Spanish Narration and PowerPoint

Recently, we had great success with a Spanish multimedia assignment using macOS in The CALL Facility.

I believe this type of assignment provides great promise for any Instructors that want to challenge their students a bit more. Increasingly, students are improving their own digital skills at a phenomenal rate! Just a few years ago, I had to explain how to attach a file in an email! I would ask the class and all their heads would nod that this was something new to them!

Now, I don’t do it at all, other than briefly mentioning it in the form of ‘… and then all you need to do is attach your recording in an email to your Prof!’ and they all get it! Of course, I get a few obligatory ‘eye rolls’ too! 😂

In a recent Spanish 391 class, their assignment was to create a very simple PowerPoint presentation and then narrate commentary at their own pace, recording it as a self-contained MOVIE!

The content and narration was of course, in Spanish, but the emphasis was on the CONTENT and NARRATION, not PowerPoint skills or special effects! A VERY wide range of experience and abilities was instantly apparent in this class! From a complete novice to PowerPoint to Super Users of just about EVERYTHING!

Their Instructor was INCREDIBLY SUPPORTIVE of all their efforts – that is SO KEY to having a successful classroom experience, no matter the course! The most satisfying experience for me was helping a student with ZERO PowerPoint skills, ZERO digital recording skills and ZERO macOS skills, achieve success with this assignment!

I showed her how to create a basic PowerPoint slide deck (4-5 slides at home on her WIN computer), how to access her file on macOS in CALL, how to use QuickTime to record her narration (with our CALL USB headsets) and then edit/trim her new ‘movie’ and then export it!

All the hardware and software was available – iMac, webcam, USB headsets, PowerPoint & QuickTime and enough storage for her and her Instructor! He actually wandered around copying all the movies to his USB stick after each student was done! LOL!

Yes, earlier, it did take about an hour to build confidence in her, but she was so satisfied with her final product that time spent with her was WELL WORTH IT! AND she passed her assigment … well, actually, we are now working at home and one more class was scheduled for critiqing amongst her fellow students, but … I AM EVER OPTIMISTIC SHE PASSED!! I was quite impressed with what she was able to accomplish! I give her 100% on this assignment! My ‘grades’ will never show up on her transcripts though! LOL!

Unfortunately, all my sample files are at work, and the ‘Behind the Scenes‘ part of this story was …. even I had to learn this in a matter of .. seconds for his class in CALL!

The Instructor came down, completely changed what was going to be an Audacity class into a QuickTime/PowerPoint class and I proceeded to give a demo (using Fly By the Seat of My Pants Lesson Planning!) on something I myself had NEVER SEEN, NOR DONE BEFORE ….. with less than, oh, about 360 seconds worth of instruction from the Instructor!

Makes it seem longer if I convert 360 seconds to, oh, say …. NANOSECONDS =  360,000,000,000 !! Ah, all the time in the world now!

And that was a GOOD THING! As I mentioned above, an engaged and informed Instructor is a Key Factor, perhaps THE KEY FACTOR, to have a successful class, especially when involving even a hint of multimedia assignments and something new .. to EVERYONE!

I am basically describing this type of assignment as ‘Audacity on Steroids‘ to other Instructors. This may not be for all, but …..  it might be for some!

And remember … Many are Chosen, but few are … CALL-ed ! 😎

TTFN!

WICKET
or …
How I Learned to Love Databases!

What exactly is WICKET? What is it used for? Has it always been used? Why is it called … WICKET?

Excellent questions! And this will be a short history of why The CALL Facility currently uses a UVic created application (many authors/coders!) to basically keep track of student attendance!

The CALL Facility opened in the Fall of 1989. I was hired shortly afterwards and started in early October of that year. I am paraphrasing but from what I mostly remember (old RAM still installed!), the intent was to have a state of the art Language Learning facility that all Humanities Departments (and thus Languages!) could use to enhance language learning for students. Other future objectives included research, conferences and inter-departmental sharing of successful (and not so successful!) ideas and strategies. 

And to include usage of The CALL Facility as a course requirement, a system of recording attendance was needed. Just like a Biology class has a corresponding Biology Lab, Instructors needed a way to keep track of attendance! So many different methods have been used including, but not limited to:

1. Registration Card with hand written records on the back
2. Smaller ‘library cards’ which recorded resource usage
3. Printed student logs (MANY) in binders (MANY)
4. Mac version on a Macintosh SE (Quite cool actually!)
5. Visual Basic version on a DOS/WIN machine
6. WICKET as it (mostly) exists now, with a variety of authors, codes and versions, most recently Patrick and Adam!

Each ‘version’ had unique advantages and disadvantages at the time. But the disadvantages always meant crafting a new version to handle eiteher increased student usage, growing AND CHANGING resources (digital and analog), increased reporting back to Instructors as well as a newer emphasis on providing full security for personal information.

The latest version allows CHD staff to not only record student attendance, even with multiple courses, but location as well. Why? At a glance, WICKET displays how busy CALL really is and then staff can make a better decision where to place a student for either privacy, group work, table work, reservations for specific use (TAs) or an available favourite spot for a student! We are literally doing (at least!) three things at once:

1. Air Traffic Controller/Maître D’ – ‘landing’ students to an open ‘runway’ and reserving stations for multiple purposes – Spanish Tutorial Assistants, Whiteboards, Audacity recordings, etc. Or, just put them at a window seat for their Spanish soup du jour!
2. Librarian – providing knowledge of resources in CALL that the student probably doesn’t even know we have .. or .. THAT THEY NEED!
3. Help Desk – updating and maintaining all the dual-boot computers as well as providing assistance with their own computers too, if they bring them in! AND HELP DESK SUPPORT TOO! So that is like … 3A!

Below is a layout (not current, but descriptive) of what CALL has looked like in the past, complete with locations, numbers, tables, etc. One Consultant can facilitate students, resources, usage and communication from behind the Front Counter! Okay, that is in theory!

Practically, the vast majority of assistance is available right at the Front Counter. But things happen and then we spring into action to help students and Instructors in CALL, as well as around the corner in CLE-LF hallway in rooms CLEA 030, 031 and 035 or anywhere else that we are needed!

A much more robust intro to WICKET as well as the history of CALL and my first ever CHD Training PowerPoint is located below. Just click on the CHD Workshop image and you will go to a comprehensive post of ALL the CHD Training Sessions – aka CALL:Jeopardy training sessions, all in .pdf format, which work in any browser, or can be exported in .pdf format too.

AND HUGE THANKS TO PATRICK AND ADAM who have always helped me out when WICKET has crashed, needed database updating or just listened while I described the weird stuff that sometimes happens in WICKET! I usually call those things – Undocumented Features! Thanks guys! I really appreciate your help!

Oh, and why it is called WICKET? You will have to go and look at my first CHD Training module and then all will be revealed … well, mostly revealed! LOL!

TTFN!