Blackboard wikis (websites which allow collaborative editing) are a convenient means for students to create websites as course projects. Amaryllis Rodriguez had students in her Italian courses create wikis in Blackboard focused on topics relevant to the course content. Students created a wiki (in Italian) advertising an Italian cruise line as well as a wiki about current environmental problems. Finally, the wiki tool was used for a group project in which students were asked to design an online newspaper modeled on existing Italian newspapers. Students were able to create these projects quickly using the easy tools built into Blackboard, and all students could see each others’ work and comment on it. The instructor also found it easy to grade and comment on the students’ work.

French instructor Robert Kilpatrick uses blogs in Blackboard to provide students with opportunities to practice writing French in an unstructured manner, different from the other types of more formal writing students are asked to do in the course. The Blackboard blog was chosen over a public blog to allow the students to write in a space which was private to the course, in deference to their still-developing skills with French. The blog exercises engaged students in the course, and improved their ability to spontaneously write in French compared to previous courses Kilpatrick has taught.

Sandra Valnes Quammen has students in her French classes watch video clips relevant to the course topic and then respond orally to question prompts to improve their French speaking skills. In the past, this course assignment was accomplished primarily using Audacity for audio recording and editing, followed by upload to Blackboard. This year, Valnes Quammen used Wimba Voice Tools (online audio recording built into Blackboard) instead, which streamlined this course assignment considerably.

In language learning, opportunities to practice in the target language are of primary importance. In Angela Porcarelli’s Italian courses, Wimba Voice Tools (audio recording built into Blackboard) are used to provide extra time outside the classroom for students to practice their Italian listening and speaking skills. Wimba allows the students to easily re-record their assignments before submitting to the instructor, until the student is comfortable with their response. By practicing with Wimba throughout the semester, students were more comfortable with their end-of-semester oral presentations, and produced higher-quality final assignments.

As a fellow in CIT’s Flexible Learning Spaces Fellowship (2008), Deb Reisinger participated in meetings, mini-workshops, and other fellowship activities centered around the concept of ‘flexible learning‘ – specifically focused on the uses of the technology and space arrangements made possible by Duke’s new teaching and learning space, the Link.

Course overview

During Fall 2008, Reisinger taught two sections of a French course called Cultural and Literary Perspectives in the Link (one section in Classroom 3, and the other in Seminar room 1). The following lists Reisinger’s core goals of the course(s):

• Improved writing skills through collaborative learning/peer editing (in particular, the development of critical thinking skills in relation to cultural analysis)
• Improved reading comprehension skills in order to move through program and read independently at higher levels
• Nuanced understanding of cultural differences (notable in group exchanges and class discussions, assessed via oral presentations and written papers)
• More precise oral production of language, both in accuracy and in analysis

Uses of technology and flexible learning spaces

• Students created wikis to house assignments over the course of the semester. The flexible learning spaces allowed students to work collaboratively on editing these assignments during class breakout sessions.
• The classroom space, combined with on-site technology check-out and support, allowed students to receive training in their classroom, rather than in a language lab. Using technology became more fluid and integrated into course pedagogy.
• Student presentations were enhanced by easier student access to technology (video, on-site computer), which is often stalled by technological difficulties.
• Reisinger used the learning spaces to show video and project images in addition to writing on the whiteboards. Students were able to use projectors to display follow-up to group work from multiple laptops.
  
• Multiple whiteboards made classroom learning more student-centered. Groups were better able to better demonstrate their analysis by mapping out and displaying their work on the whiteboards.

Students working in groups

“As a warm-up, we began class by identifying projected images on one of the room’s white boards (paintings, literary titles, photos).  Students then broke into small groups to generate lists of well-known French  intellectuals on the board; follow up discussion included the collective creation of a definition of an intellectual,. We then returned to our seminar table (shaped like a pentagon today, which they seemed to like) and we related how their definition matched that put forth by the author of the article they had prepared, called “The Death of French Culture.” Students then worked in pairs to briefly summarize the article’s arguments, accessing the article on their laptops. In a follow-up discussion, a student secretary listed pair findings on the board, and we closed with a whole group debate about on the article’s conclusions. It was more or less a typical day, but shows how the classroom facilitates this type of classroom dynamic: it’s easy to get students writing as groups on multiple boards, to move from groups to seminar-type and back again, and to blend technology into traditional forms of classroom discussions.”

Using the Blackboard wiki

Reisinger discovered that a large benefit of teaching in the Link came from the flexibility offered by the ability to bring technology in and out of the classroom as needs be.

“This was something we used to have to go to the language lab for, but this time around, Erin rolled in a laptop cart and we were able to work right in our classroom space. The wireless was a bit slow, but I really enjoyed not having to displace the class to do this training. For me, it makes technology a part of the class and not something extra we have to go somewhere to do.”

The following video features Reisinger briefly explaining her use of wikis in her courses:

As a fellow in CIT’s Flexible Learning Spaces Fellowship (2008), Liliana Paredes participated in meetings, mini-workshops, and other fellowship activities centered around the concept of ‘flexible learning‘ – specifically focused on the uses of the technology and space arrangements made possible by Duke’s new teaching and learning space, the Link.

Course overview

During Fall 2008, Paredes taught the course “Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language” in Link Seminar 2. The following lists Paredes’s core goals for her course:

• To comprehend processes of second language acquisition
• To apply language pedagogy methods in correlation to second language acquisition processes and strategies
• To develop a portfolio of teaching and testing materials
• To critique, evaluate and recommend materials to be used for language teaching/testing
• To develop a second language teaching philosophy

Uses of technology and flexible learning spaces

• Provided opportunities for students to enhance teamwork, materials production and evaluation within the classroom
• provided opportunities for students to share their developing portfolio and teaching philosophy
• Used portable digital cameras (Flip cameras) to discuss crucial topics such as oral feedback in the classroom

Enhancing group work with breakout rooms

“What I really found useful at the Link were the breakout rooms; although they don’t belong to the classroom, per se, they were available to my class. I’ve used them in almost every single class and have been able to enhance group work. The whiteboard is great as well…I like my students to be able to brainstorm and use the board for that.”

Using Flip digital video cameras to capture group work

Students and faculty working in the Link can check-out several digital technologies, including the portable ‘Flip’ digital video camera. These cameras are small and unobtrusive, as well as very simple to use (one button to record) – making them ideal for use with students that want to quickly capture their group discussions.

Paredes describes her, and her students, experiences working with Flip cameras and Link breakout spaces in the following video:

Project Description:
Giuliana Perco is using Second Life to explore new ways for her Intermediate Italian students to engage with Italian language and culture. Taking advantage of the many Italian cultural resources that already exist in Second Life, she is developing in-world activities for her Italian courses in order to study how effective Second Life is for language instruction with virtual “found” materials. CIT is providing Giuliana with pedagogical consulting on the use of Second Life for language teaching and learning, as well as Second Life workshops for her and her students.

Project start date: 6/9/2008

Funding awarded: $400

“I was kind of skeptical about [the iPods] at first to tell you the truth,” Rand said. “You know: ‘They’re giving out these free iPods as a marketing scheme for Apple.’ But it’s actually been really useful.”

Rand’s progress in his first-ever Spanish class is documented in recordings he made each week with his iPod for homework and tests. During his first week of class, Rand recorded a conversation with a classmate that is limited to the most basic Spanish phrases. After just two weeks of class, a recording of his first oral exams shows that his vocabulary is expanding.

Visiting assistant professor Lisa Merschel is the course’s instructor. She said, when she first found out iPods would be available for her class, she was limited in her imagination about the pedagogical uses of the devices.

“In the first two days, I was thinking, ‘Well I would play some songs for them,’” she said. “And then after that I became much more imaginative in my use of the iPod and have expanded quite a bit and am surprised about how many ways I can use it to students’ benefit.”

Merschel had the students use the iPods to: hear dramatic recordings of the novellas they read; record responses during oral quizzes; play back her verbal comments on quizzes and homework; review the pronunciation of each week’s vocabulary words, a use suggested by a student; and listen to audio exercises inside and outside of class. She also assigned weekly “audio diary entries,” for which students recorded themselves speaking on a topic. She provided a handful of Spanish songs, like Gloria Estefan’s “Ayer.” (Legal permission to use songs for the class was negotiated by Duke’s Center for Instructional Technology.)

Rand says the iPods were most helpful when he did oral comprehension exercises in class, for which he listened to short segments on the iPod and then filled in blanks on a worksheet.

“We’re able to keep up [at] our own pace,” he said. Each student can focus on the sections most difficult to him by reviewing them on his iPod, Rand noted, without the entire class having to repeat those segments.

He also found useful the recordings of vocabulary words — “audio flash cards” — that Merschel records each week.

“I’ll come out of class and listen to vocabulary for a little bit,” he said.

This list of Spanish vocabulary words was recorded by Professor Lisa Merschel to make “audio flash cards” that students can listen to on their iPods to review pronunciation.

Another student, Lissa Smith, who worked full time on campus and audits the course, says she appreciated the convenience of being able to review pronunciation walking to school or driving.

“It’s especially nice for me because I often work and travel for my work,” she said, “and when there are places I can’t access a computer this is really great for me.”

Lauren Berkowitz commuted to the class from UNC, where she is sophomore. She liked how the iPods increase the number of ways she applies her burgeoning Spanish skills. Her only regret: as a UNC student, she’d have to turn in her iPod at the end of the semester.

Listen to a dramatic reading of the Don Juan Tenorio by Duke Spanish instructors, which students in an introductory Spanish course listen to on their iPods.



Listen to one student’s progress from Week One
to Week Two

Project Description

In this ongoing Service-learning project, students explore issues of cultural assimilation, literacy, and access to educational opportunities for the growing Latino community in the United States. They used iPods with microphone attachments to record observations from their service learning experiences. Students in this course will also be asked to listen to archived interviews with Spanish-speakers in the community, which will facilitate listening comprehension practice, provide exposure to authentic speech patterns and accents, and also disseminate content to the students outside of class.

In the Fall 2006 semester, the project involved Duke students interviewing Latino/a students and parents at Jordan High School about their experiences within Durham Public Schools. These testimonials provided additional information to further the insights gained last year with a written survey. The video and audio components of the iPods were used in the production and editing of the interviews. Duke students also continued to use their iPods to record their own audio journals reflecting on their service at the high school.

Project start date: August 1, 2005

Project description

The grant team planned to develop a digital video archive of authentic interviews with native Spanish speakers living in central North Carolina, to serve as the basis for language-based activities to be used in homework, individual practice, skill assessment and in-class practice in undergraduate Spanish courses.
“Voices from the Latino Community in North Carolina” is a digital archive of interviews with Latino immigrants living in North Carolina in 2004-2005. The interviews were conducted by a team of instructors from the Duke University Spanish Language Program as well as undergraduate students. The project participants represent a wide range of nationalities and professions.

The project team also created interactive activities that may be used to practice linguistic skills and to explore issues of immigration. Access to authentic stories helped expand our knowledge of the growing Latino community and perhaps dispelled some of the misconceptions about the Latino community in North Carolina. Many sections of the interviews were transcribed (in Spanish) and new materials were continually added to the project website through 2006.

Project start date: 5/19/2004
Funding awarded: $15,850