Archive

Archive for the ‘service-is-configuring-learning-tools’ Category

New keyboard shortcuts for diacritics on LRC Teacher PC

2013/01/23 Leave a comment
  1. The US international keyboard layout that has come with MS-Windows for many years (though – except in the LRC – not set as default, you need to enable it in the control panel) greatly facilitates typing of characters for most languages that use Roman script with common diacritical marks, but does not cover Pinyin and similar diacritical marks.
  2. Carly from Carleton, as avid a language teacher as a technologist,  had the great idea to extend Microsoft’s US-international keyboard so as to include all the Pinyin tone marks (and other accents useful for linguists). Here is the upshot, extracted  from her  instructions, but excluding  what (either shortcut or (use of common accents within Pinyin is now covered also below) purpose) has not changed from the shortcuts of the non-extended US-international keyboard  that used to be the default in the LRC:
  3. What you want Which keys you press (before comma  is “dead” key = no result until after next key) Example

    acute accent, pinyin 2nd tone

    ‘(=apostrophe), vowel

    á é í ó ú

    grave accent, pinyin 4th tone

    `(=grave), vowel

    à è ì ò ù

    macron accent, pinyin 1st tone

    hyphen, vowel

    ā ē ī ō ū

    pinyin 3rd tone

    %(=shift+5), vowel

    e.g. ǎ ě ǐ ǒ ǔ

    ü with pinyin tones

    Accent, double-quote

    e.g. ǖ ǘ ǚ ǜ

    letter with dot below

    ; (=shift+period), letter

    e.g.clip_image001

    letter with double acute

    : (=shift+;) , o or u

    ő, ű, Ő, Ű
  4. We are offering the extended US-international keyboard this as an optional keyboard on the teacher and student PCs with Windows 7.
    1. To select the new keyboard layout, use the language toolbar, click on 2nd option:
    2. image
    3. To explore the new keyboard layout use the Windows On-screen keyboard which will let you peek ahead after your pressed a dead key.
    4. To bypass a special dead key (= get the normal behavior of the key), press SPACE after it.
Categories: audience-is-teachers, e-languages, English, French, German, Institution-is-University-of-North-Carolina-Charlotte, Italian, Operating-system, Polish, Portuguese, Presenter-Computer, Russian, service-is-applying-learning-tools, service-is-configuring-learning-tools, Spanish, Student-Computers, Swahili, Writing, Yoruba Tags: , , , ,

How to install the Sanako Lite Recorder without it auto-starting and auto-restarting

2013/01/17 Leave a comment
  1. Problem:
    1. For a personal installation, but especially for a faculty-wide deploy, the default installation of the Sanako Lite Recorder seems to have too much of a footprint: Sanako Lite Recorder not only auto-starts (see e.g. the student icon in the notification area) with Windows, but also auto-restarts when exited –
    2. a useful feature of the classroom recorder from which the standalone recorder is derived, but not so much for a standalone recorder rollout. The feature is achieved by installing a  service (helper.exe) that itself is during installation set to SERVICE_AUTO_START (0x00000002).
    3. This  architecture also makes the installation option to “associate media files” with the Sanako Lite Recorder too greedy, even though it could be useful during the actual work of faculty with the Recorder.
  2. Workaround (for either manual reconfiguration after the install or to be integrated into the automated deployment):
    1. Can one set the underlying helper.exe service that gets installed during the Sanako Lite install to SERVICE_DEMAND_START (0x00000003)? Not tested. At best, this would help between computer restarts, but not when a teacher is done with editing the study recorder and tries to exit it (helper.exe, if itself started, will restarts the student.exe).
    2. Can one entirely disable  this helper.exe service  from services.msc, will the recorder still start? Testing with starting the student.exe and playing audio files did work. So one should try also during a deploy, use value SERVICE_DISABLED (0x00000004) for keys HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Sanako Helper\Start (and, in case something goes wrong later: HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\Sanako Helper\Start).
Categories: digital-audio-lab, service-is-configuring-learning-tools Tags: ,

What is “Content location” in Sanako Study Student Recorder (including Lite) for?

2013/01/17 Leave a comment

imageimage

  1. While working on rolling out the free Sanako Light recorder to all faculty computers in a more systematic, automated way, the question has come up:
  2. What is “Content location” in Sanako Study Student Recorder (Ver 6, including Lite) “Administrative Settings” for, and how can it accept a URL?
    1. No such field in Ver 5.51; no mention in the help file; no manual this new (free) version would help seems included with the download.
    2. I am trying to point the “My files” to a more shared and LRC-accessible location on our SANAKO network share. Should I try the same with “Content Location”, or is this (defaults to “Application Data”) a strictly temporary location for during authoring?
  3. Answer: Sanako seems to be planning using this for distributing their own learning materials, esp. for ESL.
Categories: audience-is-IT-staff, digital-audio-lab, service-is-configuring-learning-tools Tags: ,

Announcing new MS-Word templates for writing assignments during face-to-face-classes in the LRC

2012/11/08 Leave a comment

Screenshot - 11_8_2012 , 10_30_25 AM

  1. Benefits
    1. MS-Word is technology that has become “transparent”for most users:
      1. Have teachers focus on assignment pedagogy, not authoring technology.
      2. Have students focus on the target language, not authoring technology.
    2. Document is protected (for restricting formatting to predefined Word-styles):
      1. Have students focus on form or content, but not on distracting formatting issues.
      2. Styles are designed to facilitate teacher monitoring students’ work using Sanako screensharing, like so:
    3. Take advantage of MS-Office Proofing tools (templates are preset for your target language).
    4. Take advantage of easy assignment file management with Sanako homework activity.
    5. Take advantage of internet lookup process, especially pedagogical if you combine with Sanako controlled-web-browsing activity
  2. Requirements:
    1. Teacher
      1. The easiest is to save the writing template for your language in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Templates\1033 (or if your run 32-bit MS-Word on a 64-bit Windows, C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Templates\1033)
      2. Then base your writing assignment document on the template (e.g. by double-clicking the template in the folder you saved it to).
      3. Then save your writing assignment to your class material folder on the Sanako network share (from the office or in the LRC).
      4. In class, launch the Sanako homework activity.
    2. Student: none other than downloading and submitting the Sanako homework. image
Categories: announcements, audience-is-teachers, classroom-management-system, e-languages, office-software, Presenter-Computer, service-is-configuring-learning-tools, service-is-learning-materials-creation, service-is-programming, Student-Computers, Writing Tags: , , , , , ,

Example 7: Exercise dictating in German to an LRC Windows 7 computer

2012/07/17 Leave a comment

How can we get language students more speaking practice with qualified, but affordable feedback ? Native speaker contact remains difficult to organize even in the days of online conferencing. The LRC hosts language tutoring, but numbers are limited. Enter speech recognition, the holy grail of iCALL,  much easier for learners to relate to than the voice graph that digital audio can be broken down to, and thus for a long time a standout feature of costly second-language-acquisition packages like Auralog Tell-me-More (speech recognition in English tested here) – but now the LRC has Windows 7 Enterprise (and its free add-on language packs), and another crucial prerequisite: headphones with excellent microphones.

We are setting up the new Windows 7 computers in the LRC to allow for speech recognition in Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese and Spanish. Here is an example of me using this facility for a practicing my German during a dictation exercise:

Granted, German is my native tongue; but the example text is from the online component for the final chapter  of the “Treffpunkt Deutsch” 1st-year textbook in use here, which sends the readers to the website of the Swiss (-German) employment agency.

Apart from infrequent words ("Archiven") and Lehnwörtern ("Bachelor" etc.), Windows 7 speech recognition accuracy seems quite impressive. The above example was actually my first dictation, except that immediately beforehand, I invested a few minutes into the standard Windows 7 speech recognition training (aimed at training the user, although may behind the scenes teach the computer a few things about the speaker already also) and a few more minutes of voice training (this one is meant exclusively for the computer, but the user can also see it fail and why). The – rather simple trick to boost speech recognition results – certainly accessible to our students – seems to be to speak not only  clearly, but also slowly, with short pauses between most words.

Speech recognition in these languages is a feature of the Windows 7 (Enterprise/Ultimate version) “language packs” that we installed and switched to – that is why the entire computer interface appears in German. Practicing the L2 with (computer—operating) “voice commands” (instead of with a mouse) is also possible, simpler than replacing the keyboard (mostly) by voice, but not as easy to devise homework exercises for.

Tips for designing exercises using speech recognition: As the example shows ("Archiven") , doing all corrections by voice can quickly become tedious. But there is no pedagogical need to have your students’ bang their heads against this wall. Instead, just ask your students to correct their automatically recognized words manually at the end of their video, after their dictation. This way both you and your students get a clear summary of what they achieved – even clearer if they dictate in MS-Word with the spell and grammar check for the language (automatic with the switch to the language pack for the language) and (using key combination CTRL+SHIFT+E) track changes. We will show you later TBA:how we now enable students to easily record their screen and TBA:upload their screencast into Moodle Kaltura.

Categories: audience-is-teachers, e-languages, English, French, German, Japanese, Mandarin, Operating-system, Presenter-Computer, Screencasts, service-is-applying-learning-tools, service-is-configuring-learning-tools, service-is-documenting, service-is-evaluating-learning-tools, service-is-learning-materials-creation, Spanish, Speaking, Student-Computers Tags: , , ,

Windows 7 US-English with German language pack

2012/07/04 Leave a comment

image

Just to make sure, we are still in EDT… Smile (and the date and other formats do not get changed with the display language either, but so does help and feedback). image

Can you find the error in Microsoft’s German localization in the command line window? Post it below.

Categories: e-languages, German, Reading, service-is-configuring-learning-tools Tags:

No- and Low-cost Language Labs in a Tough Economy. Presentation EUROCALL 2009

2009/09/27 Leave a comment

Or digitizing the London Metropolitan University City-of-London Conference Interpreting center.
Or download a screencast of my presentation.

Categories: conferences, e-languages, Institution-is-London-Metropolitan-University, Interpreting, service-is-configuring-learning-tools, service-is-documenting, service-is-it-managing, service-is-programming, service-is-project-managing, Slideshows Tags: ,

Pedagogical rationale of timestretching audio for differentiating instruction

2008/09/06 Leave a comment
  1. Context: Higher Education in the UK has made considerable investments in digital lab infrastructure to improve second language instruction in times of deteriorating language take-up in the secondary sector, including widening participation. Digital language labs, apart from generic digital media, suffer from a lack of custom-made teaching materials that take advantage of the pedagogic features of the lab: grouping for personalization of teaching and learning. Pedagogical integration and development is needed to achieve the original intentions. A project to timestretch audio language learning materials for the digital audio lab promises integration software, pedagogical materials and, above all, a model of effective digital language lab use in teaching.
  2. Problem: In times of uneven language provision at the secondary school level and of shrinking language program sizes in HE, increasingly language teachers find themselves confronted with uneven language proficiency in their courses. Digital lab technology can help them to overcome the  “one size fits all” approach and personalize the students learning experience, for a greater inclusiveness in language programs and an increased proficiency boost for both the below and above average proficiency student groups.
  3. During my work with the language programmes at an English university, I could witness – and had to record – that the least proficient students, seeing themselves confronted with what was nowhere near “comprehensible input” (Krashen) for them, not only let the communication break down, but appeared so distressed that, despite being fully aware that their language output was being recorded as an assessment for the teacher to evaluate, started to curse and swear (in their native tongue) – while at the same time the upper portion of the class breezed through the exercise without any apparent difficulty.
  4. Proposed Solution:
    1. Technology to the rescue: The slowing down of digital audio – without pitch alteration –has been, while not a perfectly accurate representation of natural slow speech output, a popular benefit of digital technology in the language learning field for several years now (cf. e.g. Calico 2004), and I myself have experimented with it in the digital audio lab (Model imitation and Question – response exercises) and in publications (cf. Plagwitz, Karaoke in the Digital Audio Lab (2006)).
    2. What seems lacking are
      1. both an application that automates (by monitoring one of the network share directories that are part of the digital lab system) the slowing down (and speeding up) of audio for instructors (e.g. in 5% increments from 70% to 120% of original input) that are too time-pressed for producing materials, or even seeking out recordable on-air sources, and
      2. a model implementation in the digital audio lab (using dynamic grouping of students through the digital lab software) that creates exercises that would create exercises that can benefit from this approach (and can be shared), that applies them in a number of suitable (interpreting, ab initio language learning) modules and that assesses the proficiency improvement with this approach (using the outcome exam and a control group).
  5. Benefits: Greater fluency of both the least and most proficient students is to be expect after they were exposed to – as deemed fit by their instructors – slowed down/sped up exercises – ca. 20 exercises in the ab initio language learning module, practicing a small set of suitable new structures and vocabulary compared, with 2 control groups, and five interpreting rounds of 20-30 minutes. We will operationalize this by reusing regular assignment grading and use a control group, also of module-size, which must also use the digital audio lab, but with “one size fits all” audio.
Categories: all-languages, audience-is-teachers, classroom-activities, digital-audio-lab, e-languages, Institution-is-Aston-University, Interpreting, Listening, projects, proposals, service-is-applying-learning-tools, service-is-configuring-learning-tools, service-is-programming Tags: , ,