Future of the Language Lab

[Jonathan White]

Tony,

I subscibe to several LISTSERVs from this account, and hadn't realized that
your query came of SEELANGS.  You may find it useful to ask the subscribers
of the Language Learning & Technology International list
(LLTI at listserv.dartmouth.edu) maintained by IALLT (www.iallt.org), as, in
addition to language faculty, many language lab directors and staff
subscribe to the list and would have much insignt into the future of the
language lab.

Jonathan White

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Jonathan White          Boston University
Technical Coordinator   Center for English Language
617-358-2499            and Orientation Programs
jswhite at bu.edu          http://www.bu.edu/celop
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>From: Tony Anemone <aaanem at WM.EDU>
>Reply-To: Slavic & East European Languages and Literature list
><SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU>
>To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
>Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Future of the Language Lab
>Date: Sun, 24 Oct 2004 14:49:43 -0400
>
>I would like to thank everyone who replied off-line to my question
>about language labs, summarize below the responses, and to invite
>further discussion of the issue.
>
>Most people who responded agreed that changes in the technology of
>teaching and learning foreign languages (i.e., storage, saving and
>sharing of information through digital means) are rendering or have
>rendered many of the traditional functions of the language lab
>obsolete.  In some cases, labs are still necessary because of copyright
>issues (e.g., students may view films that cannot be shared on campus
>servers in a lab), other schools need a lab to allow faculty and
>students use foreign standards video material  (e.g., multi-standard
>DVD players). At some campuses, the lab is the only place where all
>students are guaranteed high-speed access to the Internet.
>
>At the same time, it is clear that labs are adapting to new needs.
>Among the most commonly cited needs for the future are:
>
>        - a high-tech training facility for faculty to learn new
>technologies
>relevant to language pedagogy (e.g., use                of weblogs by
>students on
>study abroad, ;
>        - an instructional facility to train students in foreign language
>Word
>Processing, chat room programs, digital-                video editing
>projects,
>etc:
>        - a central location for satellite TV reception,. packaging and
>distribution;
>        - a backup facility for students to use when their laptops are in
>the
>repair shop, etc.
>
>Because of the changes in functions of the language lab, the job
>descriptions of lab directors are also changing. In addition to the
>traditional functions (e.g. hiring and supervising staff and student
>workers, keeping the equipment working, etc.) the new lab director must
>also run instructional workshops for faculty, advise faculty and
>students on purchase and the use of software programs for foreign
>languages, troubleshoot software incompatibilities and foreign font
>problems. If anything, changes in the functions of the lab seem to be
>increasing the demands on lab directors, as well as the needs of the
>faculty and students for instruction and technical support.
>
>Tony
>
>
>
>Tony Anemone, Chair MLL
>Associate Professor of Russian
>P.O. Box 8795
>Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
>College of William and Mary
>phone:          757-221-3636
>fax:            757-221-3637
>
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