SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

Preconference tours and demonstrations will take place on Friday from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Formal conference activities will begin Friday night at 6:00 p.m. and end with lunch on Sunday.

Link to Campus Map

Friday, April 26th

Friday, 3 - 8pm

Conference Registration
Location: Language and Dining Center Lobby

Friday, 3 - 5pm

Building Tours/Technology Demos
Location: Language & Dining Center 3rd floor

Please join us for tours of our new language building! Tours will be leaving every 30 minutes from the 3rd floor.

Friday, 5:30 - 7pm

Dinner
Location: Language and Dining Center or Dowtown

All are welcome to take advantage of conveniently close Dining Center, or you can explore the restaurants of Northfield! Information about available cuisine will be in registration packets.

Friday, 7:00 - 9:00pm

Activity Swap/Poster Session
Location: Language and Dining Center 350

Join your colleagues to exchange activity ideas and see what others are interested. It's a great time to get acquainted with new and interesting projects in the region!

Saturday, April 27th

Saturday, 8 - 10am

Conference Registration
Location: Great Hall, in Severance Hall

Saturday, 8:00 - 9:30am

Welcome and Keynote Address
Location: Great Hall, in Severance Hall

Mr. Ira Fuchs, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The Future of Educational Technology: Looking at the Larger Context

Promising directions: What are the promising directions for the future of educational technology? What is the impact of course management systems (CMS) in a liberal arts college context. What is the promise of OKI in this context? How can schools pool resources and collaborate to research and implement new developments in educational technology?

Lessons Learned: What is no longer sustainable? Are there specific types of collaborations have proven less successful. What lessons are we carrying forward from past projects? What is tried and true? What is sustainable?

What is the Mellon Foundation poised for in the future? How does the shift to a regional centers model support growth and development in the effective uses of instructional technology in liberal arts colleges?

Saturday, 9:50 - 10:40am

Translation Online
Presenter: Christine Lac, Carleton College
Location: Language and Dining Center 104


In this session we will look at various sites providing translation on-line and evaluate their usefulness in terms of accuracy at this point. We will then examine the questions posed by the existence of such devices in composition classes. We will address the issues of plagiarism, writing in a foreign language vs translating in a foreign language, and assessment.

Language Support in OS X
Presenter: Apple Representative
Location: Language and Dining Center 335

A representative from Apple will be talking about the capabilities of their newest operating system, OS X. He will focus on the multilingual features and possible curricular applications.

Process Design of the Language & Dining Center
Presenter: Andrea Nixon, Cynthia Shearer, Diane Nemec-Ignashev, Carleton College
Location: Language and Dining Center 345

In this session three members of the team of faculty, staff, and administrators who contributed to the design of the Language and Dining Center will provide an overview of the planning process. We will address, among others, issues such as campus culture, needs assessment, technology and space design issues specific to language-learning and teaching, and communication across constituencies. We hope that this panel can offer even those who are not immediately involved in building or renovation projects some ideas about the varieties of concerns that arise when a campus builds new teaching spaces (language-learning spaces, in particular) and the significance of existing structures and communities on campus as they come to play in the design process.

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Saturday, 10:50 - 11:40am

St. Olaf Foreign Language Faculty "TALC" Tech
Presenter: Mary Cisar, St. Olaf College
Location: Language and Dining Center 104

In June of 2000, St. Olaf College received a grant from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund to institute the Center for Technology Across Languages and Cultures (TALC), whose purpose is to fund initiatives to encourage faculty to consider the role of technology in the f. l. classroom and to train them in specific applications. This session describes the goals of the Center for TALC, the process that led to receiving the funding, and the activities of the Center over the past (nearly) two years.

Using Handhelds: Learning "Anytime, Anywhere"
Presenter: Phyllis Larson and Craig Rice, St. Olaf College
Location: Language and Dining Center 335

While the effort to incorporate technology into teaching and learning has focused on the use of computers, one overlooked technology that will likely play an increasing role in education is the handheld. Handhelds are extremely portable, and recent innovations in handheld technology have resulted in color, high resolution, and audio and video capabilities. We will describe how for three semesters beginning in Fall, 2001, we used the Handspring Visor to teach Intermediate Japanese reading and writing skills. We will also describe how, thanks to a grant from the Freeman Foundation, we intend to use the Sony CLIE to expand our use of handhelds in teaching to include multimedia content. Further, we will demonstrate some of the specific handheld applications we are using. We will discuss what we are doing specifically in Japanese, but we will also be talking about opportunities handheld technology offers all learner and teachers.

The Art and Science of Classroom Design
Presenters: Bake Baker and Leigh Harrison of the design firm - Hammel Green and Abrahamson, Inc. www.hga.com
Location: Language and Dining Center 345

The "Art" of the language arts classroom design process is in stages of discovery. The "Science" of this process is in the implementation.

Utilizing the design of the Carleton College Language Arts Center and similar facilities as benchmarking examples we will discuss the dynamics of the facility design process. During the discovery process the staff and faculty of the institution are allowed to create their own vision of the ideal teaching environment, to examine the opportunities available for enhanced effectiveness in instruction by utilizing technology and to transfer that vision to the remainder of the design team. The designers then translate the vision into a conceptual design that serves as the litmus test for the remaining design process. By facilitating this process the initial thought has the ability to become reality. This is an "Art".

The continued translation of this concept into a functional space that allows the user to integrate various technological mediums to facilitate the teaching process is the "Science" component. Issues such as sound, light, intelligibility, audible response and ease of use become focal points of the implementation process. These are addressed in the establishment of an Integrated Technology Plan that becomes a framework for all future decisions. The ability of the teaching environment to successfully integrate advances in technology is a clear indicator of the teamsÍ effectiveness in the implementation process.

This session will examine these design tools, the outcomes that can be achieved through an interactive design process and the advantages of establishing a plan for the future growth of your program.

Saturday, 12:00 - 1:30pm

Lunch & Group Discussions by profession or language interests
Location: Great Hall, in Severance Hall

Here we hope to help facilitate collaboration among participants by providing ample opportunity for discussions on common topics or themes. Tables will have placards where participants can mark a desired discussion theme. Themes can be defined in any terms, by profession, by langauge interest or by a particular project focus. Participants are encouraged to sit down at a table with a topic that interests them and enjoy the buffet lunch with colleagues from other institutions.

Saturday, 1:30 - 2:20pm

Teaching enhanced with course management systems
Presenters: Scott Siddall, Denison University and Claire Bartlett, Rice University
Location: Great Hall, in Severance Hall

Course management systems (CMS) are relatively easy-to-use programs that organize and present curricular materials for access on the web from anywhere at anytime. In the last five years, dozens of commercial and public domain course management systems have been adopted by corporate training programs, the K-12 community, and higher education. We'll look briefly at these offerings and explore the many curricular services that course management systems can provide in higher education. We'll summarize the design elements that can make a CMS successful and finally review the pros and cons of buying versus building a CMS drawing on examples such as Blackboard and the Open Knowledge Initiative.

Following the comprehensive review of various CMS and other projects presented by Scott Siddall, Claire Bartlett will discuss and present our own web authoring project which attempts to solve many of the issues foreign language specialists encounter. The Language Resource Center at Rice University developed its own tool, ExTemplate, which supports many of the non- Western languages while also allowing the assessment of speaking, listening, writing and reading skills in most languages. ExTemplate has been used at Rice for two years and currently includes 1,485 exercises and tests developed by 25 instructors. It has significantly contributed to the successful integration of technology to the language curriculum and to the improvement of language instruction and assessment. Symposium attendees will be able to learn about the project development and implementation process and view sample exercises, quizzes and placement tests created in several languages.

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Saturday, 2:40 - 3:30pm

Roundtable Discussion - Interconnected Support: IT, Library and Satellite Service in Support of Language Instruction
Presenters: Barbara Thompson, Kenyon College and Carol Smith, DePauw University
Location: Language and Dining Center 330

Beginning with examples of integrated support scenarios at Kenyon College and the Ohio5, this discussion will explore how relationships between IT, library, audio-visual services can interconnect to benefit of language faculty and students. From faculty office visits to new facilities construction, cooperation and understanding of such services by instructional technologists, librarians, and other support personnel can contribute positively not only to language learning, but also to computer fluency, information literacy, collection development, and reference service.

Proposal Development
Presenter: Patricia Martin, Carleton College
Location: Language and Dining Center 335

External resources can play an important role in developing your programs and projects. Successful grant seeking grows out of institutional priorities, responds to the mission of the funding organization, and leads to sustainable change. This session will consider grant seeking as a process and will look at how you can identify prospects and develop a compelling case for support.

Are new technologies changing the way students think and learn?: What We Now Know about How Gen-Y Students Think and Learn
Presenter: Dennis Trinkle, DePauw University
Location: Language and Dining Center 104

This panel will explore what we now know about how students think and learn. We will talk particularly about what we now know about how students think and learn with technologies. A number of recent studies help us understand how new technologies are changing the way students think and learn and what we now can highlight as most effective practices. This session will explore those lessons and practices.

Saturday, 3:40 - 4:30pm

Roundtable Discussion: Enhancing Study-Abroad through Technology
Presenter: Donna Oliver, Beloit College
Location: Language and Dining Center 330

In what ways can new technologies expand and enhance traditional study-abroad experiences? How can we better integrate technology into off-campus programs? How do we handle the logistics with our partners institutions abroad? How can the internet help us establish new venues or enhance existing programs? Can new technologies help us monitor students, both on site and by e-mail? How can technology help bridge our students' on- and off-campus experiences? These are a few of the questions to be addressed in this round-table.

The Planning of a Digital Language Lab
Facilitators: Candace Chou, Associate Director and Jenise Rowekamp, Director CLA Language Center, University of Minnesota
Location: Language and Dining Center 104

This forum aims at discussing the planning, design, implementation, operation, and evaluation of a digital audio lab. What's in the name of a digital Language Lab? Where does one start the search for a digital Language Lab? Who are the parties involved in the planning of a digital Language lab? In what way does a digital Language Lab change or enhance traditional audio lab instruction? We welcome those who are in the process of planning a digital Language Lab to join in the discussion. We also welcome those who are familiar with the planning and operation of a digital lab to come and share your experience with everyone.

Student Perceptions of Technology Enhanced Language Learning in a Basic Spanish Program
Presenter: Jonita Stepp-Greany, Florida State University
Location: Language and Dining Center 335

This presentation describes a technology-enhanced program (Internet activities, CD ROM, electronic pen pals, and threaded discussions) in first and second semester Spanish classes at Florida State University and presents a study that gathered survey data from these classes. Through the various electronic components, students are exposed to a rich linguistic environment that is cognitively demanding, yet skill-building. Goals of the study were to determine the students' perceptions of: (1) the role and importance of the instructor in technology enhanced instruction (TELL), (2) the accessibility and relevance of the lab and the individual technological components to student learning, and (3) the effects of the technology on the foreign language learning experience. An important finding was that students attributed an influential role to instructors. They also perceived that cultural knowledge, listening and reading skills, and independent learning skills were enhanced, but attributed little learning or interest value to the individual components. Implications are presented that may be useful to universities developing technology enhanced instruction.

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Saturday, 4:45 - 5:30pm

Group Discussions: Considering Collaborations
Location: Language and Dining Center, self-designated rooms

Once again, participants will have the opportunity to continue discussions and collaborations with colleagues from across the region. There will be a whiteboard on the 3rd floor of the Language and Dining Center, where participants will be able to designate rooms for particular discussion themes. Others are encouraged to check the whiteboard throughout the day and join the discussion group that is most interesting or appropriate.

Building Tours/Technology Demos
Location: Language and Dining Center 3rd floor

Please join us for tours of our new language building! Tours will be leaving every 30 minutes from the 3rd floor.

Saturday, 6:30 - 9:00pm

Drinks and Welcome Banquet
Location: Great Hall, in Severance Hall

Drinks begin at 6:30pm, dinner is served buffet style at 7pm in the Great Hall.

Sunday, April 28th

Sunday, 9:00 - 9:50am

Wireless Lab - An Actual Model
Presenter: Jian Wu, Multimedia Lab Manager, CLA Language Center, University of Minnesota
Location: Olin Hall 149

The presenter will talk about various technological issues related to setting up a wireless lab. By examining an actual model currently used in CLA Language Center of University of Minnesota, the presenter will share experiences as well as lessons learned from the process of setting up the lab, and discuss what is possible and what is impossible in terms of current wireless technology. Some of the specific issues to discuss include how to extend range through marble walls, how to make printing possible wirelessly, and how to deal with subnet problems.

Dynamic Grammar
Presenter: María Victoria Gonzalez Pagani, University of California - Santa Cruz
Location: Language and Dining Center 104

I will present a Dynamic Spanish Grammar developed using an authoring software for creating interactive animations for the web. This grammar consists of different modalities in which graphics move on a computer screen and along with juxtaposed sound act as descriptive agents. Written and oral text combine in a design that provides examples and explanations so that students learn not only the grammar but also the metalanguage to describe it.

I will address the principles underlying its design, its integration into the curriculum, and the research options it offers. Preliminary research results from testing sample modules will also be discussed.

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Sunday, 10:00 - 10:50am

Du Côté du Périgord Vert: Video in Foreign Language Learning
Presenter: Lewis Weinberg, Carleton College and Pary Pezechkian, Augsburg College
Location: Language and Dining Center 104

Du Côté du Périgord Vert is a DVD interactive project that examines contemporary life in a rural French village. Assembling interviews with residents and images of village life, it will be both oral history and a tool for teaching French language and culture. Du Côté du Périgord Vert is the project of Professor of French Pary Pezechkian and filmmaker, Lewis Weinberg. In it’s finished form, it will consist of three DVD interactive disks, containing a total of four and a half hours of material. The material will consist of interviews, images, and other visual and audio documents, presented by theme, by geography, and by person. There will be a companion website containing video excerpts, with forms for submitting compositions and answers to quiz questions. A workbook will also be written to accompany the use of the DVD’s in the classroom.

Hilacha: A Multimedia Approach to Listening Comprehension
Presenters: Diane Pearsall and Carly J. Born, Carleton College
Location: Language and Dining Center 335

The Hilacha project was begun with funding from a Mellon grant in the spring of 1998. It came about from the desire to find new and interesting ways to expose students of Spanish to authentic materials for listening comprehension practice and cultural awareness. Our presentation will describe the pedagogical foundation of this multimedia project and the design process that has been followed for the past 4 years. We will demonstrate the project in its current form and talk about the hidden capabilities of the software we used, HyperStudio. Finally, we hope to provide our audience with guidelines for developing their own multimedia project based on our experiences.

Home-Grown or Off-the Shelf?: The Merits of Authoring Locally Designed Applications for Language Learning
Presenter: Dick House, Wabash College. Cheryl Johnson, Denison University, and Nelson de Jesus, Oberlin College
Location: Language and Dining Center 330

This session will present the results of surveys of several GLCA institutions which have had varying degrees of experience with in-house development of materials. In addition to anecdotal histories of the development of some of these applications, the session will provide insight into a number of concerns, including:

1) what factors contribute to the decision to develop one's own materials rather than to purchase pre-existing packages;
2) what improvements do locally created applications offer over commercial packages; and
3) what added responsibilities result for students, faculty, and staff when developing and using such materials?

Those attending at Carleton will also be invited to complete a short survey regarding this issue at the time of registration. The presenters hope to collate these responses by the time of the session.

Following presentation of the results of the surveys, the presenters will serve as a panel for a brief question-and-answer session.

Sunday, 11:00 - 11:50am

Grant Evaluation
Presenter: Nancy Millichap, Midwest Instructional Technology Center
Location: Olin Hall 149

You've seen the Request for Proposals from the Midwest Instructional Technology Center, and you've wondered what happens when MITC receives them. What makes for a successful proposal, and how can you ensure that your proposal has these features? MITC's director will offer observations from the first cycle of the review process on how the reviewers are evaluating MITC proposals, as well as a more general sense of the Center's programs and goals and how these are likely to evolve in the coming year.

Assisted Reading of Chinese Text
Presenter: Mark Hansell, Carleton College
Location: Language and Dining Center 104

In the teaching of authentic materials in advanced Chinese courses, intensive reading (a time-consuming in-class process in which the instructor leads the student through the text) is best complemented by extensive independent reading of a larger volume of text in the same genre or subject matter, to reinforce the student's grasp of vocabulary, grammar, and comprehension strategies.

The problem is that even advanced students have such a limited reading vocabulary: The lack of English-Chinese cognates, combined with cumbersome dictionary lookup procedures, makes extensive reading a difficult and excruciatingly slow procedure. This talk will discuss curricular use of off-the-shelf computer software which allows instantaneous dictionary lookup without the student's eyes leaving the text, as well as other uses of electronic resources to diversity the experience of reading and writing.

Sunday, 12:00 - 1:30pm

Lunch and Closing Remarks
Location: Great Hall, in Severance Hall

Wrap up the weekend with one final gathering in the Great Hall for a buffet lunch and closing remarks.

 

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