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January 2017, Week 4

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Subject:
From:
"Shoaf,Judith P" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 25 Jan 2017 19:14:12 +0000
Content-Type:
multipart/mixed
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Well, here are a few photos of our “new” room and our still-used Sanako classroom, adjacent to it.



The “new” Language Studio has 2 computer stations, a video station, plus a sort of mobile podium. It has about 30  mobile chairs, plus mobile  tables, partitions, & glass dry-erase boards. In one photo about half the room is being used by a tiny Turkish class and, on the other side of some partitions, a larger Sign Language conversation group. In another photo, you can see the same area reconfigured for a single large group (I think it was a club meeting). A third photo shows a different part of the lab. Uses:



·         Small classes (up to 6 students) who are assigned the corner with the big monitor for the instructor to use as a podium. We have 6 laptops for class use if needed.



·         Conversation groups, ranging from impromptu to scheduled to required course “labs”.



·         Language club meetings.



·         Group video viewing on the big screen (in the evenings when not much else is going on).



·         Individual students doing  assignments (we have some of their media and also allow limited free printing for language-related work).



·         This semester, one large class (23) where we push all the partitions aside and arrange the tables so that students can see the monitor.   This basically excludes other uses.



The other room (where the Yoruba teacher is working in the photo) seats 30 at audio-interactive (!!!) computers in rigid booths. The only class that meets there regularly is a French pronunciation course, but it is used for speaking tests and info gap activities. I currently have 3 different instructors doing data collection for various projects there. Also, it soaks up the overflow from the Studio, in terms of students who just want to work on a computer assignment.



We also have a room with 30 computers around the walls and somewhat mobile tables in the middle, which is booked for classes, really monopolized by a few instructors, not so much for the computers as for the flexibility of the space. My recommendation: take a space rated for 40 people and design in it a facility for 30.



The thing about computers is that most students have more tech in their pockets than we have in a room of 30 stations. You need computers for special uses but for everyday language classes you need to be able to move a bit. The “active learning” space (the Studio) is really what language instructors have been wanting for as long as I have been in this job or longer. The ability of students to get up, form small groups, etc. is the most important thing. Ergonomics not high-tech?



Judy







From: Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Shoaf,Judith P

Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2017 8:23 PM

To: [log in to unmask]

Subject: Re: Pictures of your amazing language resource center spaces





We tried to get a room like the Berkeley one here at UF, but I am having to patch something together as the technology aspect was not funded. You could look at KU, where Amy Rossomundo teaches a collaborative Spanish class in a similar, but really large, room:

http://egarc.ku.edu/facilities​

I strongly recommend lots of whiteboards. We have a super-techy teacher who is very BYOD, but she loves the whiteboards for her classes!



Judy Shoaf















________________________________

From: Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on behalf of Rick Kern <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>

Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2017 7:06 PM

To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>

Subject: Re: Pictures of your amazing language resource center spaces





Hi Andrew,



Here's an image of one of our BLC rooms that Mark Kaiser designed as a "flex room" to provide maximum flexibility for language classes. It has proven to be very popular. Mark may have more images, but this is what we have on our website: http://blc.berkeley.edu/room_reservations/b-3/



Best,



Rick







On 1/24/17 3:30 PM, Andrew Ross wrote:

Dear All:



Arizona State University is embarking on a complete gut and redesign of our Languages & Literatures Building, which houses Learning Support Services (LSS).  LSS is a priority for expanded and redesigned space, which is very good news.  Once upon a time, there was a page on the earlier version of the IALLT website linked from the Language Center Design Manual ( http://www.iallt.org/lcd) that offered amazing images of the very best of the spaces that we’ve designed at our respective institutions.  That seems no longer to be a valid link, so I’m reaching out to all of you for advice and pics.



Here’s what we’re looking at in terms of space “typologies”:



  *   collaboratory/active learning classroom expansion (we already have one, but it’d be useful to see spaces with more capacity (+/- 30))

  *   drop-in learning facilities, with computers and BYOD capability

  *   online teaching studios for synchronous activities and simple materials development

  *   telecollaboration/telepresence space

  *   testing facilities/quiet spaces

  *   computer classrooms

  *   tutoring/small group spaces

  *   circulation/information space

  *   CALL research laboratory (eye-tracking lab, observable teaching/learning spaces, media/coding/learning object development space)

If you have center pages with images of the spaces you’ve designed (particularly successful ones), would you please respond to this thread with links?  If you don’t already have them up on the Web, I’d be happy to help figure out a place for them, even temporarily, if others would find that of use.



Many, many thanks in advance!



a.

--

Andrew F. Ross, PhD

Clinical Associate Professor

Head, Learning Support Services

School of International Letters & Cultures

Arizona State University

PO Box 870202

Tempe, AZ 85287

(480) 965-1099

Skype: andrew.ross.8




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