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How a teacher can adapt a Sanako teacher-controlled class recording activity for individual student recordings

2013/03/12 Leave a comment
  1. Pedagogical need:
    1. A teacher wants her students to record a presentation,
    2. but allow the students to move around freely in their recording afterwards, when evaluating it, and submit the best out of 3 tries:
  2. Technical implementation:
    1. Using Sanako activity:model imitation of differing for multiple groups
      1. offers maximum control, least flexibility: students have to speak their presentation linearly
      2. if you anticipate presentations of considerably different lengths
        1. first try asking your students – might be useful to them anyway to realize if theirs turns out to be much shorter than others,
        2. if students are unsure about the length of their presentation,
          1. conduct the first recording with the entire class and
          2. have students note what time their recorder time counter is at when they finish, and send you the time as text via the button:envelope
          3. group your students (grouping step-by-step) into Sessions A-F by incrementing  time according to what the student icon bubble shows
        3. then differentiate class into as many groups as necessary (if <= the 6 “sessions”A-F  Sanako Study 1200 offers) end the recording at a different time for each group
      3. for each group (one or more up to 6),
        1. choose from dropdown activity:  model imitation recording
          1. and from dropdown: source: none) with more than one group at a time,
          2. and (optionally) for not more than one group at a time (suggest choosing the biggest group for that) from (dropdown: source: file )  the  background noise to play
        2. and after each group’s allocated time (+ buffer) is up,
        3. press button:end to end the recording
        4. after collection of the recordings from students is finished, you can
        5. press button:replay image, to let each student listen to her recording (linearly, without control), and
        6. press button:free image, to let  students freely move back and forth on the timeline)
        7. eventually, press button: clear, to be ready:
      4. for tries 2 and 3: repeat above steps.
    2. using Sanako activity: self access:
      1. provides
        1. the teacher some  control (none over this turning into more of an editing than coherent language practice exercise),
        2. and students more flexibility (hence requiring prior recording training for students);
      2. students individually
        1. record
        2. move around freely in the file
        3. replay
        4. record over prior footage and/or start completely over  (menu: File / new)
        5. press button:envelope to text message the teacher that they are finished and want their (final )  recording to be collected by the teacher
      3. teacher
        1. moves signaling students into a group  (grouping step-by-step) that is
          1. dedicated for collecting recordings (TBA:does this not empty their buffer?)
          2. and button:pc control: locked (= no further or accidental changes)
        2. once an appropriate  (compromise between finished students wanting to leave and teacher not having to collect each recording individually) number of students have been added to this group, presses
          1. button: end to collect and
          2. button: clear session to clear the button
        3. assesses the recordings in the folder that opens with audacity;
          1. in case of problems, moves students  back to the group dedicated to recording
          2. else lets students leave
Categories: Arabic, assessments, audience-is-teachers, digital-audio-lab, e-languages, English, Farsi, French, German, Greek (modern), Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, multimedia-recording, Polish, Portuguese, Presenter-Computer, Russian, service-is-assessing, Spanish, Speaking, step-by-step-guides, Student-Computers, Swahili, Yoruba Tags: ,

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 record and submit a photo presentation assignment

2013/01/22 Leave a comment

A step-by-step explanation how Moodle/PowerPoint allow

  1. a student
    1. to create a photo album from their photos (remind them that they need to be able to download their photos onto the LRC computers), we will load this from their computers analogous to this: How to create a visual cue exam file using Insert Photo album in PowerPoint
    2. to narrate the photoalbum
      1. In the LRC with 2007: https://thomasplagwitz.com/2013/01/22/how-students-can-record-their-picture-or-photo-presentations-with-powerpoint-2007/
      2. or if they use 2010 outside of the LRC, https://thomasplagwitz.com/2013/01/17/recording-student-picture-presentations-with-powerpoint/
    3. To refine their presentation:
      1. Do not edit your audio – not  good language learning  pedagogy.
      2. Rather redo your entire presentation, paying extra attention to the weaknesses you observed when reflecting on your last recorded attempt . You will learn more foreign language this way than if you learn how to edit digital audio. Before you re-record your narration, clear the existing narration from PowerPoint, or save into a new file to be able to compare the Before/After.
    4. to submit: How a student takes a Moodle Single file upload assignment.
  2. a teacher
    1. to prepare:How a teacher creates a Moodle Single file upload assignment, with optional attached file
    2. to grade (reviewHow a teacher grades a Moodle Single file upload assignment):
      1. Save the Moodle file submission assignment
      2. Double-click the PPSX  file to play the file in PowerPoint.
      3. Use the Moodle grade book to grade and provide other feedback.
Categories: Arabic, assignments, audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, documentation, English, Farsi, French, German, Greek (modern), Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, office-software, Polish, Portuguese, recording-software, Russian, service-is-applying-learning-tools, Spanish, Speaking, step-by-step-guides, Swahili, Yoruba Tags: , , , , ,

How students can record their picture or photo presentations with PowerPoint 2010

2013/01/17 Leave a comment
  1. The screencast shows the necessary steps:
    1. inserting a photo album,
    2. presenting while recording the presentation with narration
    3. saving as a show (.ppsx) – make sure you have ribbon:”Slide show”/ “Play narrations” checked: image
  2. to prepare an assignment for a Moodle single-file-upload (How a student takes a Moodle Simple file upload assignment).
Categories: Arabic, assignments, audience-is-students, documentation, e-languages, English, Farsi, French, German, Greek (modern), Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Mandarin, multimedia-recording, office-software, Polish, Portuguese, recording-software, Russian, Screencasts, service-is-applying-learning-tools, Spanish, Speaking, Swahili, Yoruba Tags: , ,

Ipatrainer.com community provides free phonetic transcription tables with sounds and exercises

2012/10/11 Leave a comment
  1. This is looking good, but …
    1. There seem to be some coding issues, I am getting server errors 500 after registering.
    2. The site is advertisement-based.
    3. There is no content beyond the IPA sound which would put these bare basics in phonetics into language learning context and practice.
  2. Site Contains:
    1. tables for teaching your language – complete with phonetic symbols and sound samples image
    2. and exercises for your students  (e.g. Memory games, Identifying characters imageimageimageimage, places, image and sounds.
  3. You can
    1. Create your own, after free registration,
    2. or assign one of the ones from many other teachers.
      1. Most popular ones are listed here:  http://www.ipatrainer.com/user/site/?language=, and if the use numbers are accurate, there must be really some serious IPA learning going on here…
      2. I see no way to browse other tables without having the username of the teacher who created and assigned it.
  4. There is also a phonetic writer.
  5. And a user forum, in its infancy.
Categories: Arabic, audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, e-languages, English, Farsi, French, German, Greek (modern), Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, learning-materials, Mandarin, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, service-is-evaluating-learning-tools, Spanish, Speaking, Swahili, websites, Yoruba Tags: ,

LRC Sanako Study 1200 for Pronunciation

2012/09/04 Leave a comment

PowerPoint Web App; http://goo.gl/PuujV

Categories: Absolute-Beginner, Advanced, Arabic, audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, Beginner, digital-audio-lab, e-languages, English, Farsi, French, German, Greek (modern), Hindi, Intermediate, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Polish, Portuguese, Presenter-Computer, Russian, Slideshows, Spanish, Speaking, Student-Computers, Swahili, training, Yoruba Tags:

Immerse yourself into your language of study by switching the user interface language on LRC PCs

2012/08/17 Leave a comment
  1. Ever imagine yourself studying or working in an e.g. Spanish– Japanese- or Chinese- speaking country? Then you will  likely find yourself in front of a computer display that is in that language  – what if you could get a sneak preview before you go?
  2. You can now switch the interface language of the LRC Windows 7 computers (including Internet Explorer and MS-Office (note that you have to change the editing language separately) to your language of study (How?).
  3. All non-classical languages studied here are supported:
    Language Native name
    Arabic العربية
    Chinese (Simplified) 中文(简体)
    Chinese (Traditional) 中文 (繁體)
    English English
    French français
    German Deutsch
    Greek Ελληνικά
    Hebrew עברית
    Italian italiano
    Japanese 日本語‫
    Korean 한국어‫
    Polish polski
    Portuguese (Brazil) Português
    Portuguese (Portugal) português
    Russian Русский
    Spanish español
  4. Some languages, however, come only with the limited support of a MS Language Interface Pack :
  5. Hindi हिंदी
    KiSwahili Kiswahili
    Persian (Farsi) فارسی
    Yoruba ede Yorùbá
  6. Below are examples (for German) what you get when you switch the operating system language:
  7. image
  8. image
  9. image
  10. image
  11. image
  12. image
Categories: Arabic, audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, Farsi, French, German, Greek (modern), Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, office-software, Operating-system, Polish, Portuguese, Reading, Russian, Spanish, Student-Computers, Swahili, Yoruba Tags: , ,

Foreign language support in LRC MS-Office 2010

2012/08/17 Leave a comment
  1. A full set of proofing tools is available, thanks to MS-Office Language Packs installed on the Windows 7 computers, for all non-classical languages studied here:
  2. Language Native name
    Arabic العربية
    Chinese (Simplified) 中文(简体)
    Chinese (Traditional) 中文 (繁體)
    English English
    French français
    German Deutsch
    Greek Ελληνικά
    Hebrew עברית
    Hindi हिंदी
    Italian italiano
    Japanese 日本語‫
    Korean 한국어‫
    Polish polski
    Portuguese (Brazil) Português
    Portuguese (Portugal) português
    Russian Русский
    Spanish español
  3. Some languages have only limited features provided by the MS-Language Interface Pack:
  4. KiSwahili Kiswahili
    Persian (Farsi) فارسی
    Yoruba ede Yorùbá
Categories: Arabic, audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, English, Farsi, French, German, Greek (modern), Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, office-software, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, Writing, Yoruba Tags: , , ,