--- Forwarded Message from "Shoaf,Judith P" <[log in to unmask]> ---
>From: "Shoaf,Judith P" <[log in to unmask]>
>Date: Sat, 18 Sep 2010 11:01:50 -0400
>Subject: RE: #9476 Anyone using Tell Me More?
>To: Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Our Japanese program got interested in it at a time when I had a grant, and I
boldly asked Chinese and Arabic if they would be interested in using it too and
bought all 3. The TMM folks who do distance training and tech support are nice
but (a) the program is somewhat buggy and does not allow for any proper record
of scores or use, (b) there are problems with some character sets which limit
adoption, and (c) you need to think in terms of making the program available to
the instructors as well as the students, so that they can decide what lessons
are appropriate.
The end of the matter is that only Japanese has actually used it, and the students
are not wholly enthusiastic. They don't really trust the speech recognition, claiming
that it does not recognize correct enunciations but gives a pass on incorrect
ones (these are 2nd semester students and they are probably wrong, but...). I
try to give strong pep-talks about how to use the visual feedback and what they
can achieve, because I really do think this is useful.
(a) In the Chinese-Japanese version we have there are a couple of bugs: a type
of exercise (matching English with target language) which kills the program (this
whole type of exercise is not available in the Arabic); also, an error message
appears if a user goes back to an uncompleted exercise, which can be got around
however. (a2) The only record of use is a colored diagram showing blue tubes filled
with different shades of blue to different levels indicating exercises completed
and success levels. This diagram remains stored locally on the computer (so far
as I can tell) under the username. Actual use can be validated by having a lab
assistant note the numbers on a sheet of paper, but as there are up to a dozen
items per lesson this takes a lot of paper. Or one can do a screen capture and
print the color image, requiring even more paper and a lot of blue ink. The Arabic
program is different and has an alternative score sheet, but the best I can say
for it is that a screen capture could probably be printed in b/w without losing
information.
(b) The Chinese version has only the simplified character set as an option, whereas
our program uses traditional more than simplified. The Arabic professor who looked
at the Arabic version commented that they do not teach the beginning students
the diacritical marks, so the dictation exercise is useless.
(c) The overall problem has been that, no matter what I do, I can't persuade the
tech support folks to install copies of the program on computers in the language
department. This means that only instructors who are willing to come to the lab,
sit down with the program, and make copious notes (or print screens) can evaluate
the lessons, determine what goes with their course lessons, and think of ways
to incorporate required use. Clearly I should have bought more licenses, but even
when I reduced the number of licenses in use in the labs the idea of installing
the program on instructor computers remained pie in the sky. This is a purely
local problem for me but it suggests that any plans should include instructor
access.
Judy Shoaf
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