service-is-any | Thomas' Work Space

Protected: A sample Sanako oral exam recording

2013/01/10 plagwitz Enter your password to view comments.

Categories: audience-is-teachers, Audiofiles, digital-audio-lab, documentation, learning-materials, learning-usage-samples, Listening, multimedia-recording, service-is-learning-materials-creation, Speaking Tags: sanako-study-1200

How teachers prepare files for oral exam with Sanako Study 1200

2012/12/18 plagwitz Leave a comment

For an oral exam with visual cues (example), make a PowerPoint slideshow by
1. finding images, e.g. online
  1. (e.g using Google image search,
    1. and optionally advanced search,
      1. and optionally filtering by clip art.
2. saving found images to a local folder (e.g. “my documents”),
3. using them with PowerPoint’s PhotoAlbum feature
4. saving the result as [your username]_[your class####]_oral-exam##.pptx.
For an oral exam with aural cues,
1. if you do not have the Sanako student recorder installed on your PC yet,
  1. Follow the instructions here to install it for use in your office (or even at home – make sure you have access to the network share with the recordings if you want give aural feedback with insert recording)
  2. or come to the LRC to record where the Sanako is set up be default;
2. fill out our oral exam MS-Word template (sample question included) from here (use the lower right menu download button).
3. Start the Sanako student recorder (in the LRC or on your own computer – if in need, you can borrow one of headsets in this this list),
  1. press the red record-button in the center right, as shown here and
  2. read out the MS-word template, row by row, that you just filled out.
  3. Once done, press the blue stop button.
  4. Go to Menu: file / save as/ [your username]_[your class####]_oral-exam##.mp3.
Normally (it is still being worked on),
1. you could save all files in a special Sanako folder visible on the desktop of your office PC,
2. from which I, as soon as you let me know about the files, can pick them up in my office to finalize them for delivery in the LRC and
3. from which you can pick up the final version in the classroom to when administering the exam in the Sanako lab.
Questions remain? Come to the LRC reception desk during regular business hours with this blog post to be walked through this step-by-step.

Categories: e-languages, Institution-is-University-of-North-Carolina-Charlotte, service-is-assessing, service-is-learning-materials-creation, step-by-step-guides Tags: ms-powerpoint, MS-Word, sanako-study-1200

How to create a visual cue exam file using Insert Photo album in PowerPoint

2012/12/18 plagwitz Leave a comment

Once you have found (e.g. with a Google advanced image search) your desired images and saved them in a folder, open PowerPoint (e.g. by clicking “start”/ “run”/ typing “powerpnt”, click “OK”) and do this:

Result: an easy displayable list of images (you may want to drag&drop the slide thumbnails on the left in to a different sequence if you did not get the sequence right in the above “PhotoAlbum” dialogue:

Categories: assessments, service-is-learning-materials-creation Tags: ms-powerpoint

How to find clip art for learning material creation with Google’s Advanced Image Search

2012/12/18 plagwitz Leave a comment

Once you made it to http://images.google.com, click on the “options” button in the upper right and choose “Advanced search”:

One of the useful options for learning material creation is restricting search to “clip art”, like in the screenshot below:

The results in many cases are more different – and useful – than in this example:

So give it a try, and also let us know in the comments what other advanced image search options you like to use in your learning material creation.

Categories: Pictures, service-is-documenting, service-is-learning-materials-creation, websites Tags: google, pictures

Does the Sanako Study 1200 tutor set the input language to Chinese (traditional)?

2012/12/12 plagwitz Leave a comment

Or why is my input language set to Chinese after the Sanako tutor install:
Unclear whether the tutor install has an effect on the default language, but we observed this problem earlier on an XP computer that also had the Sanako study 1200 tutor.

Categories: e-infrastructure, Glitches&Errors, service-is-testing-troubleshooting-debugging Tags: input-language, ms-windows, sanako-study-1200

How to redirect Windows Live Writer “My Weblog Posts” to SkyDrive using Symbolic Links

2012/12/12 plagwitz Leave a comment

UPDATE: Using Junctions and Symbolic Links has limitations, e.g. I have not found a way to point a network share location of to my Skydrive folder. A solution using a secret windows live writer supported key in the registry is explained here seems simpler and better (assuming support for this key will not vanish in a new release of windows live writer).
Benefits:
1. Recently, the documentation and training materials I do with windows Live Writer have become somewhat more evolved, and my Live writer posts both big and live documents.
2. With this method, I can access and edit your posts and drafts from different computers. Possibly also save drive space on the drive where the “My weblog Posts”points to be default.
Prerequisites:
1. MS-SkyDrive account and app.
2. Here we are using the Link Shell Extension, but you can use the mklink command built-into Windows.
3. To create Symlinks, you need to have admin rights.
Steps:
1. After closing Live Writer, go to “My Weblog Posts” in your “My Documents” folder, move it to your SkyDrive folder.
2. In the new location, right-click on the folder “My Weblog Posts”, choose “Pick link source”.
4. Right-click on the “My documents”folder in the original location and choose Drop link / Symbolic Link.
5. The original location is now only a link (see folder icon), but Live Writer still opens.
6. Final step: Blog this from Live Writer, then check the location of your weblog post.