NEALL '97

North East Association for Learning Laboratories

Swarthmore College
March 14 - 16, 1997

Friday, March 14

2:00 PM to 5:00 PM Scheuer Room, Kohlberg Hall

Registration and Tour of Swarthmore Language Lab

Software Demonstrations by Heinle & Heinle

5:00 PM to 6:30 PM Scheuer Room

Reception hosted by Chester Technical Services

Saturday, March 15

9:00 AM Scheuer Room, Kohlberg Hall

Conference Welcome

Michael Jones, Swarthmore College and Robin Lawrason, NEALL Presi dent

9:15 - 9:45 AM Scheuer Room

Mellon Grant Partnerships in Language Technology Developments.

Janet Doner French Professor at Bryn Mawr College; Michael Jones, LRC Director Swarthmore College

Faculty and staff from Swarthmore, Bryn Mawr, Haverford and Franklin & Marshall who attended a Mellon Technology Workshop at Middlebury will discuss their experiences. Could Middlebury serve as a model for other faculty workshops? What efforts at cooperation have emerged? A look at some work in progress and a discussion of training strategies with input from participants.

9:45 - 10:30 AM Scheuer Room

Implementing the Mellon Grant - Three Perspectives : Learning Center Director, Faculty Member, Project Director.

Amale Gaffney, Language Lab Director at Lafayette College; Thomas Harrington, Spanish Professor at Lafayette College; and Robin Clouser, Project Director at Ursinus College.

Lafayette and Ursinus have received a Mellon development grant to work on computer-enhanced software for classroom use. The three panel mem bers will share thoughts about the implementation process, strategies for working in a bi-college relationship, and challenges from their three differ ent perspectives.

Break - Coffee & Refreshments in the Cappuchino Bar

10:45 - 11:30 AM Scheuer Room

Authentic Language Text (GALT) Penn State Project.

Mary Ann Lyman Hager and Norval Bard, Penn State U.

Authoring shells have cut the time needed to create user-friendly software with built-in multimedia features. GALT has allowed content experts to annotate authentic foreign language literary text for use in undergraduate language courses. The shell allows for words, phrases, or groups of words on a "page" to become hyperlinked to digital media or simple text glosses. The glossing capability of the software has permitted instructors to create in-class activities while having students read the text and prepare content related questions out of class. Une Vie de Boy is an example of one such project.

11:30 - 12:15 PM Scheuer Room

Un Meurtre a Cinet (Un Homicidio en Toluca): Teaching an Inter mediate Level Language Course via the Web.

Terri J. Nelson, Asst. Prof of French and Walter Oliver, Prof of Spanish, Cal State San Bernadino.

A late first year or intermediate level language role-playing project that relies on a WWW site and email murder mystery as the core for language instruction. Students work collaboratively in a linguistically and culturally rich context. A series of interactive Web pages creates the rest of the curriculum, as students perform a certain number of tasks (vocabulary and grammar) in order to earn "money" which they can spend or invest to un dertake tasks (shopping for clothes, buying groceries, purchasing train tick ets).

Lunch Bond Memorial Hall

Sessions resume at 1:45 pm.

1:45 - 3:30 PM Language Resource Center, Kohlberg 326

ClicNet, A WWW site for the Teaching of French.

Carole Netter, Languages and Literatures, Swarthmore College.

ClicNet is a directory of Francophone resources, both original publications and pointers to virtual resources in French. It is intended for both indepen dent student use and for teaching French, with 1500 links throughout the Francophone world. The session is a two hour workshop in French for French teachers on use of Web sites in language teaching.

1:45 - 2:30 PM Scheuer Room

Agora Marketplace

Joel Goldfield, Fairfield University

Demonstration of the Agora Marketplace, a Web site designed to help lan guage teachers locate software and advice on teaching foreign languages.

1:45 - 2:30 PM Kohlberg 115

Chinese Online Reading Assistant.

Minjuan Wang, Penn State University.

Demonstration of the Chinese Online Reading Assistant Project (CORA) developed by C.C. Cheng. CORA displays and downloads Chinese read ings and provides a dictionary and cultural references to help new Chinese students understand authentic texts. Readings are arranged so that third and fourth year students can learn simple and more complex reading skills. Instructors at Penn State are using CORA to develop lessons for students and add audio components.

2:45 - 3:30 PM Scheuer Room

Multimedia and interactivity over the WWW for language teach ing.

William Haworth, Senior Lecturer in Spanish, John Moores University, Liverpool England.

An examination of what is currently available over the Web in terms of multimedia for language learning, and what developments are underway. Examines the various pedagogical consequences, inevitable problems and potential. What traditional teaching and learning paradigms are amenable to WWW delivery? Are new paradigms suggested?

3:45 - 4:30 PM Scheuer Room

Taking L2 Profs into the 21st Century with Technology: Insights from Learning Theories

Diane Beelen Woody, Adjunct Prof, French Studies, York University, Toronto.

This multimedia Language Center Coordinator provides a theoretical frame work when working with language faculty to overcome resistance to tech nology. She stresses the need for explicit instruction throughout the pro cess of discovery for new technology users. Insights include need for "vali dated learning" and use of concrete examples of learning theory.

4:30 - 6:00 Kohlberg 115 - 116

Vendor Exhibits

Time for a walk through the Scott Arboretum

6:00 PM - 9:00 PM Bond Memorial Hall

Reception and Dinner

Sunday, March 16

9:00 - 10:00 AM Language Resource Center, Kohlberg 326

LRC Planning: The Swarthmore Experience

George Moskos, Mary Hasbrouck and Michael Jones

Swarthmore College recently opened a new LRC after a year of planning. A panel of faculty and staff will review the process of designing, funding and installing the lab.

10:00 - 10:30 AM Scheuer Room

Second Language Study Committee Planning for new Lab Facilities

Robin Lawrason, Temple University.

Session reviews language lab planning in context with overall university level Teaching and Learning Technology Planning ongoing at Temple Uni versity. AAHE has inspired the development of Teaching Learning Tech nology Roundtables at colleges around the country. The Temple Technol ogy Roundtable issued guidelines for technology plans for colleges and departments, and reviews School and College technology plans. The im portance of planning individual facilities such as language labs within an overall institutional context is stressed.

10:45 - 11:30 AM Scheuer Room

Equipment Replacement: Planning for Obsolescence

Wendy Baker Davis, Kathleen Lewis, Michael Jones

Panel discussion on aging technology in the context of experiences at Franklin & Marshall, Haverford and Swarthmore. How do you run software on older machines? How do you deal with maintenance and repair? Can you secure a budget for timely replacement of equipment?

11:30 - Noon Scheuer Room or Kohlberg 318

NEALL Business Meeting and Elections

Noon - 1:00 PM Bond Memorial Hall

Lunch

1:15 - 4:00 PM Haverford College

Visit to Haverford College Language Learning Center

Kathleen Lewis, LLC director at Haverford College

Haverford is a small liberal arts college located about 20 minutes north of Swarthmore. It installed a state of the art Language Learning Center two years ago and Kathy has agreed to host any particpants interested in tour ing the Haverford LLC. We'll arrange car pools for transportation. Please indicate your interest at registration.

Acknowledgements