The Etigliss application that resides on the Android tablet(s) features a simplified interface that allows pupils to use it intuitively and prevents handling issues from arising.
After it has been downloaded and installed, EtiGliss automatically provides access to a series of demonstration exercises that allow you to test its use and discover its potential.
Firstly, please note the "?" button (3) that opens a help page with direct links to the software documentation.
The left column (1) contains the list of classes, while the right column (2) lists the exercises available for each class. A simple tap on the exercise's title will load it up, displaying the shuffled labels. By default, the exercises are provided in alphabetical order of title, but the teacher can change that order on the "Etigliss - Teacher" web site. To simplify things, particularly for younger users, a sequence number has been added to the left of each exercise. The number itself can vary from day to day, depending on the number of exercises that have been made "visible" to users, but it is always the same on all tablets at any given point in time.
Configuring the tablet so that it accesses YOUR OWN exercises is done in the application's "Preferences" (5).
The "Preferences" button of the tablet opens the panel by the same name, illustrated below. The icon may vary between different versions of Android. Please note that, by design, this button is only active in the login and the exercise selection screens. This prevents unexpected access by pupils whilst executing an exercise.
To change the list of classes that will be shown on the tablet, you must tap on the first parameter "key(s) for group(s)" (1): this will display a dialog box allowing you to enter your classes' ID key. To find which value corresponds to each class, please consult the "My classes" section of the "Etigliss - Teacher" web site, where you will find it listed beside the name of each class. It consists in a series of eight letters and numbers. Note that the letters are not case sensitive. If you want to see several classes on one tablet, a comma must be used to separate each ID key from the next. It is important not to add any spaces or extra commas.
After adding a new ID key, leave this dialog screen (7) and simply press the "Refresh" button (4 in the first picture above) to update the list of classes: the tablet is now ready to be used by your pupils. Note that after you remove the ID key EN123456 pointing "Demo Class", access to the Help (3) button is automatically disabled, so that your pupils will not unnecessarily waste time browsing documentation that is irrelevant to them.
The section of "Preferences" entitled "Special Actions" allows to configure the behavior of the tablet for additional actions available using special key combinations.Â
Pronunciation of the text (text-to-speech) associated with each label using the tablet's audio feature is normally activated by a long press (aka Long click) on the label. However, some tablets do not properly manage this long click but are better at recognizing the pressure of three fingers simultaneously (aka Triple click). By checking this box (2), you activate the triple click as the trigger to start text-to-speech.
If you use the Long click - i.e. pressing the label for a longish period (usually 1 to 2 seconds) without moving it - to trigger text-to-speech, you can modify the duration of the long click to a value between 1/2 and 5 seconds, via the next parameter. A value of 1 to 2 seconds is the norm but it sometime turns out to be inappropriate for some pupils, in which case it can be useful to increase or decrease its duration.
Similarly, it often happens that children slightly move a label when they really only want to listen to its associated text. The next parameter allows to adjust the tolerance of movement (4) permitted to activate text-to-speech using a long click.
Finally, the "speech rate" parameter (5) is used to vary the rate of speech from the synthetic voice. By default, it is set to 85% of the "standard" speed in order to facilitate understanding without distorting the voice too much. Please see the page dedicated to the management of the synthetic voice (6) for more information and details of how to add voices.
By authorizing the "offline mode" (8) in the preferences, you can also use the application when you are out of range of a WiFi network, provided that the exercises have been loaded at least once on the tablet. To identify such exercises, you can use the next parameter (9): if checked, it will indicate with a small aerial symbol, all exercises that are not in the cache and therefore require a WiFi connection to run. This symbol is located on the right of each exercise and replaces the symbol that normally indicates exercises with automatic validation of answers.
When it is launched, Etigliss automatically offers to work offline if no WiFi network is detected. This offline mode is retained for the current session, but is automatically canceled the next time the app is launched.
A "safety margin" (10) determines the area in which the displacement of labels is no longer taken into account. This margin avoids losing labels that are moved too far to the edge of the screen and can thus no longer be brought back to the exercise board. By default, it is set to 50 pixels but this value can be modified if needed for the specific resolution of each tablet.
The next preference "Downsizing" (11) may occasionally turn out to be useful: checking it reduces the size of the characters and pictures without having to change the layout of the exercise. This option may result in a better display on very long tablets (e.g. 16/10 format).
If the tablet's response is very slow when pictures are being moved, it is possible to somewhat improve the situation by checking the box "Reduce the resolution" (12) which slightly decreases the quality of the pictures.
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