--- Forwarded Message from Jeff Magoto <[log in to unmask]> --- >In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]> >References: <[log in to unmask]> >From: Jeff Magoto <[log in to unmask]> >Subject: Re: LLTI Digest - 4 Feb 2005 to 7 Feb 2005 (#2005-21) >Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2005 23:22:53 -0800 >To: Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum <[log in to unmask]> Dear LLTIers, Yesterday's requests from David Pankratz about sources of proficiency-based placement testing, especially oral/aural, and Gil Koenigsaecker's about directions in lang. lab technology sound very familiar. Like many on this list, we've been exploring both rather extensively over the past year. (A summary of our initial efforts can be seen at: http://babel.uoregon.edu/ortesol.html) Actually, our neighbors at the Center for Applied Second Language Studies (CASLS) have been plugging away at web-based testing for quite some time and are in the process of re-calibrating and validating their K-12 proficiency tests for university placements. David, you may want to participate in their Listening pilots in Spanish and/or Japanese. <http://casls.uoregon.edu/home.php> CASLS' commercial partner, LLS, already has university placement tests which make innovative use of sample collection in both speech and writing, and are interested in delivering curriculum in similar ways. <http://www.onlinells.com/onlinells/place.asp> We've piloted their German PLACE tests and plan to use French and Spanish over the coming year. Because of their online delivery and distributed network of graders, the per student cost is very low, the results (even for speaking and writing) are fast, and the feedback is extensive. For our lab's curricular needs, we've adopted the same speech technology CASLS (and others on this list are now using), Flash Communications Server. We hired Jim Duber (whose "you say tomato" experiment impressed us very much) to develop an "always-on" virtual tape recorder and a version of his Let's Talk messaging system: <http://duber.com/LetsTalk>. These two web-based apps plus our existing streaming media tools have given us more capacity and reliability than we were ever able to deliver in the console days. The question of whether to go it alone with a build-it-yourself virtual lab (and testing environments) or to go with the one of the established vendor's is, of course, an intensely local decision. The good news is that good choices are there to make, now. --jeff Jeff Magoto Director, Yamada Language Center 1236 University of Oregon Eugene, OR 97403 [log in to unmask] http://babel.uoregon.edu *********************************************** LLTI is a service of IALLT, the International Association for Language Learning, and The Consortium for Language Teaching and Learning (http://consortium.dartmouth.edu). Join IALLT at http://iallt.org. Otmar Foelsche, LLTI-Editor ([log in to unmask]) ***********************************************