  students leave even the author and editing time in. However, author does not prove any wrong doing, a student may have borrowed a laptop, including its MS-word installation, to author a document and submit it
    2. It may  actually be more of an indicator of something illicit if document properties are empty.
    3. Students have likely used the “Document inspector”:
      1. (1): File / (2) Info, (3) view the properties (this document looks like it had its privacy information removed), you can use (4) to view even more. image
      2. to remove all privacy relevant information, like so: (5) unfold “check for issues”, (6) “inspect document””,
      3. in the window: “document inspector”, click image, you will be given the option to “remove all”personal information: image
    4. However, removing personal information can be perfectly legitimate, unless something else was assigned. And it does not help plagiarizers cover their tracks anyway, for…
  2. …there is the more substantial “compare” documents feature which (even though it was developed for the legal profession, as blackline) tracks what really counts: content changes.
    1. Access it form the ribbon’s “review” tab: image
    2. point the tool to your 2 documents: image
    3. make your life easier by selecting on the “review” tab to view only content changes  (formatting comparisons is noise for plagiarism detection): image
    4. You get a handy (here blurred, but still demonstrating the amount of similarity (=black), compared with changes (= blue),  between the 2 documents ) overview of (from the left)
      1. list of changes
      2. view of changes in a merged document (which you can save)
      3. original document
      4. secondary (likely plagiarized) document: compare documents-blurred
      5. The feature is nice, but only moderately intelligent (see the first match, I would obviously not count that as substantially different) and best used with discretion, to make it easier for a teacher to decide how likely it is that these similarities are accidental.
      6. In this instance, even if the teacher questions are not counted, it seems obvious that only minor alterations were made to the original document and many responses, including quite lengthy sentences, are entirely the same.
      7. While this *is* an instructional use, you can find happier instructional uses of MS-Word’s reviewing/tracking changes feature here.
Categories: audience-is-teachers, e-learning, office-software, service-is-assessing, Writing Tags: , , , , ,

How to workaround AntWordProfiler error “Cannot open the file”

2013/11/07 Leave a comment
  1. Seems a little bug in this otherwise great program. I started getting this on Windows 7 64-bit with
  2. clip_image003for all files, no matter which size.
  3.   It occurred to me to go to menu: Settings/ global settings / file settings / show full pathnames
  4. Here is what you see: Note the duplicate path to the file.
  5. clip_image001
  6. How did I get there? Seems like you cannot take my usual preferred shortcut and paste the full file path into the browse dialogue.
  7. If I browse to the file and select, the same botched up double path does not appear:
  8. clip_image002
  9. I can then process the file fine. image
Categories: corpora, e-languages, English, Reading, service-is-learning-materials-creation, service-is-testing-troubleshooting-debugging, Vocabulary Tags: ,

How to run a microphone test before taking an ACTFL exam on languagetesting.com

2013/10/28 Leave a comment
  1. To avoid having your test recordings rejected for quality reasons (and having to take the entire test again), please run this simple microphone test OUTSIDE of languagetesting.com: 
    1. This microphone test can be run  either
      1. at the listening stations (see sign 433a, brown headsets) or
      2. (PREFERABLY) in the main classroom (see sign 434, black headsets).
    2. After logging in, put the headphones on. No need to re-plug anything.
    3. From the desktop, open Audacity  image.
    4. In Audacity, Press the red RECORD button image.
    5. Speak into the microphone.
    6. Check the results:
      1. You should see something like this: image
      2. Press the green PLAY button image and listen to your recording.
      3. Does the recording look AND sound OK?
        1. NO: let the LRC staff at the reception desk know the computer number and switch computers.
        2. Yes: Save the recording using menu: File / Export / [name = number of computer].mp3 to your “my documents” folder (if your test gets rejected, you have evidence that you ran the test and that the LRC headset hardware you used was o.k.).
  2. You also need to run the test WITHIN languagetesting.com (which just tests for volume, not for quality).
Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-staff, audience-is-students, checklists, Listening-Stations, service-is-testing-troubleshooting-debugging, Student-Computers Tags: , , ,

How to shoot movies with the Canon Eos Rebel T2i– and “movie recording has been stopped automatically”

2013/10/26 Leave a comment

If the camera stops recording after a short while with the error “movie recording has been stopped automatically”, you most likely have an internal memory buffer overrun (there is a bar chart  visible warning you off that shortly before the camera stops). This may be due to you not using a Class (6) or faster SDHC card. Try first a low level format inside the camera, or get a faster memory card. (Per the manual below, a lowering to standard HD should not help!).

Note also: The camera stops the recording when the file size has reached 4GB (3.99 in Windows – FAT32 limit). It is left as an exercise for the reader when that point in time is. May be related to the fact that this camera is primarily meant for photos, not video. I felt I had to use the lowest HD setting with my untested SD card (the one that buffer overran slightly later with the earlier SD card: 1280*720,  60fps – which produces 1GB/3 minute).

Note finally: camera might stop also due to overheating.

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Categories: audience-is-students, documentation, Film-studies, service-is-learning-materials-creation, service-is-testing-troubleshooting-debugging Tags: , ,

Best way I found to merge WordPress.com tags

2013/10/22 Leave a comment

image

I am talking about merging spurious variant tags into one canonical form. This is a workaround for the fact that you cannot just update when the update could require wordpress.com to merge the article set form the old tag into an existing article set under the new tag. The work around involves accessing  the spurious tags from the admin / tags interface (window on the right); then opening the "posts" for each spurious tag in a new window. In the posts window to the left, do the "quick edit". I tried saving myself some deleting in the left window by, after opening the left window, deleting the tag in the right window; but the old tag has already been preloaded for the Quick edit into the left window . Well, Quick edit makes it pretty painless. Is a global search/replace for wordpress.com conceivable? Warning: Don’t hit "Edit" after deleting  the tag and try to go back – you will have to hunt for your posts manually.

Categories: e-infrastructure, service-is-documenting, websites Tags: , ,