The conference is intended for administrators of language laboratories and language teachers interested in using technology in their teaching and professional development. Almost all of the presentations were in some way related to computers and particularly to the Internet, for example, web pages or e-mail. Few presentations were done on any other aspect of technology. However, according to participants who had attended previous IALL and FLEAT conferences, there was more caution about the use of the Internet, concerns about ethics, etc., than in previous years. Also, most of the presentations had to do with how to use particular web pages, particular programs, etc., or techniques for use of the Internet in general, rather than reports on studies.
August 12 and 13th were dedicated to full-day and half-day pre- conference workshops before the conference itself began. These workshops were 3 1/2 hours to seven hours long, allowing participants to have intensive experience with some aspect of computer use. On August 12, the topics of the workshops were HTML and the Claris Home Page authoring system; the CAN-8 Multimedia Instructional System; using e-mail and the Internet in language teaching; SchMOOze University (a text-based virtual environment on the Internet in which participants can communicate in real time); and using forms and frames in web pages. On August 13, the workshops were on digital audio labs; graphics-based virtual worlds; JavaScript; the administration of learning resource centers; statistical programs; language lab design and planning; marking electronic texts; and using such features as Real Audio and GIFs on a web site. Most of the workshops allowed the participants to have hand-on experience.
The conference proper began with an opening reception and dinner on the evening of August 13.
Each day of the conference began with a plenary session. The first plenary was given by Roger C. Schank, director of the Institute for Learning Sciences at Northwestern University. Shank was extremely critical of the educational system, which he said emphasizes taking tests about things as opposed to learning to do things. He asserted that people learn by doing, particularly by making mistakes, seeing or experiencing the consequences of those mistakes, and making adjustments based on what was learned from the mistakes. Shank believes that computers have the potential to allow students to learn from their mistakes relatively painlessly. He showed examples of computer programs that apply his beliefs about education. One, for example, was related to the teaching of biology. In this program, the basis of the scenario is that student has been brought in to deal with an epidemic of unknown origin from which several people have already died. The student is required to make a number of decisions about how to diagnose, treat, and contain the illness as well as deal with the media and politicians. At various points, when a decision is necessary, the student can consult experts to get more information about the reasons for taking various courses of action and what the results might be.
Among the presentations on August 14 were "Involving Faculty in New Nd Emerging Centers: Strategies and Stories," "Innovations for the 21st Century Learning Lab," "Organizing People, Places," "Developing a Web-Based Language Course," "Comprehension and the Future of CALL," "Incorporating the Internet into Group Projects on Academic Issues: A University English Language Course in Japan," and "The Learner as Lexicographer: User-Friendly Concordancing."
The plenary for August 15 was a panel discussion with the title "Futurewatch: Language Learning and Technology in a Global Context." The three panelists were Shoichi Fujikake, Professor of English Education in the Department of English Education and Director of the Curriculum Research and Development Center at Gifu University; Claire Bradin, Assistant Director for Technology Implementation at the Center for Language Education and Research at Michigan State University; and Graham Davies, president of EUROCALL.
In his short talk at the beginning of the panel, Fujikake emphasized computers as an extension of the human mind, with multimedia PCs being extensions of human senses and thus of learning skills. He also discussed the future of "anytime, anywhere" computers that will allow users to connect to the Internet at any time, anywhere they are. Davies painted a darker picture of the Internet, emphasizing that for all the talk about globalization and the Internet, large parts of the world have no access, and that many of the new technologies are prohibitively expensive. He also complained that in some ways new technologies are a step back. For example, the Internet, at this point, is less interactive than old-style CAI. Baris took a more middle ground approach, discussing, for example, how much more widespread the electronic storage and retrieval of data will be within the next few decades but also emphasizing that there will still be a need for printed books. The audience had an opportunity to pose questions and comments to the panel. Among the audience concerns expressed were questions of control in the future of the Internet and the role that teachers will have as more and more teaching is done via the Internet.
The presentations on August 15 included "Oral Testing Software: Testing Speaking Skills via the Computer," "WWW Pages for SElf-Paced Language Learning," "Platform Packaging: Using Thematic Content to Put Websites and ESL Exercises Together," "Monads, Monks, Missing Links, and Multimedia: When Instructional Technology Fails," "Teaching English Composition through International E-Mail Exchange," "Developing Oral Fluency in Second Language Narratives," and "Computer Assisted Writing in CALL."
At lunch, participants were encouraged to sit with others from their IALL affiliate or LLA, so that they would have an opportunity to network with others from the same group.
The plenary speaker for August 16 was Lesley Ellen Harris, who spoke on "Digital Property." Ms. Harris is an attorney who practices in the area of copyright and related legal issues in publishing, entertainment, computers, and the Internet. Harris discussed the concept of intellectual property and emphasized the rights of humans to control and profit from what they create. She also discussed digital property--anything that has been or can be stored by digital means. She also discussed how people can profit from their own intellectual property, starting with inventorying it and deciding how much it is worth. She mentioned some ways that owners of digital property may be paid for the use of their property, such as a system of "micropayments" in which the user deposits, for example, ten dollars, and every time he/she reads an article, a fraction of a cent is deducted from the account.
Among the presentations for August 16 were "Reading Strategies of EFL Learners in Japan;" "IALL: The Next Generation," a panel discussion of the future of IALL; "Scheduling Student Employees with Software," "Peer Tutors in a Learning Centre," "The Ethics of Technology," "The WWW and the Subversive Teaching of English: The Example of Lotus and Rose, A Virtual Soap Opera," "Students' Use of Listening Comprehension Strategies in Multimedia Applications," and "An Empirical Study of Computer-assisted Class Discussion; Effects on Social Interaction and Group Dynamics."
At the end of each day, there was a session in which participants could see demonstrations of software in the CALL facility and other rooms and talk individually to presenters. This gave participants an opportunity to learn more about presentations they had seen earlier.
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Copyright (1997) by Dr. S. Kathleen Kitao & Dr. Kenji KItao