Eva Gyarmathy: Resources for assistive and learning technology

Content: Introduction Image- and audio editors Audacity Lame Presentation - OpenOffice Further useful programmes RoboBraille AMIS - Daisy audiobook reader VirtualDub CDex An effective method A do-it-yourself Spanish lesson

IntroductionIt can be useful, although time-consuming to prepare your own learning material, in comparison to using ready-made ones. It is worth knowing some useful websites and you need some diligence, as well. However, in the case of do-it-yourself audiovisual materials, you already learn when creating them.

Image- and audio editorsImage- and audio editors can offer substantial help. Even using easy-to-use free tools, marvellous multimedia language learning materials can be created.

AudacityWhat is it for: editing audio files (mp3, wav), audio recording

Installation on Windows: download the “Audacity 2.0.2 installer” exe on the website http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/windows , then run the exe file, and follow the steps to install the programme (if your Windows asks whether you allow itto run, because its source is unknown: Yes). Important: to be able to save mp3 files, it is worth installing the programme “Lame”, as well, right after this (see below)!

To get a non-English version, for example, Hungarian: after starting Audacity, go to the menu Edit > Preferences... > Interface and in the drop-down menu “Language”, choose Hungarian, and then click “OK”, and restart Audacity.

Saving parts of an audio file:Open the relevant file as usual. Using the left mouse button, you can select parts. By pressing the Shift key while doing one click with the left mouse button, you can modify the start or endpoint of the selection. The play button will play only the selection, so it can be used to check whether the selection is correct. Then go to File

> Export selection... Then choose mp3 in the bottom drop-down menu.

Recording:You can record your voice with a microphone by pressing the red record button. You can temporarily pause recording by pressing the blue pause button, and when you'redone, terminate recording with the yellow stop button. Then you can select parts of the recording and delete them using Edit > Delete (if you've made an error in a sentence, for example). Save as described above.

LameWhat is it for: to be able to save sound files into mp3 using Audacity.Installation: download the installer http://lame3.buanzo.com.ar/Lame_v3.99.3_for_Windows.exe and then run it (as described under Audacity). There is nothing else to do.

Presentation – OpenOfficeIt is a versatile programme, which can be used among others for note taking and creating mind maps, as well. It is excellent for preparing a do-it-yourself learning material.

Copy texts: The key combination “Shift + Ctrl + V” allows you to copy texts with no formatting.

Inserting a picture: Insert > Picture > From file.., then you can resize it (you can keep its original aspect ratio if you hold the Shift key

pressed). Inserting audio: Audio that plays automatically: Insert > Movie and sound.

Audio that play when clicking on a picture: Right click on a picture, then from the drop-down menu under Interaction > Action at mouse click, choose Play sound and, then select the file at the bottom to play.

Further useful programmesOther programmes can help in making language learning a multimedia experience. The use of these is not complicated, either.

RoboBrailleIt is quick and easy to use, and you don't have to install any programme at all.

1. You have to upload the file you want to convert on the website http://www.robobraille.org, then

2. specify the format you want for the result, as well as the language of the file,

and the email address you want the result to arrive.3. After a short while, the document or audio file in the format of our choice will

arrive by email.You can use RoboBraille to convert longer texts, so that you can create audio books even from multi-page documents.

The most important output formats mp3 audio – reads out the text e-Book – ePub = text format easy to read on iPhone and iPad mobi = text format easy to read on Amazon Kindle Document conversion – converting an image or a “non-textual” pdf into text.

AMIS – Daisy audiobook readerIt uses yellow highlighting to indicate the sentence that is currently being read out. Installation on Windows:English version:http://www.daisy.org/projects/amis/downloads/Setup-amis-U.S.English.exeHungarian version:http://www.daisy.org/projects/amis/languages/Setup-amis-Magyar.exe

Using RoboBraille, you can convert a Word .doc into Daisy, and have an audio e-bookof your own. :)

VirtualDub - for editing videos (for example, for mixing music to accompany a video)http://www.virtualdub.org/

CDEx - download individual tracks from an audio CD as mp3 files http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/?q=download

An effective method Using PowerPoint or OpenOffice Impress slides, it is easy to split up texts into

sentences and smaller chunks, put them in a table and complement the text with sound.

Either you already have the audio material, or you can use RoboBraille (http://www.robobraille.org/web3) to convert text into sound.

Google translate - translation, as well as audio material is available on this site.It can read out the text you type in or its translation. With a little 'hacking', you can download a text of up to 150 characters in an mp3 file by typing the following into the browser navigation bar: http://translate.google.com/translate_tts?tl=hu&q="Enter text here" (The “tl=hu” means the language of the text is Hungarian; you can find language codes by selecting the relevant language on the usual Google translate page

and inspecting the navigation bar after a translation. For example, for a text in English, use “tl=en”.) It can then be used in your do-it-yourself learning material.

Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net), already mentioned above, is easy to use. It is no more complicated than a traditional tape recorder.

A do-it-yourself Spanish lessonBy inserting audio files, you can listen to the text all in one or sentence by sentence as many times as you like when learning.Audio files you converted from a text in doc format using RoboBraille can be edited and trimmed using Audacity. You can also insert mnemonic pictures.

Or even songs: