Savant
At present, Savant can only be used as a view-only modality of QuillDriver. Please see the QuillDriver page for installation instructions.Description
Savant is an integrated software tool for teaching and researching language based on audio and video of natural interactions using transcripts created by its sister software tool, QuillDriver. Savant allows users to view audio and video files in dynamic connection to searchable transcripts. Thus you can watch a video or listen to an audio file as its transcript scrolls by alongside. The transcript is fully synchronized with the media file, so that if you click on a line of text you will hear just that line being spoken. Users can also switch between different languages if the transcript has been translated into other languages, as well as turn the transcript, translation and annotations off and on separately so as to create different views suited to their interests. Savant is intended for use in creating language and cultural instructional uses, as well as to open up the use of audio-video materials to a broad audience Ultimately, we plan to interface Savant with associated reference resources, as well, such as dictionary, grammar and pedagogical resources.
Savant can be used for any language. At present we have content in Savant modules primarily for Tibetan and Quechua. The Tibetan data includes many videos from the Lhasa Today, a dramatic series ad-libbed by professional actors and shot in Lhasa in the summer of 2000; and videos of dialogs from Nicolas Tournadre and Sangdak Dorje's Manual of Standard Tibetan, available in English translation from Snow Lion Publications.
The Quechua content, created by Roger Andersen and Edward Garrett, is being used in Quechua classes at UCLA. This content includes two hours of ethnographic video shot in Ucuchi, Bolivia, along with accompanying transcripts and grammatical analysis. Savant for Quechua offers less functionality than Andersen's original Savant release, but is slated for further development and enhancement.
Installation
Savant currently runs on Windows and Mac OS X. To run it, you will need the Tibetan Machine Web family of fonts, as well as Java Runtime Environment (JRE), Java Web Start (JWS) and Quicktime for Java or Java Media Framework (JMF). Please click here for detailed installation instructions. "Savant" is in fact a functionality, and thus can be implemented in various software forms. At present, Savant is only offered as a view-only modality of QuillDriver. Please see the QuillDriver page for installation instructions.
To try Savant, download a module, and then select "File-Open" from the Savant menu bar. Users of THDL can also browse the Audio-Video database, download any audio-video with a transcript, and then open them up in Savant.">the Audio-Video database, download any audio-video with a transcript, and then open them up in Savant.
Modules
Because audio and video files tend to be very large, Savant content is downloadable as individual modules. To access a module, download the module (a zip archive) and unzip it to any directory. Then, when you run Savant, just select 'File-Open' and navigate to the directory where the unzipped files reside.
Currently available modules include:
- Manual of Standard Tibetan (by Nicolas Tournadre and Sangdak Dorje)
- Lhasa Soap Opera (from the UVA Tibetan Language Learning Resources)
- Ucuchi Multimedia Courseware (from the UCLA Crosslinguistic Research Lab)
Credits
Savant is a collaborative effort between many people and institutions. Current participants include:
- Roger Andersen (UCLA): Original creator of Savant, technical co-director of the DOE-sponsored Tibetan Language Learning Resources (TLLR) project from 2000 to 2003, and present primary investigator for the DOE-sponsored Quecha project from 2003 to 2006.
- Edward Garrett (Eastern Michigan University): Technical director and lead programmer of Savant.
- David Germano (UVA): Founder of the Tibetan and Himalayan Digital Library (THDL) and director of DOE-sponsored TLLR project.
- Michel Jacobson (CNRS, Paris): Technical advisor and contributor to Savant.
- Travis McCauley (UVA): Technical contributor to Savant and manager of TLLR.
We thank and acknowledge the U.S. Department of Education for its funding support.
Links
For details on related projects, please visit the following sites:
Maintained by David Germano. Last Revised on November 10, 2003.