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May 2018, Week 3

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From:
"Bryant, Todd" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 17 May 2018 18:28:58 +0000
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If anyone is interested in using The Mixxer (www.language-exchanges.org), let me know.  I can get you started and make you a "teacher" on the site.  This allows you to schedule "events" (have your students do exchanges during a lab hour) among other things.  Depending on the language, I can also provide you with a link that displays only users who have attended our events.  This group is generally more reliable and have experience with Skype and doing exchanges with our students.



Best,

Todd



Todd Bryant

Dickinson College

Academic Technology, Foreign Languages

717-254-8941

Fax: 717-245-1456

mailto:[log in to unmask]

Skype: bryantt

http://www.language-exchanges.org/

https://www.language-exchanges.org/blogs/bryantt 



From: Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Jeremy Robinson

Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2018 2:11 PM

To: [log in to unmask]

Subject: Re: Using TalkAbroad?



Just one other comment, if cost is a concern you may consider looking into having students participate on a well established language exchange community online. We use The Mixxer which is ran by Dickinson College (https://www.language-exchanges.org/) and it is a large part now of our Spanish 101-103 curriculum. The big benefit of course is cost (free), so doing it once a week isn't an issue at all. The negative is that while you can chose who you have exchanges with you have less control over what kind of person they actually will be. We have had minimal problems, but they pop up once in a while. I believe TalkAbroad vets all their conversation partners, plus I am sure they receive some level of training. A positive about doing it with a language exchange community is that students gain a skill that they might continue after they leave their institution, and also they are able to talk with everyday people from different walks of life. A positive or negative depending on how you see it is that there is the expectation that students would do half your time in English and half of it in the target language. With TalkAbroad, you don't have to do that. It can however be a great experience and you can gain different types of cultural insights when you are speaking in your native language and don't have to focus so much on the language. This especially makes it beneficial for a beginning student who really can't have much of a conversation yet in the target language.



Hope this is helpful in someway.



Jeremy A. Robinson

Director, Culpeper Language Learning Center

Gustavus Adolphus College



On Thu, May 17, 2018 at 12:45 PM, Derek Roff <mailto:[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Thank you, Thom.   



I was figuring that one session per week during a 16-week semester would be the maximum TalkAbroad use that I could imagine in a fairly advanced class.  Hence, at that end of the usage range, 16 weeks X $10/week could cost as much as $160 per student.  I look forward to hearing how many sessions different programs have actually chosen to include.  



I agree with your observations, that it is very hard to sustain a program based on international volunteer coordination of different classes and teachers.  Furthermore, as you say, running something like this in-house can often cost more than paying TalkAbroad, although the costs may be more visible in the latter case.  I’m amazed that TalkAbroad can provide its service with training and oversight of the conversation partners for only $10 per 30-minute session.  



Thanks,

Derek



Derek Roff

mailto:[log in to unmask]







On May 17, 2018, at 10:31 AM, Hammond, Thomas <mailto:[log in to unmask]> wrote:



Hi Derek,



Some of our faculty who have adopted TalkAbroad are dropping supplemental textbooks in order to keep student materials costs reasonable. TalkAbroad recommends five conversations per semester, which would be $50 per student. I'm a little unclear how you are calculating the $160? 



Our take on it is that this provides an enormous amount of communicative material. Each conversation is preceded by an assignment designed to focus on the planned topic and scaffold the student's participation, then the conversation itself, followed by a detailed review -- by the student and sometimes by the instructor -- of the recording of the conversation, culminating in a written assignment in which the student touches on questions raised by the conversation, new language learned in connection with the conversation, cultural information gleaned from the conversation, regrets about the conversation, etc. What I am hearing from faculty is that students are willing to do this reflective step with great rigor and energy, and this is where some "teachable moments" present themselves.



I probably sound like  a shill for TalkAbroad. I'm not on their payroll, but I have drunk the Koolaid. 



Let me just say that I met Todd Nichols at either ACTFL or IALLT about seven years ago, and I came back to Harvard and asked a few faculty if they might like to try TalkAbroad, which was then new, but nothing ended up happening. Then last year, we were able to get a few faculty on board, and it has burst like fireworks. I am kicking myself for not promoting it more aggressively to our faculty when I first learned about it. People had legitimate concerns: "Well, it costs money, and ideally we'd able to set up partnerships with other universities in target-language countries so it wouldn't be commercial." And in fact, our Portuguese language program has a very successful partnership arrangement going with Brazilian universities under "Teletandem."  But, in my experience, aside from the very successful and well-organized Teletandem program, these partnerships are generally very high-maintenance and do not last long. They tend to be based on the efforts and energies of a single dynamic faculty member on each side, and when faculty move on, the programs unravel. It's unfortunate that it works this way, but this is the struggle that makes TalkAbroad excellent value, in my judgment. They do the legwork, train the conversation partners, supervise the interactions, troubleshoot technical issues, and provide ongoing continuity. These are all the things I do not have the staffing or cycles to do myself. Furthermore, the cost of doing it ourselves "non-commercially" would undoubtedly be much higher, considering the high cost of personnel, at least here in the Boston area.



My two cents.



Thom





On Thu, May 17, 2018 at 11:30 AM, Derek Roff <mailto:[log in to unmask]> wrote:

I hope that some of the people using TalkAbroad will comment on how you integrate the cost into your educational program.  The lowest price I found listed on the website is $10 per student for a 30-minute session.  That seems reasonable to me from the value perspective, but using it once per week would add ~$160 per student to the cost of the class.  This would be a challenging cost increase for many programs and students.  However, cutting the number of sessions decreases the advantages.  I’d love to read more about the practical choices that you have made, to make Talk Abroad work in your language classes.   



Derek



Derek Roff

mailto:[log in to unmask]







On May 16, 2018, at 1:19 PM, Hammond, Thomas <mailto:[log in to unmask]> wrote:



We have just completed a year-long pilot of TalkAbroad here at Harvard, and it has been very well received by students and faculty alike.  



I have been impressed with the speed and helpfulness of their support, both for our faculty and students and for my Center's team when some small issues arose with prepaid subscription codes, etc. We are adopting TalkAbroad full-steam ahead now that the pilot has been completed, and based on the "buzz" from faculty who participated in the pilot, I have received a number of queries from other language groups. They are just rolling out the option of shorter conversations (10 minutes, I believe), which might provide a very useful start for beginning-level students.  Couldn't be happier with the program or the company. 



Hope this helps,



Thom



--

Thomas Hammond, Director

The Language Center, Harvard University

Lamont 430, Harvard Yard

Cambridge, MA  02138












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