Exploring PASSPORT Software:  

A GUIDED TOUR

 Introduction

 PASSPORT consists of four main modules, CLIENT, TEACHER, ADMIN, and MONITOR. This Tour will guide you in trying them out. Here is a quick look at the main screen of each one and a summary of what you can do with it.  

 The CLIENT module

  
It's the only module students use.

With it they can:  

• listen to audio clips  
• record oral responses or record in pauses within an audio clip and then replay the combined result, making it easy to compare responses to a model in the clip  
• see when a teacher has inserted comments in their previous recording for an item, and listen to that version  
• read instructions, text material and written questions  
• type answers in answer boxes (from simple checkboxes for true/false or multiple choice to fill-in-the-blanks answers and free-response or essay-type answers)
• view video clips, images, Web sites, PowerPoint presentations, or other materials linked to items of lessons  
• work at their own pace, in a lab or from home  
• speak with a teacher monitoring them, including calling the teacher to ask for help   
  

Tools for lesson items  

The CLIENT module has buttons for playing an audio clip and for recording, either during pauses in the original audio clip (during which a green recording light, with a timer, comes on) or without there being any original audio clip.

 It also has a scrollable text window that can display text instructions for what to do in each item, longer text for students to read, written questions, and answer boxes for students to type answers to questions.

 An item can have a picture that appears automatically when students come to the item.

 In addition, one can link any kind of instructional material that is a Web page or file to an item. There can be a video clip, another audio clip, a Web page, another image of some kind, a PowerPoint presentation, a document with text and/or images displayable in a browser (even a section from a textbook, if the publisher gives permission), etc.  The URL (location) of this additional material is displayed on a long button beneath the text window. (No button appears when an item doesn't have a link of this kind.) Clicking on the button launches the default browser or other program needed for display or use of the material (e.g., Windows Media Player or an image viewer).

 Of course, you need to have the right plug-in or program for the file! When a teacher creates the item, the teacher can try out the URL in a browser first, to see if the computer has what it needs.  

 What you can do:
These possibilities can be used individually and in combination for a huge variety of learning and testing activities, not just in language learning but also for any subject for which recording and written response capabilities are useful. Fundamentally, PASSPORT is a tool for structuring lessons; for delivery and display of various video, audio, graphical, and textual materials with which students interact; for capturing students' oral and written responses; and for teacher-student interaction. Since most teaching involves some class discussion, having students record oral responses to material can enrich any course. Instructors can add supporting materials to literature courses, film courses, civilisation and history courses, and even science courses.

Students can use the CLIENT module during class, while a teacher is monitoring them (usually in a lab), but also individually, for practice and assignments done outside class. PASSPORTmakes possible simple remote access to a server, using a protocol known as secure ftp.  Lessons can include quizzes and tests. (The ADMIN module of PASSPORT lets teachers "hide" tests and quizzes until the moment comes to use them, make them available to students at this time, and then hide them again afterwards.)  

 The TEACHER module

With this module a teacher can listen to what students have recorded, insert comments to guide them, and put in pauses for students to record something again. For any item, the CLIENT module tells the student whether the teacher has provided such feedback. The TEACHER module also shows the teacher a student's typed answers to questions.  Records are kept by PASSPORT of all student activity which can be accessed to provide detailed progress reports for each student on on any lesson.

 The ADMIN module



The ADMIN module has two main functions:

 Whenever necessary, it lets the PASSPORT Administrator set up a new course that will appear in menus. The Administrator chooses the sound file format (MP3 recommended) and tells PASSPORT in which folders to keep the sound and text files for the course.  

 It also lets a teacher create lessons for a course. Each lesson is a sequence of items -as many as the teacher wishes. As just mentioned in the presentation of the CLIENT module, lesson items normally have text instructions telling students what to do in each and can combine various audio, video, text, image, and Web-based elements (anything in file form or on a Web page).

 Audio clips for items that students listen to using the play button in the CLIENT module itself can be short or up to ten minutes in length, including recording pauses. Audio and video clips for an item that students use by clicking the URL button to launch a media player are not subject to this restriction.

 The server can use streaming (like Internet radio stations, etc.) so that even long programs begin to play quickly, without waiting for the whole file to be transferred.  

Teachers can create text instructions, longer texts, and written questions for items in any language, including ones like Chinese, Russian, or Arabic, since PASSPORT is Unicode-compatible. If students' computers have appropriate Unicode-compatible fonts and text-entry mechanisms for non-Roman characters (keyboard remapping, etc.), response boxes will work for languages with non-Roman characters, including right-to-left text entry for languages such as Hebrew and Arabic.  Instructions can be ‘pasted in’ from any text processing software.

 In creating a sound clip for an item a teacher can simply record their voice directly  or import an existing sound file (such as from a CD that comes with a textbook)..  A teacher can edit the sound clip for an item using standard cut/copy/paste functions. The teacher can insert pauses for students to repeat something or respond otherwise.  

 A teacher can find an image file and link it to the item. ADMIN creates a special compact file suitable for the 320x240 pixel display that PASSPORT uses. This image will pop up automatically when a student selects an item.

 The teacher can link materials to items that are on Web sites, including publishers' Web sites that have versions of textbooks, archived material on Internet radio stations, and pages that permit viewing of video clips.  

 The teacher can link to an item URLs that are stored locally on a server or on the local machine.  The teacher can link to an item something on a CD or DVD that the student has and will use locally. The URL for the file will include a reference to the drive.  

 The computer must have the right programs or browser plug-ins to use files linked to items via the URL button of the CLIENT module.

 
Lessons can be tests or quizzes. ADMIN lets a teacher specify whether to "Show" or "Hide" a lesson--i.e., whether it should be retrievable by students or not. Teachers change the status of "hidden" lessons when they want to start the test and "hide" the test again afterward.  

 The MONITOR module



MONITOR lets a teacher listen to students as they work (using the CLIENT module). Students can call the teacher and ask for help, or a teacher monitoring a class can interrupt a student to offer advice or give instructions. The teacher can also interrupt and speak to all students at once. The screen looks much like older language-lab consoles, but it shows the teacher exactly which lesson and item each student is working on, and whether the student is recording or just listening.   
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