LANGUAGE RESOURCE CENTER NEWS
11/26/01

1. MOVE BACK TO RAYZOR

2. NEW SOFTWARE AND WEB APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE

3. NEW RESERVE FILM SYSTEM

4. MULTIMEDIA REQUESTS

5. NEW PROJECTION ROOM: RAYZOR 119

6. RECORDING A CLASS WITH VIDEOCAMERA

7. NEW FACULTY DEVELOPMENT CENTER, 2nd FLOOR OF RAYZOR

8. HIGH SPEED NETWORK IN RAYZOR

1. MOVE BACK TO RAYZOR

Our new location will be on the first floor of Rayzor. The LRC will close on Friday 12/7/01 at 3:00 PM to get ready for the move which will  begin on 12/10/01.

To accommodate students and instructors during the final Examination period, the servers will continue to be available. Students will be able to access needed material from all our Web servers and Media server. Servers will be turned off on 12/16/01, midnight, and will not be available again until January 5, 2002. LRC applications such as Tell Me More, Systeme-D, Atajo, Proofing Tools, Petit Robert, Diccionario de la Lengua Espanola etc. will not be available after 12/7/01. Please make sure you come to retrieve students records by 3:00 PM on Friday 12/7/01 for Tell Me More and Rhythm of French. ExTemplate records will be available until 12/16/01 midnight.

The Mudd computer labs have Word 2000 with Spanish and French proofing tools. If your students need to write essays and like to use these tools, please inform them of this location. They can also access all their video material from this same location, but will need to bring their own headphones.

The LRC will reopen on Monday January 14, 2002 for the spring semester

2. NEW SOFTWARE AND WEB APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE

• ExTemplate improvement:

New automatic encoding feature for Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Hindi, Korean, and Russian. New SQL server allowing a larger number of simultaneous users.

• Wimba, web based audio recording applications is now available through

ExTemplate and enables instructors to create exercises requiring students to record oral replies to questions, thus reinforcing speaking skills and proficiency.

• New version of Tell Me More (Chinese, French, German, Italian, and Spanish)

with more lessons and new record keeping features. The strength of this program is its speech recognition capability and detailed record keeping. If you plan on using this program, please notify the LRC as soon as possible so that we can create accounts for your class(es). Send Claire Bartlett (bartlett@rice.edu) an e-mail with your course number, students’ names and ID numbers. If instructors do not request course accounts, students will not be able to use the program.

Please visit our web site to see detailed descriptions of all other foreign language software programs:

http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~lrc/collections/software.html

3. NEW RESERVE FILM SYSTEM

Please make sure you have informed us of which feature films you plan to require your classes to view next semester. To request that films be placed on reserve, please e-mail us at lrc@rice.edu. To find out more about our new system, please call the LRC at 713-348-6157.

4. MULTIMEDIA REQUESTS

If you wish to use new software programs or films for your classes, please submit your request at the following address:

http://lang.rice.edu/apps/request/

This new system allows you and the LRC staff to track the status of your request.

Please note deadlines for requests. We will try our best to accommodate late requests but cannot guaranty that the material will be available on time for your course.

5. NEW PROJECTION ROOM: RAYZOR 119

When making reservations to show films for your class, please note that the new location is Rayzor 119.

6. RECORDING A CLASS WITH VIDEOCAMERA

If you need to record students projects or a class for evaluation purposes, please ask for students volunteers in your own class. Inform them that you need technical assistance and ask them to come to the LRC to learn how to use the equipment. We are unable to send LRC staff students to your classes, as we often do not have sufficient staff at the front desk. In addition, LRC students need to leave their shift on time to get to their next class.

See more details at the following address:

http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~lrc/record.html

7. NEW FACULTY DEVELOPMENT CENTER, 2nd FLOOR OF RAYZOR

The new center will open its doors on 1/14/02 and will house high-end computers: 2 Apple, 2 Window, and a recording studio with a computer. These computers will all be equipped with software programs enabling interested instructors to edit video and audio files, insert text, captions etc. and much more. Peter Schultz's office will be located in the Center where he can easily be available to provide assistance with all the new technology. He will be sending you details on hours of operations and material available.

8. HIGH SPEED NETWORK IN RAYZOR

The new Rayzor is equipped with high-speed network like Humanities. This will enable you to access all audio and video files and web servers at a much faster pace. It will also make it easier to use the classroom podia.

Good luck with the move. Please stay in touch and report any problems you or your students encounter. We look forward to the year 2002 in the newly renovated Rayzor.