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March 2005, Week 1

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From:
LLTI-Editor <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 3 Mar 2005 11:45:22 EST
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--- Forwarded Message from Joseph Kautz <[log in to unmask]> ---

>Date: Wed, 2 Mar 2005 15:18:10 -0800 (PST)
>From: Joseph Kautz <[log in to unmask]>
>To: Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum
<[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: #7821 Language Labs Living On Borrowed Time?
>In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>


Glad someone brought this up.  I used to lose sleep over this in the late
90's.  Later, from 2001 through most of 2004, the issue had me curled up
in the fetal position with the covers over my head.  Lately though I see
the issue as an opportunity to be creative and innovative in how to use
our Language Lab.  So here are some thoughts.

Is anyone else rejoicing that publishers are finally getting their acts
together around delivering their own digital resources?  This is a good
thing because it gets rid of a lot of busy work and, if implemented
properly, could actually make application of ancillaries more seamless for
students and less time consuming for instructors.  Publisher delivery of
digital resources is also a good sign because it suggests that there might
be a new market for our graduates in of modern languages and lits in the
publishing sector.


Our lab has a cushion of sorts because our focus is on supporting large
scale online assessment.  We do online assessment from placement all the
way through exiting the language requirement.  We are gearing up for our
fourth annual online SOPI this Spring which covers 8 languages and 600+
students.  This amount of ongoing formative and "informative" assessment
requires a facility with a lot of machines that support audio and, soon,
video recording of student responses.

Sakai (sakaiproject.org) is in beta testing now and will, in my opinion,
change the rules significantly, by offering a freely available,
enterprise level, open source LMS that is standards compliant.  The
architecture is modular, allowing different schools to custom make new
tools to suit their needs and then share them with other schools.  I have
seen the mockups and done some testing myself and I can already see a
hundred ways the Sakai suite of tools will support foreign language instruction.
Much of the activities
done in the Sakai application can be done in the language lab.  Moreover,
the ease with which materials can be made in Sakai will have instructors
knocking on my door for content production support.

Like it or not, Language Labs are going to have to do a better job
interfacing with Language Centers/Dept of Modern Language folks.
A top down approach when undertaking new projects/upgrades in the lab is
more convincing, more viable, and more efficient.
As Leeann Stone points out, language learners are a special COMMUNITY of
users.  They are really a powerful constituency when viewed in this way,
especially when backed up with a language requirement.  We have to make a
better argument for lavishly supporting foreign language instruction than
"learning a foreign language is important because it allows my students to
read Pushkin in the original."  Who cares!  Outcome based, foreign
language instruction has let me read Pushkin in the original, but it also
allows me to network/interact with exponentially more people in
need/consumers/bankers/etc than I could just knowing one language.  It's a
compelling numbers game and language labs should be at the center of this
game.
This might be a good time for us as a community to look at what is working
at other schools in a systematic way.  I would be happy to help assemble
an annotated list of success stories and good ideas.
Joseph
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Joseph Kautz
Academic Technology Specialist - Stanford Language Center
Stanford Digital Language Lab
Meyer 280B - Stanford, CA 94305-3101
(650) 725-1615
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Sleep, those little slices of death, how I loathe them."  E.A. Poe
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