Russian via satellite - a change in plans!

[Devin P Browne]

A number of people have written to me asking for more details about the
Russian program we tap into at my school, West Mifflin Area High School.
I don't have much information about it other than the
fact that our satellite programming is being coordinated by SERC
(Satellite Educational Resource Center???  I think that's it, but I'm not
at school right now).  It's taught from a studio in South Carolina.  They
do a pretty good job, in my humble opinion.

The course is set up so that my 2 students in Russian II watch a broadcast
4 days a week and work through the text with the instructor.  The 5th day
of the week is Conversation Day, for which they call in over a speaker
phone in the room and work through speaking/listening practice with a
native speaker.  They usually have certain materials to look over before
calling in.

However, I found out that (*big surprise!*) enrollment has gone down so
that Russian I will not be offered next year and that they will most
likely start to phase out the program.  How about that?  A school goes for
Russian over satellite and even they are phasing out Russian.

Is anyone familiar with any other organization other than SERC that offers
Russian?  Ironically, while numbers declined elsewhere, our numbers went
up this year from 2 to 7!  ugh

Any ideas?

Devin/Divan


Devin P Browne
dpbrowne+ at pitt.edu