e-languages | Thomas' Work Space

Overview over speech recognition assignment possibilities in the LRC–from beginning to end

2014/01/21 plagwitz 1 comment

UPDATE: now with more videos to watch.
First switch languages, once you are in the right language:
The speech recognition loads at startup with this window:
or can be started from the desktop shortcut:
To activate = make it start/stop listening, click on the microphone
create and save individualized voice training data (only the first time you use speech recognition in the LRC),
1. Watch how to train (for English, short 5 minutes);
2. Watch how to back up/restore;
3. beginner voice training example (long, before/after effect in speech recognition),
homework assignment exercise design,
1. Watch how (for English, with correction in MS-Word)
2. dictation example.

Categories: assignments, e-languages, English, French, German, Japanese, Mandarin, os, Spanish, Speaking Tags: 7, ms-windows, speech-recognition

SDL-Trados 2011 configuration issues

2014/01/14 plagwitz Leave a comment

This is on the teacher PC during a demo – student PCs may not display this behavior, but should be checked also):
1. We do not need the demo on each login for each user (“do not show me this again”).
2. We have a duplicate project?
3. Screenshots:

Categories: e-languages, Translation, translation-software Tags: image2014spring, sdl-trados

Google etymology feature

2014/01/11 plagwitz Leave a comment

Etymology information has been added to Google end of August, still need to review this more closely (other languages supported?), but for now:
Type “etymology” followed by the English word to get the Etymology (and unfold the arrow below to get additional dictionary information, including historical frequency)
Of course this feature cannot replace a historical legal dictionary, but I what I was looking for was the juxtaposition with “freeman” in English feudal history, which I would have liked to find a reference here to also
Etymology does not seem to be supported if I type “Etymology Schmetterling” (or “Etymologie Schmetterling”), the feature does not come up. It does if I type “etymology butterfly", however: Is this right?! The next thing which is missing (and this reminds me too much of how our students use Google translate) is the admission of that these explanations are theories which are contentious, and should be debated:

Categories: Dictionaries, e-languages, English, mental-notes Tags: etymology, google

Testing and semi-automatically changing the Sanako student audio configuration

2013/12/09 plagwitz Leave a comment

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.
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.
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: autoit, mmsys.cpl, playlist, sanako-slh-07, sanako-study-1200, volume

Protected: CTL’s Mahara Workshop in the LRC

2013/12/05 plagwitz Enter your password to view comments.

Categories: audience-is-teachers, e-languages, eportfolio, instructional-technology-unit, Screencasts Tags: mahara

How a student submits prior content from “My content” into a Moodle Kaltura video assignment

2013/11/18 plagwitz Leave a comment

Go to your video assignment in Moodle: .
Click “Add media submission”:
Jump through the hoops:
1. switch to “my content”
2. you have to click the “search” button to show content, leave search filed empty to show all
3. note that there may be more
4. you have to select a video
5. before that, you cannot click next
confirm on the next screen
You are done when you see this: , but hey, better press “continue” to be safe:
On the next screen, you can review:
Not so clear how you get out of there…
Troubleshooting: If you run into problems, the first thing to try usually is a different web browser.

Categories: audience-is-students, e-languages, lms Tags: kaltura, moodle, my-content

How to create screencasts of student presentations for the language learner ePortfolio in the digital audio lab

2013/11/08 plagwitz Leave a comment

Students can now easily video-record their own screens during class presentations – not only when using PowerPoint; instead students could demo a website, like their Facebook page.
Last year, we were limited to PowerPoint’s record slideshow with timing and narration feature, and either send the PPSX (small, but requires the PowerPoint viewer) or the “Save as” video (new in PowerPoint 2010; computing intensive and large file size).
Now with MS-Community Clips, screencasts are
1. minimal effort to create (keyboard shortcut WIN+ALT+R or T; save on desktop; drag/drop into Sanako homework folder)
2. and little effort to distribute:
  1. Students could have uploaded to a Moodle’ file upload assignment (default file size limit: 64MB) or Kaltura file upload assignment (not sure whether there is a size limit). This seems more suitable for assignments with screencasts recordings.
  2. In this instance
    1. Sanako collected the Homework files to the Sanako share,
    2. my langlabemailer emailed them as attachment (so far tested to allow for 25MB attachment size, the equivalent of 7-8 minute screencast, a hefty space to fill in L2! We also established: 45MB is too much… ) to the originating student and teacher, for review, grading –
  3. and – provided it passes muster as an attractive and significant piece – possibly for re-use in the student’s language learner ePortfolio.
In addition,
1. Before the presentations, the teacher easily collaborated on proof-reading the slide decks of individual students, by using the Sanako Remote control screen sharing feature.
2. During the presentation, students followed more closely – which seemed to increase their attention and comprehension -, thanks to audio and screen being shared to them from the presenter, using the Sanako’s “Model student” feature.

How to workaround AntWordProfiler error “Cannot open the file”

2013/11/07 plagwitz Leave a comment

Seems a little bug in this otherwise great program. I started getting this on Windows 7 64-bit with
for all files, no matter which size.
It occurred to me to go to menu: Settings/ global settings / file settings / show full pathnames
Here is what you see: Note the duplicate path to the file.
How did I get there? Seems like you cannot take my usual preferred shortcut and paste the full file path into the browse dialogue.
If I browse to the file and select, the same botched up double path does not appear:
I can then process the file fine.