ACORNS new release

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dan harvey

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Sep 4, 2014, 4:16:12 PM9/4/14

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We are pleased to announce the release of ACORNS version 8.0 and the Sound Editor version 2. Both of these applications are available for free download from http://cs.sou.edu/~harveyd/acorns

The ACORNS project’s goal is to support tribal programs to revitalize indigenous languages and cultures. Its audience includes language teachers who, with their students, create digital lessons for practice outside of class. The ACORNS application supports ten categories of language learning lessons.

The new release provides a mobile player application for Android compatible devices. It maintains a gallery of ACORNS lessons. These lessons, created from version 8.0, can be distributed to the device by email, by cloud-based services (ex. Drop Box), or by web-based hyperlinks.

This version also integrates language independent speech recognition into the question and answer lesson. Namely, students can respond verbally to questions posed by the creator of the lesson. If their answer matches one of the legitimate sentences, the program responds with a positive feedback audio.

The Sound Editor version 2 can encode audio recordings in mp3 format. It also provides a third audio work area (instead of two) and incorporates a pitch algorithm that enables audio to be sped up (or slowed down) while maintaining the pitch.

Please feel free to contact me (har...@sou.edu) if you have questions or comments. Our goal is for this software to be a useful tool in the effort to revitalize indigenous languages.