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Introduction of NanoGong, free open source voice recorder for Moodle

2011/05/05 2 comments
  • This is a brief summary outline of NanoGong (which has just been upgraded to version 4.1, which includes an installation file for our current Moodle version 1.9.8), would be a good audio recording add-on for language learning to install in our Moodle learning system. What follows is  compiled from various online sources:
    1. “NanoGong is an applet that can be used by someone to record, playback and save their voice, in a web page. When the recording is played back the user can speed up or slow down the sound without changing it. The speeded up or slowed down version of the recorded sound can be saved to the user’s hard disk, if he/she wishes
    2. There are special features for programmers, such as the ability to show or hide parts of the NanoGong interface or to completely control what the applet does.
    3. The NanoGong applet has been released as an open source project since version 3. The picture below shows the NanoGong applet with all components shown. “
    4. nanogong-interface
    5. “NanoGong provides a very simple and transparent voice support for Moodle. Using a NanoGong activity and a NanoGong filter NanoGong provides two different types of voice support for Moodle”:
    6. “An extended HTML editor which supports voice-enriched content”, “ enabling a voice recording option for virtually any Moodle activity entry that uses the wysiwyg toolbar”, as you can see  here:
    7. nanogong-htmlarea
    8. ”A NanoGong activity which allows students to submit voice messages to their teachers”:
    9. nanogong-acttivity2
  • Questions remain:
    1. You can customize the recorder applet: Need to check whether this includes the timestretching capability, given that language teachers can be averse to student-controlled,
    2. Need to check for capability of downloading batches of submissions from the student class and grade it with time-saving techniques, like described here using Audacity. A more sophisticated example that testifies to the same features required to get graders adopt increasing audio student submissions was Web Audio Lab, an authoring system for developing interactive audio-based language courses (Language Resource Center, Cornell University. 2003-2007): web-audio-lab-grading-interface-FIG025_print1
    3. web-audio-lab-grading-interface2
    4. How could one implement a dual-track recorder using NanoGong, with the program track providing aural cues for a more natural oral interaction?
    5. Requires JAVA (test compatibility).
    6. There is no Moodle 2.0 version yet.
    7. NanoGong seems “a derivative of the Gong standalone voice board”  – without similar requirements and issues? Gong can also be integrated into Moodle, seems more advanced, but also much more difficult to implement (requires a tomkat server; problems have been reported with losing course deletion functionality in Moodle, the authentication pass-through not working from Moodle and the audio graph not working in Moodle).
    8. As with any open source project, there are some move Ifs.
    9. However, Nanogong seems the free audio recording plug-in for Moodle which is currently most favored.
Categories: e-languages, service-is-evaluating-learning-tools, software Tags: , , ,

Wireless voice recorder

2011/02/19 Leave a comment

The college’s infrastructure offerings now include a wireless-voice-recorder.

The setup consist of a Sony-voice-recorder-pcm-m10, a lavalier microphone, audio-technica freeway-atw1201-transmitter and audio-technica r200-transmitter.

I made these photo and audio materials during a test.

The test audio demonstrates remaining problems with

  1. mono recorded through micro, stereo expected by recorder
  2. the transmission breaking up after 60 paces distance (static, then recording stops entirely – I cut that part at the end)

If you cannot make out the person recording in the panoramic photo of the hallway, that can give you an idea of the suitability of the recorder for e.g. large lecture halls.

Categories: e-infrastructure Tags: , , , ,