Editors' Note

Technology is advancing at ever-increasing speed. Advanced technological devices are smaller, more portable, and more easily integrated into our everyday activities. For many of our students, what may seem to us the ephemeralization of both the material world and the realm of meaning is the straightforward fact of information at their fingertips.

Our students are experienced at building a world of meaning, indeed, building the world they inhabit, both in virtual and in physical space, by use of those ephemeralizing technologies. It is, therefore, worth our asking whether the tendency we often perceive, of attention directed elsewhere, or interrupted and intermittent, may be part of a mindset attuned by experience to dealing with, comprehending, even recreating content in a way that separates the deeper, inner world, from the superficial realm of data and information.

Information does not exist, in this way of thinking, for itself, but as a resource that feeds into experiential contacts with content. This may be the intellectual mandate of our times, a standard to which students cannot help but adhere.

We know from our own experience, and from more advanced studies of cognitive functioning and learning styles, that the human brain acquires information not by absorbing it, but by creating new mental terrain with it. The brain literally creates new neurological and semantic circuitry to deal with and to manifest new information, and in practice, performative knowledge such as language usage is more ingrained when learners have the opportunity to create with that performative knowledge.

As the Technology Committee for the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, we feel it is necessary to open and to guide an ongoing

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SECTIONS

• Editors' Note

• Why Technology in a Classroom?

• Te@chnology Tips

• Links & Resources

• The Editors' Picks

• In Practice

TE@CHNOLOGY TIPS

The use of audio-visual technologies

in the classroom can be of benefit

to the students, where the content

allows for the students' mind to

create with the language.

prezi.com is a presentation

program, available online, which

allows students (and faculty) to

assemble text, graphic and video

media across a zoomable digital

scrap-board, which can be mapped

to operate like a slideshow or used

like a bulletin board as orderly or as

messy as users see fit.

tumblr.com is a 'micro-blog' site,

that allows for posting links,

summaries, assignments, even syllabi

and embedded video, to make

resources related to a given subject

easy to locate and access.

discussion about ways to harness technology for language instruction that will:

• enhance the classroom experience,• cultivate the experience of creative usage and immersion, • and help to build the most effective, human relationships, between

instructors and students, given the goal of encouraging not just study, but real learning and ultimate fluency.

LangLitTech is our offering of news and information relating to technology that might enrich the classroom experience for faculty and students working with foreign languages. In this first edition, we give you some introductory resources, and invite you to share with us your insights into effective ways to enrich the learning experience with technology, without distracting from mastery of grammar or core proficiencies.

Why Technology in a Language Class?Today our students are digital natives. We professors are digital immigrants.

Through this periodical newsletter we want to explore practical ways to use technology to enrich the study of languages, and literature, poetry, and to enhance the knowledge of grammar, writing, speaking and writing. We want to share innovative ideas, effective techniques, and thoughtful plans for incorporating Web-based resources, desktop software packages, and new and emerging technologies into classroom instruction of the languages we teach at the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures.

We will examine numerous examples of the best language-related web sites, work with innovative tools to help improve student’s skills, as well as developing skills with Web 2.0 technologies such as blogs, wikis, podcasts, and online social networks.

We want to make this project highly participatory, and invite everyone to contribute their experiences, their insights, their tastes and preferences

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Apple's iPad provides a wide

array of unique new creative and

organizational tools, which can

change the way students interact

with information. It also allows

faculty more streamlined, time-

saving ways to track attendance,

grade student performance and

create and manage course content.

Blackboard: the new Blackboard

service will make centralizing

course material and sending and

receiving assignments simpler, more

manageable, and more effective for

communicating clearly with

students in real time. iPad will make

use of the service still simpler, for

those inclined to use one.

Audacity is a free, downloadable

voice recording program that

allows for the creation of

mobile .wav files (or with the right

plug-in: .mp3 files) digital sound files

easy to upload and transfer. This

allows students to test, study,

practice and improve their own

pronunciation. It can also be used

to help students produce voice-

over narration for the creation of

digital stories and group sketches.

regarding classroom technologies. Together, we would hope to build a useful forum for sharing and exploring strategies to build creative, collaborative, and community-minded classrooms of the 21st century.

Our aim is to support and enrich the classroom experience of learners in the language program through small highly-engaging activities. 

In Practice...A look at digital translators.

Not all that glitters is gold. Not because we live in a world driven by technology, we should blindly accept what is out there. Indeed, there is a great deal of controversial issues surrounding some technological applications. While technology has had a major impact on the teaching and learning of languages, a lot of controversy surrounds online, interactive exercises that seek to teach or practice language skills, lexical areas, and grammar.

Even though electronic translators have their effectiveness when wisely used to cross-check between dictionaries (monolingual and bilingual reference material), they are seldom used with this purpose in mind by the language learner. More often than not, our students use these tools for production. And, when doing so, they seem to frequently be encouraged by these cute machines to frequently select the wrong lexical item! That’s why when grading a student’s composition/essay we teachers can easily tell when this form of cheating has been performed.

What can be done about it? Always warn the students that we are experienced practitioners, and very good at detecting this “digital trick”. Remind the learners that machines are limited - thanks God for that, and cannot make intelligent decisions regarding language use. Moreover, it would be very positive for our learners’ self-esteem to be reminded that they are smarter than the silly machine!

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DropBox.com is a platform for

file sharing, that allows an individual

or group to share and store files

across multiple computers. It can

serve as a way to synchronize files

and folders, without the worry of

copying, pasting, and syncing, or the

risk of accidentally erasing files. It

can also allow faculty and students

to create shared document pools

where collaborative projects can be

developed, evaluated and shared.

issuu.com is a free service that

allows individuals and organizations

to host entire libraries of digital

content, to build networks of

interested readers and

collaborators, and even to make

some content available for

magazine-quality print-on-demand.

You may also want to carry out a little exercise at the beginning of the semester. Try writing in your own language a piece of writing. Use lots of idioms, and words with different denotation and connotation. Without mentioning what you did, show your masterpiece to your students, and wait for their reaction. This will be your teaching moment. It does the trick!

Committee News

On Saturday, April 2, 2011, Adriana Merino and Joseph Robertson presented an outline of creative language learning projects that allow students to engage the language through exercise of all skills, using simple technological tools, at the 2011 NEALLT Conference at UPenn. The presentation focused on the instructive value of creating in multimedia environments in the target language, and on the ways in which such creative projects both advance student comprehension and proficiency and awaken the inventive passion and sense of fun that comes with actually using a foreign language. Celeste Mann, also with the Dept. of Romance Languages and Literatures, presented a poster on the use of a virtual environment to teach foreign language.

LangLitTech is the product of the work of the full Technology Committee of the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures.

Members of the Technology Committee

• Adriano Duque• Adriana Merino (co-editor)• Silvia NagyZekmi• Joan Pérez Rodríguez • Joseph Robertson (co-editor)

Page 4 of 4No. 1, Vol. 1MARCH 2011

THE EDITORS’ PICKS

Best Ideas for Teaching with

Technology, A Practical Guide

for Teachers, by Teachers 

by Tom Daccord & Justin Reich. M.E.

Sharpe Inc. (2008) - Paperback -

 291 pages - ISBN 0765621320

SURVEY

We want to learn what our

colleagues are doing with

technology? What tech-related

issues have you encountered in

your classroom? How much

technology do you use in your

classroom? What do you find the

most/least useful? Your answers will

help us research and report further

in future editions. Contact us

anytime to share your experiences,

questions or vision:

ideas@langlittech.info