--- Forwarded Message from "Noel Eyre" <[log in to unmask]> --- >Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2000 10:22:04 +1300 >From: "Noel Eyre" <[log in to unmask]> >To: <[log in to unmask]> >Subject: Re: language lab experience Greetings Ursula and listserv participants Last year the Auckland University of Technology ( NZ) School of Languages prior to replacied one of its aging Tandburg language labs. Prior to its replacement the teachers in the department engaged in a sometimes spirited discussion on the adantages and disadvantages of of analogue vs digital (not multimedia). In the end we bought a more modern analogue Tandburg. The primary considerations that swayed us were: 1. We had a considerable library of audio cassettes which would take months and much labour & $$ to convert to digital. 2. We wished to be able to provide cassettes of language lab sessions that students could take home. 3. We wanted the language lab to be available for self-access by students without the need for supervision of the lab. 4. Ease and confidence of use for both students and teachers was an important criteria. a. We have many part time staff and we don't have the resources for frequent in-service training that was perceived to be required would be required for a digital lab vs an analogue one. (this assumption may be a bit presumptious) b. Quite a number of staff admit tro being "techno phobic" and are presently more comfortable with 'real' buttons and 'real' cassettes rather than 'vurtual' buttons and sound files. What we wanted was a language lab that combined both analogue and digital. Our perception was that digital language labs have not yet matured, that they were basically structured like the familiar anlogue labs but using digital media. The primary advantage of a digital lab is the speed of transfer of material from the teacher console to the student recorders. We compromised and bought a bay of very fast cassette copiers which can copy one master cassette to 15 copies at 15x speed. Next year or the year after, we may be replacing another language lab, at that point we will reconsider, hopefully by then digital language labs will be more mature. A multimedia lab used for languages purposes may also be an option. I would be interested in hearing the experience of CAN 8 users. Regards Noel Eyre School of Languages Auckland University of Technology [log in to unmask] >>> LLTI-Editor <[log in to unmask]> 01/22/00 02:23am >>> --- Forwarded Message from Ursula Williams <[log in to unmask]> --- >Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 13:36:47 -0500 >To: [log in to unmask] >From: Ursula Williams <[log in to unmask]> >Subject: language lab experience John asked me to post this to the list. I suspect this might generate some discussion on LLTI, so I will encourage him to join. Here's his post: May I ask your help? >> >> Our institution currently has a fairly traditional Language Learning >> Laboratory (analog audio carrels, video carrels, etc.). We plan to move >> from a traditional analog facility to a computer-assisted digital facility >> this summer and a small committee of faculty users is assisting in the >> planning and implementation stage. We would be interested in hearing from >> any people at medium-sized universities who have made this transition (the >> committee is even interested in possibly connecting via teleconference to >> explore experiences with faculty/staff from another institution). >> >> If you have made such a transition and would be willing to share your >> experiences, please let me know (contact name, institution, address, type >> of facility, phone numbers, e-mail, and web site address). >> >> Feel free to respond directly to me rather than to the entire list. My >> e-mail address is [log in to unmask] >> >> Thanks! >> >> John Fick, Associate Director >> Academic Support Center >> University of Missouri-Columbia >> 505 E. Stewart Rd. >> Columbia, MO 65211-2040 >> [log in to unmask] >> http://web.missouri.edu/~ascwww/ >