April 25, 2006

The Chinese School was part of last summer’s iPod Initiative (see: BMC To Go).  We took thousands of audio files we had created over the years and embedded metadata into them from the lexical database we developed to organize these files.  Many of these audio files were very short, representing a single vocabulary item, and as such were difficult to control the playback of, primarily because the iPod would play the next audio track before students had a chance to stop and pause the current track….

This year we would like to increase the length of these files so that  students can better control their playback.  We have done some research and found that the best way to do this is to have each audio file repeat a vocabulary item 3x with space between each repetition during which students can repeat what they hear.  Ideally the space between repetitions of the vocabulary are approximately the same amount of time as it takes to say the item, thus creating a smooth transition between hearing and producing.

We have found the 1200 original files (in mov format) and have converted these to wave format.   Now all that needs to be done is:

1. Open each file in an audio editing program (such as Audacity)
2. Add silence to the end of the file
3. Copy the entire file and paste to the end of itself 2x
4. Save the file

How long will this take?  I have done some testing and figure with practice one could eventual edit 2-3 files per minute.  Thus 1200 files would take one person 10 hours…  For documentation on how to do this, see:
Editing Audio > Chinese

We have completed editing our audio files for use on iPods.  Here is what we have done:

1. Extended the playtime of short audio files
We have extended the playtime of short audio files such as vocabulary items from 1-2 seconds to at least 5 seconds.  We have extended these by a) adding 2 seconds of silences to the end of the file and b) repeating the audio + silence a total of 3x for vocabulary items and 2x for audio of dialogues or phrases.  By extending the audio in general and by added silence to the end of the audio files, students will have more time to pause when listening and more time is spent on each item.  If the pace is too slow, students can allows click the forward/next button to go to the next track…

2.  Repeated audio with silence between repetitions
As noted above, when extending files we have repeated the audio 2-3 times (3x for very short audio and 2x for longer audio).  Between each repetition of the audio is silence that is approximately as long as the audio portion itself.  This allows students to hear the language, repeat what they have heard, hear it again, and repeat again and so on.

3. Chinese Vocabulary Metadata
We have improved the Chinese vocabulary metadata.  Last summer, each audio file had 4 versions , one in which the track title was in English, one where it was in Pinyin transliteration, another with Simplifed characters and a version with Traditional characters.  Students would study each version in succession.

Since the display of the Chinese or Pinyin transliteration of most vocabulary items takes so little space (most Chinese vocabulary items are only 1 to 2 syllables which can be represented by 1 to 2 Chinese characters or 2 to 8 Latin characters), we have opted to include in the track name metadata for each of the 4 versions of metadata, at least 2 representations of the vocabulary item.  For example for the English version of vocabulary item (i.e. the version in which the track title is displayed in English), we have choosen to include both the Pinyin transliteration as well as the English in the track title.  For the Pinyin version, we display both the Pinyin and the Simplified characters.  For the Simplified character version, we display the simplified Chinese characters and the English and for the Traditional character version, we display the Traditional and Simplified characters.

April 21, 2006

We have just created new sites for French in Action and Phonétique Progressive.  These sites will eventually contain all the media students need for the courses that use these text books.  Each audio file will be accessible from the site for playback.

Students in courses that use French in Action and Phonétique Progressive will also receive iPods with this material preloaded onto them.  These students will also be expected to use these iPods for various communicative tasks which they will need to record and upload to their class website.

For students who own their own iPods, there will be links where they can download a zip file of all the audio files.  Students with video iPods will also be able to download and view the video clips on their iPod

June 16, 2005

Alex Chapin (with the help of Duncan Sanford, Iskandar Aminov and Pascal Maharjan) did 3 iPod orientation sessions to students in the Chinese and Russian Schools.  For the Russian School iPod orientations, he focussed on how to connect iPods to computers, how to update playlists and how to add new audio files to the iPod.  It was pointed out later that it would have been good to have also shown people how to use the iPod itself. 

Thus for the Chinese School orientation, Alex began with showing students how to use iPods, how to navigate to audio tracks by artist and by playlist and how to rate audio tracks on the iPod.  Following this, he discussed how to use iTunes in general and how to create smart playlists.  Since there were more students than workstations at this orientation, only a few students actually connected their iPods to computers.

June 12, 2005
This weekend the Chinese and Russian School completed their placement testing. Both schools encouraged their students to take placement tests before they arrived at Middlebury and about half their students did this. The rest of their students took the placement tests at Middlebury.

The Chinese and Russian School will analyze test results this weekend and place students in levels of study appropriate to their current proficiency in these languages. We will then get a list of all students in levels that are part of the iPod Pilot program and give this to the library circulation desk.

Alex Chapin has scheduled meetings next week in the Wilson Media Lab with students and faculty that are in iPod Pilot program. We hope these students and faculty will pick up their iPods before this iPod orientation meeting. Alex will essentially introduce them to the iPod and walk them through the documentation on this site.

On hand will be Duncan Sanford, Iskandar Aminov, and Pascal Maharjan, students working in the Wilson Media Lab who helped set up the iPods.

June 22, 2005

70 iPods have now been distributed to Language School faculty, staff and students as follows:
Chinese School – 34
Russian School – 34

We have not yet distributed iPods to Level IV Russian students as originally planned because the Russian School enrolment numbers were higher than anticipated.  As well, we are working with the Level IV instructor to prepare her material for iPod delivery. 

For the most part the distribution of iPods was relatively smooth.  The primary challenge for the Circulation Desk was creating records of the loan for students who had not yet received their college ID cards.  In these instances, a photo ID was used to verify a student’s identity.

All LS students and faculty who received iPods signed a User Agreement that was modeled on the College’s laptop user agreement.  In addition, LS students and faculty signed a Metadata Release Form that stated they would agree to let us use metadata that we plan to extract from the iPods and aggregate for research purposes. 

We are trying to weigh pros and cons of strict limitations of iPod updating vs more flexible approach.

If a student has their own computer, would be good if they used that, they would probably use iPod in a more comprehensive way. As well, they would be more likely to use iTunes to study as well, which offers a more display options than are available with the iPod…
There is the danger though that they will delete the contents of their iPod, but if the files are available for download, they should be able to get on their own…

If we insist that iPods only be updated in the Wilson Media Lab, then we may reduce the number of times students decide to do updates. This means they will not use the iPod as comprehensively, smart playlists or studylists will not update (requires connecting to iTunes)…

I have added considerable documentation to this site in the last couple of days. In addition, I spent 3 hours with Duncan Sanford, Iskandar Aminov and Pascal Maharjan (students who will be working in the Wilson Media Lab this summer) going over iPod set up workflow and generally transmitting to them as much as I could about iPods for 2nd language acquisition.

Duncan, Iskandar and Pascal are now prepared to take over loading the iPods with the thousands of audio files that will be used this summer. In addition, they should be able to troubleshoot problems with iPods in the context of the Wilson Media Lab.