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In order to explore new ways of incorporating technology into foreign language courses, the faculty of the department of Languages, Literatures, & Cultures undertook a three-year project supported by a grant from the Mellon Foundation. Teams of professors and students worked cooperatively to develop interactive, multimedia instructional materials which make foreign languages come alive for students. |
| Joan Marx, Ph.D. Professor of Spanish. Director, Spanish Program. Head, Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures (1993-97). Author, Mellon grant proposal marx@muhlenberg.edu |
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| John Pearce, Ph.D. Associate Professor of French & Spanish Director, Mellon Project pearce@muhlenberg.edu |
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| Luba Iskold, Ed.D. Assistant Professor of Russian Director, LLC Instructional Design Specialist, Mellon Project iskold@muhlenberg.edu |
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Muhlenberg College: |
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| Anna Adams, Ph.D; Patricia DeBellis, M.A.; Franz Birgel,
Ph.D.; Barbara Gorka, Ph.D.; Luba Iskold, Ed.D.; Albert Kipa, Ph.D.; Jose Lopez, Ph.D.; Joan Marx, Ph.D.; John Pearce, Ph.D.; Mary Redline, M.A. Laura Snodgrass, Ph.D. (statistical analysis of the experimental data); Kathy Wixon, Ph.D. |
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Allentown College: |
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| Antonio Medina, Ph.D.; Ruth Munilla, M.A. |  |
Cedar Crest College: |
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| Carrie Prettiman, Ph.D. |  |
Moravian College: |
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| Joanne Dangelmajer, Ph.D. |  |
Lafayette College: |
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| Anna Dull, Ph.D.; Margaret Lamb-Faffelberger, Ph.D. |  |
Lehigh University: |
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| Marie-Sophie Armstrong, Ph.D. |  |
From the outset, we planned the project as a collaborative effort among
faculty, students, OIT (Office of Information and Technology), and the College
administration. The following three components were essential for success:
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Workshops and training sessions for faculty were built around three major
topics:
Although the practice of faculty training in technology is no longer a novelty, oftentimes, after completing such training, faculty are not expected to put into practice for the benefit of their students the skills taught during the training sessions. In our case, each phase of the faculty training culminated in practical application of the skills acquired. |
| Two teams of foreign language faculty (ten full-time faculty members from
Muhlenberg college and colleagues from Allentown College, Cedar Crest College, Lafayette
College, Lehigh University, and Moravian College) participated in the project over a
three-year period of time. Each team went through a semester of training.
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The participants were further committed to spend eight weeks during the summer developing interactive, multimedia courseware using the authoring software Toolbook, 4.0. As a result, the faculty have created 26 programs for teaching French, German, Italian, Latin, Russian, and Spanish. In the summer of 1999 all our software were upgraded with ToolBook 6.5 and recorded on CDs. |
Muhlenberg faculty have incorporated the interactive, multimedia
materials into their syllabi. Currently, about 5,000 student-users work with the programs
during an academic year at the LLC.
