Pete

Paragrapher

Pete — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 20:35:35 +0000

I wrote this exercise because I wanted to give my students some in paragraphing. The idea was to produce an online version of the standard kind of exercise where students divide a piece of continuous text into different paragraphs. It’s pretty simple stuff – the user is told how many paragraphs there are and can make a paragraph by clicking at the end of a sentence. Choices can be changed and when the user is satisfied they can check their answers. They get overall feedback and can also get feedback about right or wrong choices at a click. They can continue the task until they are successful.

As this is an exercise type that is quite simple, but is also one I use quite a lot at certain times of the academic year, I am making an authoring tool for this which should be ready for beta testing at the beginning of march.

Multiple Choice Cloze 2.0

Pete — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 16:08:14 +0000

I have rewritten the code for the multiple choice cloze so that it avoids the use of pop-up windows. I have also made the code a little simpler. The tool is now more or less complete and I am planning to try writing an authoring program using Java. This may take me a little while as I have not used Java a great deal and my only real experience is with VB. Java, however, does have the advantage of being able to run on any platform.

Dialog Builder

Pete — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 16:02:12 +0000

I have finally got round to finishing the Dialog Builder. I wanted a tool that would allow students to do some work on situational dialogues before attending a class, to act as a sort of warmer. The student hears one part of a dialogue and then chooses from a list of possible responses. If they choose correctly they will hear the next part of the dialogue, until they complete the task.

The activity makes use of JavaScript to control audio being streamed with Real Player.

Page Navigation 1.0

Pete — Wed, 31 May 2006 08:03:37 +0000

A while ago I wanted to include a simple navigation bar / indicator at the top of each page in a sequence of pages. The idea was that the user could use it to move between pages in a sequence and at the same time get a clear indication of their progress in the sequence. I wanted them to be able to see how much they had done and how much remained to be done. The result is this simple script.

Time Conversion 1.0

Pete — Sun, 28 May 2006 13:28:15 +0000

I have improved the script that I wrote which can be used to display a GMT time in the local time of a visitor to the page, and the script can be downloaded.

Of course this script only works if the user has their computer clock set to their time zone, but the script now includes a button so that a visitor can check this.

There may still be bugs, and I would appreciate feedback so that I can improve this bit of code.

A new start

Pete — Fri, 05 May 2006 09:06:49 +0000

Following a change of hosting service I have had to completely reorganise this site. I am now using Word Press rather than Movable Type, and it seems a lot easier/better to use. I am still working on the design and layout of the site, so for the time being many things may not work as expected.

While many of the CALL activities do work, the navigation links have not been updated, so the done / home buttons will generate errors.

One thing I have not been able to do yet is archive the main page – at the moment every single entry is displayed. There must be a way of doing this.

Also, I have not found out how to set up multiple blogs – having just one page is a bit limiting. One work around would be to use a single weblog but set it up so that different categories are displayed on different pages.

Time Conversion

Pete — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 21:00:22 +0000

I am trying to test a snippet of javascript that I want to use to make it easier to arrange on-line meetings with people living in different time zones.

The page should display the time of a meeting in GMT and should then also show it in the local time of the person visiting the page. I am testing this page to see if it works correctly. There will be problems when people have their computer set to a time zone that is different from the place where they actually are – though I am not sure why someone would wannt to do this. But there may also be problems because different versions of windows and different browsers may handle the code slightly different. I would very much like to know whether or not this page works correctly.

Does it show the correct time?

The page can be found at http://mackichan.e-lang.co.uk/javascript/timer.html

Phonemic Typewriter – US English

Pete — Tue, 11 Jan 2005 20:23:01 +0000

I have created a version of the Phonemic Script Typewriter for US English.

Because of the different vowel sounds, I have had to use a different keyboard layout. I would be grateful for comments about how this can be improved.

I have also chosen not to use the rhoticized schwa (the one with the little hook) and I would also be glad to hear whether this is a good thing or not.

The link for this tool is http://mackichan.e-lang.co.uk/call/pronus/type.html.

Phonemic Typewriter Updated

Pete — Tue, 11 Jan 2005 20:10:11 +0000

The Phonemic Typewriter has been updated. I have changed the keyboard so that it uses buttons rather than graphics, which should make it faster to load.

I have also added a couple of links to the help page: a new Unicode font, and another web based tool for generating code for using IPA symbols in web pages.

The link for the typewriter is unchanged: http://mackichan.e-lang.co.uk/call/pron/type.html.

I would be very grateful for feedback.

Phonemic Hangman

Pete — Sat, 05 Jun 2004 13:52:45 +0000

I have had a lot of useful feedback about my ‘Phonemic Hangman’ activity. As a result I have made some changes which I hope will make it easier to use.

First of all, I have included a short introduction to strategy for playing phonemic hangman. Phonemic Hangman is as simple to play as any conventional Hangman activity, but it does require a different playing strategy. The aim of this introduction is to get users to think about the most common sounds in English, so that they can make useful guesses.

I have also incorporated a hints button. This allows the player to get help for one phonemic symbol at a cost of one life, and a further symbol at a cost of two lives. I am not sure whether one or two hints is best.

I have also changed it so that the spelling of the word is shown as well as it’s phonemic transcription.

Hopefully these changes will make the activity easier to use without changing the overall goal of the activity. Please give it a try – I would be grateful for any feedback.

http://users.otenet.gr/~petermac/call/phonhang/phonhang.html