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Archive for the ‘technology-domains-is-any’ Category

Switch to Color Scheme Basic not working for students

2013/10/25 Leave a comment
    1. Works for me: CAM03648
    2. Does not work for students for whom it primarily has to work: CAM03640
    3. Strangely, student seems to be not stuck on the original, but on an unsaved theme:

CAM03641

Categories: e-infrastructure, Institution-is-University-of-North-Carolina-Charlotte, Student-Computers Tags: , , , ,

How to bypass error 442 when trying to connect to your office network with Cisco VPN Client 5 from Windows 8

2013/10/25 Leave a comment
  1. Problem: image
  2. Solution:
    1. in [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\CVirtA]
      "DisplayName"="@oem25.inf,%CVirtA_Desc%;Cisco Systems VPN Adapter for 64-bit Windows"
    2. remove: “@oem25.inf,%CVirtA_Desc%;”.
Categories: e-infrastructure 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: , ,

How to upload a folder with many files in Moodle 2–the ultimate training

2013/10/22 Leave a comment
  1. …using animated .gifs. Different speed? 0.25sec,0.5sec, 0.75sec, 1sec, , 2sec, 3sec, 4sec, 5sec, 6sec, 7sec, 8sec, 9sec, 10sec. 1.5sec
  2. And the answer is: You now can simply drag-and-drop a zip file  (provided you are using a recent web browser). Start with “Turn editing on”, “Add resource”, “Folder”, and then proceed like so:
  3. Easy enough, but you can still save time: If your folder is reusable not only between terms, but also teachers (sections etc.), I suggest doing this in our Moodle metacourses (once).
  4. If you want to use an existing instead of adding a new folder, a slightly different way to manage your multiple files upload in Moodle 2 is described here.
Categories: animated-GIFs, audience-is-teachers, e-learning, lms, training Tags: , ,

How a teacher can use NanoGong’s plugin for the HTML editor to easily send their own audio to students

2013/10/17 Leave a comment
  1. The rich HTML editor recorder plug-in is supposed to make it easier for the teacher (than other recorders that require the teacher to save to file and upload the file to a Moodle activity). Here is how it can work:
  2. Add an activity which includes the rich HTML editor plugin, e.g. a page. 
  3. Click on the loudspeaker icon denotes NanoGong among the editor tools.
  4. image
  5. A window will open that includes the recorder JAVA applet (you may have to bypass Java warnings): image
  6. Click the red record button and speak.
  7. When done, click insert.
  8. Result: image
  9. Note, however,  that so far I have run into issues actually displaying this teacher-added NanoGong recorder content.
Categories: audience-is-teachers, documentation, e-languages, Listening, lms, multimedia-recording, recording-software Tags: , ,

JAVA warning dialogues to bypass during NanoGong activities

2013/10/17 Leave a comment
  1. You may be prompted to update JAVA – likely a not a bad idea: java outdated warning_thumb[1]
  2. Click “RUN”: image_thumb[8]_thumb[1]
  3. Check (1) “Accept”and Click (2) “Run”: CAM03105_thumb
  4. Click “Don’t Block”: CAM03106_thumb[1]
  5. Even more annoying when warning dialogues do not come to the foreground, and your computer/web browser simply seems to be stuck. Check your task bar/dock for blinking/jumping JAVA notifications, like here: CAM03112_thumb.
  6. You have to bypass these dialogues only once – per session (lab) or possibly per computer. Choose the right answer, for university assignments, it is safe to “Allow! Allow! Allow! (“run”, “don’t block:”, update”, what ever – use common sense).
  7. Remember, thinks could be worse,  – like if you try to use NanoGong in a Firefox that has not been explicitly configured to allow JAVA applets – read more on our troubleshooting NanoGong page. 
Categories: assignments, audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, e-languages, Glitches&Errors, lms, multimedia-recording, recording-software, service-is-documenting, service-is-testing-troubleshooting-debugging, Speaking Tags: , ,

How teachers can ease their editing pain by turning on "filters" in Moodle

2013/10/17 Leave a comment
  1. A teacher called my attention to the filters when she reported that the automatic linking of references to chapter/topic activities in the chapter/topic text stopped working for her with the upgrade to Moodle 2. If you change the below setting for "Activity names auto-linking", it will start working again:
  2. clip_image001
  3. A "filter" in Moodle (if turned on) examines what is being add to your course by you (also by your students: That’s at least what I assume the Word censorship” filters is meant for!) and if it finds a certain pattern/feature, “automagically” enhances or adorns your input. This can save you a lot of manual editing time .
  4. You can view and change the filter settings by clicking  on "filters" in Activities:
  5. clip_image002
  6. There is a campus default – which, to judge from my course, seems to be  this:
  7. clip_image003
  8.   The teacher of the individual course can override this default (there seems to be no personalization that would allow you to use the same settings for all courses you teach, within and across terms):
  9. The documentation linked on the filter settings page explains what these filters do. I only quote the filters which I think are of interest to language and humanities:
    1. “Activity names auto-linking – This scans text for activity titles that exist in the same course and creates a link
    2. Convert URLs into links – This filter converts URLs in selected formats, such as Moodle auto-format, to click-able links
    3. Database auto-linking – As the name suggests, this filter enables automatic linking of Database module entries
    4. Display emoticons as images – This converts emoticon (smiley) characters into images
    5. Glossary auto-linking – This scans text for glossary entries that exist in the same course and creates a link
    6. Multimedia plugins – This finds a link in text that points to a multimedia resource and replaces the link with an appropriate multimedia player code which can play the resource.”
    7. [This one we do not seem to have installed, unfortunately:] Multi-language content – This filter enables resources to be created in multiple languages.
    8. [These ones are not included in the documentation linked on the filter settings page, since these plugins  are specific to our campus installation, but extremely useful for authentic speaking proficiency assignments: ] NanoGong, Kaltura.
  10. For what it is worth, here are the filter settings that I am testing now in my course: 
  11. clip_image004
Categories: audience-is-teachers, e-learning, lms, service-is-configuring-learning-tools Tags: , ,

How a teacher can easily assign an audio recording in Moodle, using the new NanoGong plugin

2013/10/17 Leave a comment
  1. We are back in business with easy audio recording assignments in the LMS, thanks to NanoGong – the free recorder I recommended when first starting here – now being available in MOODLE (presumably with the Upgrade to Moodle 2, I almost missed that….)
  2. To assign, click “turn editing on”, “Add activity or resource”, select “NanoGong voice activity”, as pictured below: image
  3. There are a few interesting options:
    1. you can limit the duration
    2. you can limit the number of recordings (attempts?) allowed  (0 is unlimited)
    3. You can let students listen to each other recordings. (Is there a rating feature that can be combined with this?) image
    4. And this is what
      1. you will see (TBA:read on for how to listen to student submissions, give feedback and grade.)image
    5. your students will see…
Categories: Arabic, assignments, audience-is-teachers, e-languages, English, Farsi, French, German, Greek (modern), Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, lms, Mandarin, multimedia-recording, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Speaking, Swahili, Yoruba Tags: ,