From: Julia Tebbets <jtebbets@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: language labs
Thank you to all contributors for the useful information regularly
shared on this list!
I would like to hear from anyone with a satisfactory solution to your
school's digital language lab needs. Do you have a carrel-based,
dedicated language lab (such as Sanako, Sony)? A multi-use computer
lab with language and recording software (which type)? Programs
running on laptops (which programs)?
Our language teachers' objectives involve delivering audio and video
content, recording, and playing back students' voices for partner work
and testing, including AP preparation and testing. Having used
traditional lab carrels, some object to trying laptops on the grounds
that the lack of carrels could increase distractions and strain
academic honesty during testing. If you do not have carrels, have
your teachers been challenged by these issues?
An ideal solution would be cost-effective, Windows-compatible, simple
enough to allow successful daily operation by faculty without tech
staff intervention, and would permit use of the computer hardware by
other groups than the language department.
Best,
Julia Tebbets
Julia -=20
Castilleja School has had a Sanako lab for the past several years and I w=
ould say that teachers are largely happy with it. It uses traditional lab=
carrels, with 19 student computers and 1 teacher console with dual monit=
ors. They find the system to be
particularly helpful in preparing students for AP exams and for administe=
ring the speaking and listening portions of the exam itself. We enjoy a g=
ood relationship with our vendor, Americal.
That said, I am not sure about the viability of the lab-based instruction=
al model over time. It's my opinion (and should not be taken to represent=
that of our language teachers) that the future of language instruction l=
ies with smaller devices
accompanied by a much more student-centric model. So as I envision our fu=
ture with the lab, I can envision one refresh of the Windows workstations=
in the lab, but not beyond that. I'm much more interested in engaging ou=
r language faculty in discussions
of Web 2.0 technologies, MP3 recorders, long-distance instruction, and in=
terdisciplinary courses which do not rely on a dedicated lab space that (=
to invoke a currently discredited aphorism) "puts lipstick on a pig." Cou=
pled with what many people see as
the tyranny of APs and the move among some schools to other forms of adva=
nced language teaching, I would hazard that labs may not enjoy a long lif=
e.
s
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Steve Taffee 650.470.7725 (office)
Director of Technology 415.613.6684 (mobile)
Castilleja School 650.326.8036 (fax)
1310 Bryant Street steve_taffee@castilleja.org =20
Palo Alto, CA 94301 www.castilleja.org taffee.edu=
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Women Learning, Women Leading
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