Innovation Invades the Language Lab The new Foreign Language Resource
Center isn't just a place to improve language skills,
but rather an innovative, technology-rich teaching,
learning and social space.
Picture the language lab of yore: Students, hunkered down in headphones, staring at a computer monitor, cut off from their peers just sitting inches away. Now, visit the new
Foreign Language Resource Center
(FLRC), located in Mason Hall, Room 101. The room is full of curves, cozy chairs, computer stations that invite collaboration, moveable walls that can act as partitions, white boards, or even space for an exhibition. Everything is on casters, allowing the room to be continually modified based on the ever-changing needs of its users.
“This is a mixed-use social space,” explains Felix Kronenberg, assistant professor of German and manager of the FLRC. “The architects really made this a signature project. We wanted to make it not look like a computer lab, but a place you enjoy being in.”
The FLRC, which was funded with a $200,000 Arthur Vining Davis Foundations Grant, has been open since last spring in a sort of beta mode, but is having its official grand opening the afternoon of September 10. Students can check out any of 1,500 foreign-language films to watch in those comfy chairs or at stations that feature multi-region DVD and VCR players. Foreign-language magazines and dictionaries are on hand.
The computers feature language software, foreign-language computer games, as well as its own webcam and headset; last semester, the center conducted video conferencing with Study Abroad students. Glass cases contain a small museum with language lab equipment and archive materials from the past, like a 1971 lab proposal, which Kronenberg says was collected to “kind of keep people humble and show that things change very quickly.”
Tutoring is available, and Kronenberg says more socially oriented plans are in the works, like book and movie of the month events and exhibitions. The Center has a smart board outside, sharing the latest news, which will eventually be synced with Oldenborg’s smart board. The center even has a foreign-language karaoke machine.
“And the place is not only for languages,” says Kronenberg. “It’s really an experimental teaching place.” The teaching portion of the room features a dual-screen with a smart screen. A laptop can be used to control all lab computers—to place a document on everyone’s desktop, for example—and the computer desks have moveable screens with plenty of desk space for groups to gather together.
Faculty can check out equipment like video cameras and microphones, as well as receive help with special projects like recording audio and video or installing specialized language software or computer games.
“A big part of what we’re doing is research and outreach. [Technology and language instruction] is a really fast-changing environment, so we’re trying to make sense of that and show faculty some easy ways to implement [these new technologies] like videoconferencing, social networking, blogging, podcasts, computer games and wikis,” says Kronenberg, who is president of the Southwest Association for Language Learning and Technology. “We work very closely, one-on-one, with faculty because [everyone] has different levels of how comfortable they feel with technology.”
The FLRC has also provided outreach to the local K-12 community, including Claremont High School. Kronenberg says the demand for information and help on how to implement new technologies in the classroom is extremely high.
The Center has held workshops and conferences, like the Language Technology Boot Camp that took place last April, and Kronenberg plans on holding monthly online presentations for language lab staff and instructors who may not be able to go to the top national conferences. “One of the ideas is we set up nodes, like this Center, where high school or college instructors from the region can come here and watch them together. Afterwards, we can try hands-on things [together.]”
Other schools, including Cal State Northridge, have visited the lab and emulated its innovations, like the social space idea and the moveable, group-friendly furniture. “The Center has been featured by some partner institutions and they’ve followed our example, which was quite flattering. But a lot of the liberal arts colleges are at least moving toward that direction, [away] from a language lab where there are stations and it’s kind of centralized with the teacher up front. That’s not how it’s taught anymore. It’s a bit more chaotic and flexible, reflecting the new technologies, especially Web 2.0.
“You might think you don’t need a lab [anymore with information being online], but people really do need assistance. People need a place to do those things, so this is the place for it.”
“This is a mixed-use social space,” explains Felix Kronenberg, assistant professor of German and manager of the FLRC. “The architects really made this a signature project. We wanted to make it not look like a computer lab, but a place you enjoy being in.”
Tutoring is available, and Kronenberg says more socially oriented plans are in the works, like book and movie of the month events and exhibitions. The Center has a smart board outside, sharing the latest news, which will eventually be synced with Oldenborg’s smart board. The center even has a foreign-language karaoke machine.
The Center has held workshops and conferences, like the Language Technology Boot Camp that took place last April, and Kronenberg plans on holding monthly online presentations for language lab staff and instructors who may not be able to go to the top national conferences. “One of the ideas is we set up nodes, like this Center, where high school or college instructors from the region can come here and watch them together. Afterwards, we can try hands-on things [together.]”
