Welcome to the Ficelle Home Page

Ficelle  (Fun Interactive Computer-Based Exercises for Language Learning) is a multimedia authoring tool designed to allow language teachers to create multimedia language lessons by use of a simple scripting language.  No programming skills are required by the lesson author.  With Ficelle a language teacher with basic computer skills can produce excellent multimedia language activities in any Latin-character-based language such as French, English,  German or Spanish.

A lesson represents a single text which may have pointers to sound and picture (.bmp) files.  Different menu screens, each another single text file, have browser-like links to other lesson files.  Formal language topic reviews or cultural clips are created using the same Ficelle language. By adding few simple Ficelle codes a text file activity may be enhanced to include the following features:

• fill-in-the-blanks type questions
• multiple choice questions, either with boxes or words to click
• tables to complete
• capability to insert and play sound files
• a recording facility allows students to record themselves and to listen to their own voices.
• show video .avi files
• coloured and highlighted text
• "hotkey" glossary words which provide explanatory messages when clicked
• graphical files
• detailed hints about whether or not the correct answer is being given.

For problems in making or formatting lessons you might e-mail either Hélène Knoerr or Alysse Weinberg to ask for suggestions.  Hélène and Alysse would also like to hear about any developments being made with the language for their own research.

Alysse Weinberg (weinberg@uottawa.ca)
HélèneKnoerr (hknoerr@uottawa.ca)

If you encounter any problems downloading or setting up Ficelle please e-mail me and I will try to help you through it.  This is an evaluation copy and should not be used for teaching purposes.  The licensed version does not have the untidy "Evaluation Copy" remark on the front page.  Write me for ordering information.  A single work-station version is $200 Canadian or about $140 U.S.  To use it in a networked environment the costs are as follows.
 

Licensed workstations	Price in Canadian Dollars
Single workstation	$ 200
3 to 5 workstations	$ 600
6 to 10 workstations	$ 1,100
11 to 15 workstations	$ 1,500
16 to 25 workstations	$ 2,250
more than 25 workstations	$ 3,000

 

Michael Davidson (mcdavids@pipsc.ca)

How to download a Windows 95/98 version of Ficelle.

• download and extract the sample Ficelle activities file ficelle_dir.zip
• download and extract the Ficelle_Setup.zip file
• run \Ficsetup95\Setup.exe
• set the Ficelle start-up directory (optional)
• Run and explore Ficelle

Part 1 - download ficelle_dir.zip to setup the sample Ficelle activities and some required files.

ficelle_dir.zip - 4.5 MB Ficelle_zip is a zip file with the Ficelle sample activities and many files Ficelle needs to work properly.   Extract this zip file into your c: or d: or e: root directory.  The extract will create a single \Ficelle\ Directory and put all its files into there.  The Ficelle program is expecting find a simple c: or d:\ficelle\frontmnu.txt file and if it cannot find this Ficelle will not work.

If you were to extract the zip into some arbitrary named sub-directory, a newly created \Ficelle\ directory for example, you might end up having a \Ficelle\Ficelle\frontmnu.txt startup file which would prevent Ficelle from loading properly.   The important thing to understand is that if you have a  c:\ficelle\frontmnu.txt or a d:\ficelle\frontmnu.txt file then the Ficelle working files are set up properly.
 
Part 2 - download the Windows 95 setup file Setup95.zip

Ficelle_setup.zip 1.8 MB Ficelle_setup.zip extracts to create a directory \FicSetup95\ which has the setup file for Ficelle.  Extract this file into your root directory to create \FicSetup95\ with setup.exe.

Most Windows 95  systems will expand .zip files by just double clicking on them.

Part 3 - Install Ficelle

• from the Task bar go to Start -> Run   c:\ficsetup\setup.exe.  This installs the Ficelle program.
• Accept the default directory and click on the picture of the computer to start the Setup.
• Go to Start -> Programs -> Ficelle. Run Ficelle and look at the sample exercises!

• The lessons in the sandbox are in the \Ficelle\Sandbox\Lessons\ directory are simple text (.txt) files.  The first file that Ficelle opens is \Ficelle\frontmnu.txt.  All of these files can be examined by opening them either by double-clicking on them in Window Explorer, or using the Notepad editor to open them, or by using the Author -> Edit Current Lesson menu item in Ficelle.
• The menu item Author -> Edit Current Lesson Ficelle Lesson Language tells about the Ficelle Control codes.  By examining the sample lessons text files and by reading the language notes you should be able to create your own lessons quickly using Ficelle.  Start by adding lines to the existing programs, and when you find out how the link codes work you should be able to create your own independent lessons.  For the time being, keep your file names to eight letters or less.

Suppose you want Ficelle to start a set of lessons in some new directory.  Say this directory is called \Madrid\.

• Go to Start/ Settings/ Taskbar/ Start Menu Program/ Advanced.
• Double-click on the Programs folder.
• Select Ficelle from Contents of Programs.  There may be a long list of alphabetically sorted directories at the front, and you will have to scroll past these before finding the Ficelle icon.  Select it.
• Go to File/ Properties/ Shortcut.
• Modify "Start in" to "c:\madrid" where "c:" is the drive where the \Madrid\ directory is. Click OK.
• Make sure you have a start-up file c:\madrid\frontmnu.txt.
• Go to Start -> Programs -> Ficelle. Run Ficelle and have fun!
• You can optimize Ficelle by having its start menu set to "c:\ficelle" but it looks through drives c:, d:, e:, f:, g: h:, i:, j:  when it starts up looking for a \Ficelle\frontmnu.txt file.

fic_test.zip 2.2 MB Fic_test.zip extracts to create a directory \Fic_test\ which has a sample test with pictures, sounds, etc. It also uses the statistical functions, exports a stats file, a notepad like text compose window in ecrit.txt, etc. Use -> Author -> Open lesson file "\fic_test\lessons\Intro.txt" and follow the instructions and links in the lesson.