Hi Laura,
We use a digital workbook from Pearson in our Spanish classes and are
expecting our French classes to adopt one in the fall as well.  The
students really like the digital version, since they have lots of extras
for practice (games, etc.) and they can't lose their homework!  If you
have multiple sections of Italian courses, the digital version will help
bring your faculty in line IF you work together on doing so in the very
beginning.  We had a rough start when we began using the Spanish
program, but if you go to your instructional technology group, or
failing that, to your language resource center and ask them to help you
implement the workbook, it will probably go better.  (IT is generally
happier to support technical problems if they know about the program in
advance, so they can run it through a testing process--at least that's
the way it works best here.)  The major "gotcha's" that we found (apart
from some beta stuff) was that there were certain settings on the
students' computers that had to be changed in order for the program to
work correctly.  For instance, in Internet Explorer, all extra toolbars
had to be disabled (like Yahoo, Google, etc.).  There were also some
supplementary downloads (Wimba and Flash)that needed to be put on the
computers and updated before everything would run correctly.  I don't
know the Avanti workbook requirements, but would suggest you read the
technical requirements section thoroughly and make sure you ask somebody
in IT if you don't understand parts of it.  Enlisting the help of your
language resource center or lab will be invaluable to you.

Sorry for the wordiness.  This was a major project for my instructional
technology team, and took some doing for us to make it a success (which
it eventually was, hence the French adoption this semester!)

Regards,
Sue Breeyear
Asst. Director, Instructional Technology
Saint Michaels College
Colchester, VT 05439

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