The FIPSE project 2000-2004

    Dr. Claire Keith, Project Director

With a generous, four year extended grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE)., The Department of Modern Languages conducted a collaborative project with local High Schools to support language learning and Global Studies with the technology resources of the Marist Language Center.  In addition, the grant permitted a fruitful, college-wide collaboration between various departments and administrative areas to support the growth of international activities at Marist, such as the International Career Day. 

The purpose of the grant, above all, was to set a model for teaching institutions with limited Research and Development resources on how to find comprehensive solutions to everyday working challenges.  New ways had to be found to break down the boundaries between teaching space and self-study space,  extend our work environment beyond the limits of the campus, and redefine the traditional role of the Language faculty.

The Knowledge Exchange Project

    funded by the Fulbright Program  

Tim Nolan, a 2004 Marist graduate in

 Spanish and Computer Science, and a

  Fulbright Fellow for 2004-2005 in Spain, is collaborating online with Dr. Kevin Gaugler at Marist in an innovative format for teaching

 English as a Foreign Languages. He is currently working at the Official School of Languages in Santander, Spain , helping Ms. Patricia Tundidor, head of the English Department , to maximize the use of their technological resources.

Tim’s research is supported by the ILDS environment on the Language Center’s two master servers

The Integrated Language Delivery System (ILDS) at Marist

Directed by Dr. Claire Keith, Department of Modern  Languages and Cultures. Software and system development:  Philippe Benthien

In consultation with the Office of Academic Computing, the Language Department has developed a unique integrated Language Delivery System to interface with the college-wide course management System, Educator, and meet the specific needs of Language courses and online resources management. Our guiding objectives were to bring all faculty, full and part-time, on board quickly, and to have a flexible environment in which to train our student teachers in the application of technology in their future classroom.  By leaving out any non-essential features and reducing the learning curve for users to a minimum, the system allows anyone familiar with MS Word and web navigation to post Resources, class Links, audio and video clips, and manage their own ftp account.  The web based Voice Recorder lets student send oral assignments to their instructors’ web mailbox, and receive personalized feedback.  An automated lab management system updates the lab scheduling, semester courses, and semester Foreign Film Program with minimal input from a Language Assistant.

As soon as final developments have been completed, the ILDS will be offered as open source product to departments as an alternative to the large, commercial course management systems, such as BlackBoard and WebCT, that not all institutions are in a position to adopt.

A new Master Course:  Language and Technology

Dr. Kevin Gaugler, Department of Modern Languages and Cultures

Since joining the Marist Spanish faculty in 2000,  Dr. Gaugler has sought to create pedagogic environments that weave together technology, language and community outreach.

He created in 2001 a Spanish course, Language and Technology, that has since been adopted in French, has been adapted as a summer training course for High School Teachers, and whose methods and concepts are now disseminated by the first generation of student teachers trained in Marist’s language classroom.

Dr Gaugler’s research and practice recognize the necessity of re-defining the standards of language proficiency used in language courses by merging them with the larger concept of technology literacy.

The course’s theoretical frame and hands-on training are in turn applied to community field work.  Recent projects in Dr. Gaugler’s SPANTECH course include two 1 and ½ hour training sessions conducted by Marist students for Hispanic families recently awarded computers by the Family Partnership Center’s Families in Technology Program., and the development by students of promotional material  in Spanish for a local Hispanic restaurant.

Dr. Gaugler is now disseminating his methods through invited presentations at venues such as NERALLD and CALICO.

Project “New eyes”                                                                                                                  

Director, Ms. Karen Tomkins-Tinch                  

As the coordinator of Learning Skills and International Programs at Marist, Ms. Tomkins-Tinch is using  the recording and streaming resources in the Weiss Language Center to facilitate the cultural transition of International students into the American environment.   Using her original course American Culture as a laboratory, she directs the production of short video-clips by newly-arrived international students at Marist.  Unlike the more traditional EFL courses where students are passive spectators of pre-recorded materials,  Ms. Tomkins- Tinch’s students are both actors and directors in creating the filmed cultural encounters that document the small and large surprises of adapting to American ways.  These video-clips are edited for long-term archives that are passed on as a legacy to the next group of students arriving from the same world regions.

By giving critical control to the “foreigner” over the definition of what constitutes a cultural friction in need of elucidation, Ms. Tomkins-Tinch motivates the micro-communities of Marist’s International student body in a unique way to design the support tools they and their peers need.

In the larger theoretical perspective, Ms. Tomkins-Tinch is examining how this project can re-define the parameters of E.F.L pedagogy.  She plans to present her findings as soon as the video database of the “New Eyes” project has reached the critical mass needed for fruitful comparative study.