MoodleMootVirtualConference2011

=A Sample Wiki-to-Speech Script=

Wiki-to-Speech uses a script on a wiki page to make an interactive speech using the computer's voice. You can hear this script played (30 slides) at: @http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12838403/20110815/mmvc11.htm or, as a YouTube video (length 6:48), at: @http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tnK9webnTY

This page contains a script for a presentation to MMVC11: []

The system can just give a straight presentation, providing voice overs for each slide. This allows students the convenience of going through the presentation at any time, at their own pace //(including the ability to modify the rate of speech).//

Learning opportunities are greater, however, when the system asks questions. The flow of the presentation can change depending on how each question is answered.

The first line of the script below tells the system where to look for slide image files. The path **http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12838403/20110815/mmvc11/** indicates the author is using the **Dropbox** file sharing service.

The second line contains the name of the first slide image file **img0.png** to be found on that path (in that Public Dropbox folder).

The third line contains the voice over the system will speak when that first slide is displayed.

A blank line signals the end of the first slide.

The fifth line contains the name of the //second// slide image file **img1.png**.

code [path=http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12838403/20110815/mmvc11/] img0.png This presentation has been prepared and delivered using Wiki to Speech.

img1.png Wiki-to-Speech is an alternative to the Moodle lesson module. So this presentation will review that module, discuss question formats and show how to make a Wiki-to-Speech lesson. But first consider why we should bother.

img2.png First, 400 million people use Wikipedia every month because the editors collaborate on wiki pages. With Wiki-to-Speech, you have lesson scripts on wiki pages. The result is collaborative lessons. Second, the computers talk. How cool is this! Speech works especially well on mobile devices. Third, Wiki-to-Speech can offer Augmented Intelligence for free to everyone. More on that later. We compare this to a Moodle lesson next.

img3.png This is a Moodle lesson on the Moodle lesson module. You get a screen full of text, a sidebar with links, maybe a graphic and some buttons.

img4.png This part of the lesson is a presentation. Like any presentation, it should have as few words as possible. The only words which stand out here are Good Luck! The rest are safely ignored.

img5.png Here the lesson asks a question. To answer it, you have to click twice. Why? Perhaps the goal was to be annoying.

img6.png This screen provides a response to an answer. It requires yet another click and forces the student to skip over the answer they had selected to find the response. Again, the goal seems to be to make use of the lesson as difficult as possible.

img7.png A graphic image contributes a lot to a presentation. Great. No mention here of how to produce the image however.

img8.png Apparently, the pages of a Moodle lesson are viewed one at a time. This may make sense for a student going through the lesson, but for a teacher preparing a lesson an overview could be very useful. For example, consider the slide sorter view in presentation software.

img9.png Relative and absolute jumps between pages are different in an important way, not mentioned here. If you move pages around, changing the sequence of the lesson, the absolute jumps still land in the correct place.

img10.png Moodle lessons use branch tables to allow different learners to follow different paths through the content. This involves creating buttons to allow for the path selection. This serves the purpose, but separates the buttons from the rest of the content. Why not just use hyperlinked content?

img11.png Finally, Moodle allows authoring lessons in a text file and importing the text file into the lesson module. Why? Presumably this is easier than authoring lessons directly within the lesson module interface. We consider now the various types of question formats.

img12.png First is the Aiken format. It looks just like a multiple choice test with the letter of the correct answer supplied. This is very simple and may work well for testing, but not for teaching. A lesson should have some demonstration or presention of knowledge followed by opportunities for the student to engage with or practice the new ideas before facing a test.

img13.png The Blackboard question format is even more bureaucratic, with questions and answers stacked up in a spreadsheet.

img14.png The Cloze Embedded Answer format uses curly braces to mark out part of the question as containing the answer. I found this format just plain confusing.

img15.png Hot Potatoes is another quiz style format.

img16.png The complexity level must be very high because the tutorial begins by saying quote you will be required to work with code: xHTML, CSS and sometimes javascript unquote.

img17.png Finally, with the GIFT format, we find an option for providing feedback on answers. What a great idea! Instead of just testing to see whether the learner gets the right or wrong answer, we can teach about what is right or wrong about each answer. This is the learning moment! Why do we get so little encouragement to use this feature? And why is the response limited to just one phrase? code