--- Forwarded Message from Bob Peckham <[log in to unmask]> ---

>Date: Thu, 9 Dec 1999 17:29:20 -0600 (CST)
>From: Bob Peckham <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: PC accents

We have a MAC lab, but since we have no director or staff (except the
department secretary and occasional student work-studies, the lab clases
at 5, and many of our students cannot use it.  We have great first-year
CDs and some dasher drills (effective when they are done).  I found that
even when I gave very specific instructions for getting the US
international keyboard, and an illustrated way of using them, students
were unable to complete the assignments using their home PCs.  Many with
Windows 98 did not have the keyboard installed and were not computer savey
enough to install it.  Some (regularly hard-working) students declared
that they were only able to make "some" of the key commands work.  Since I
am a MAC person, I borrowed these routines from others, only after I tried
them myself and had several PC users do the same.

http://fmc.utm.edu/~rpeckham/accents.html

One class was able to make more use of their PCs than the other, and the
class where students regularly used their PCs did better.  I was able to
bring some students into the lab (they were able to change work
schedules).  All of these completed their work, and were rewardingly good
during the final.  Both classes complained about the lab not being open
past five.

Question.  I realize that making students use code for extended ascii
caracters (three-digits) will yield consistant results, but I have found
that students who do this do not learn the spelling of accented words as
well as those who use other means of rendering accents with their
computers.

Any ideas for improving this situation?  What do you think about our
hours?  Is their an easier and more sure way for these students, most of
whom just got their home PCs, to produce accents that will go in ANY and
EVERY interface their computers throw at them?

TBob

Bob Peckham
Director, The Globe-Gate Project
Dept. of Modern Foreign Languages
Univ. of Tennessee-Martin
Martin, TN  38238  USA
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
http://www.utm.edu/departments/french/french.html
CV: http://globegate.utm.edu/french/globegate_mirror/tbobcv.html