--- Forwarded Message from "Richard Laden" <[log in to unmask]> --- >From: "Richard Laden" <[log in to unmask]> >To: "LLTI-Editor" <[log in to unmask]> >Subject: new LangLab PASSPORT release, partnership with GenevaLogic (ADVTSG) >Date: Fri, 7 Sep 2007 11:04:42 -0700 E-LangLab, LLC is pleased to announce both the release of a new version (2.2) of LangLab, called LangLab PASSPORT, and an important new partnership with GenevaLogic, the leading provider worldwide of classroom-management software. GenevaLogic's award-winning Vision product and LangLab PASSPORT together provide a best-of-breed combination adding classroom-control functions to LangLab PASSPORT, for a total cost of ownership far below that of competitors' language-lab offerings with classroom control capability. Some of you may have glimpsed a preliminary version of LangLab PASSPORT at the IALLT conference in June. In addition to being more attractive than previous versions, this version has some pedagogically significant enhancements, including the ability to configure the text window to draw students' attention to key elements in it and a mechanism for instructors to provide feedback on students' written work. It is also even more user-friendly in several respects. Readers can scan the release notes by clicking on a link in the News section of our Web site http://www.elanglab.com. We'll be happy to provide upon request an installer for the demo version. We can offer a Webinar demonstration for interested language faculty, but those interested in seeing for themselves how LangLab PASSPORT can improve instruction in completely realistic conditions can install and run the fully-functional demo version on every computer in a lab as well as use it in remote access. Those familiar with previous versions of LangLab will find this new version significantly improved, we think, compared to the earlier LangLab version 2.0 that was actually the only product to receive the highest possible score in all categories in the recently-published IALLT study of lab solutions (Windows version; Apple needs to add a few tools to Mac Java for comparable performance). For those not yet familiar with LangLab, LangLab PASSPORT turns any computer lab or classroom with laptops into a language lab and is also usable over the Internet. The platform rather than lesson content, LangLab PASSPORT contains authoring tools that let teachers plan lessons and assemble instructional resources or create new resources, for any language at any level. Students learn faster because lessons allow integrated teaching of all language skills and bring interactivity to multimedia material. LangLab PASSPORT delivers these lessons to students engaged in either individual self-paced work or pair and group work. Students can simply retrieve them from menus, click to go from item to item, and use resources of any sort linked to an item. Freed from having to find files and dispatch them to students, the instructor can concentrate on listening to students and helping them. Since LangLab PASSPORT creates durable files of students' recordings and their typed responses, it supports student-teacher interaction, allowing both real-time monitoring by an instructor or later retrieval and assessment of a student's work., with comments inserted at any point in students' recordings as targeted feedback, or with corrections and comments on written work. LangLab PASSPORT is still, apparently, the only cross-platform solution with comparable functionality--a significant consideration for institutions that would like to augment instructional time by having students use it for homework, as well as for faculty who may happen to own Macs and wish to prepare lessons or evaluate students' work from home. It is also by far the most affordable solution of its type, and remains so even if an institution chooses to add to it the capabilities of GenevaLogic's Vision software (for which E-LangLab is a reseller). Those interested in reading the joint news release concerning the E-LangLab-GenevaLogic partneship can do so at http://www.elanglab.com/testlanglab/news/GL_E-LL_Partnership_PR.pdf, and the link http://www.elanglab.com/testlanglab/news/E-LL_GL_joint_solution.pdf presents a few ideas for using the two products in combination, among them a way to create lessons more or less on the fly, when instructors have not had time to do so in advance. Regards, Richard Laden ____________________ Dr. Richard A. Laden Director, E-LangLab, LLC Berkeley, California [log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask] Web site http://www.elanglab.com *********************************************** LLTI is a service of IALLT, the International Association for Language Learning (http://iallt.org/), and The Consortium for Language Teaching and Learning (http://www.languageconsortium.org/). Join IALLT at http://iallt.org. Otmar Foelsche, LLTI-Editor ([log in to unmask]) ***********************************************