Uniting the World through Technological Innovation

1. Uniting the World through Technological Innovation FLEAT –Foreign Language Education and Technology Uniting the World August 8, 2005 Provo, UT Thomas E. Welch

4. Uniting the world through technology • is no longer just a possibility . . . • It’s the reality of the 21st century

6. The Alternate Titles -- • Cartography for the homebound:Mapping the Unknown • Language Learning GPS • Using technology to find our way in the • language learning world of the 21st • century

7. Be prepared to be challenged and encouraged • And • Be prepared to be frightened and • uncomfortable

8. “To live in an evolutionary spirit means to engage with full ambition and without any reserve in the structure of the present, and yet to let go and flow into a new structure when the right time has come.” • -- Erich Jantsch • From Leadership and the New Science – M. Wheatley

9. A note for the faint of heart . . . • “The very thing that frightens us today, the change curve, the phenomenal rate of change, is an ally.” Celebrate What’s Right with the World -- DeWitt Jones

10. Why are you here? • Why are you in this profession?

11. Two choices • 1. To learn how to teach languages better • through technology • Or • 2. To help students learn languages more • efficiently through technology

12. If you think teaching and learning are the same, think again. • How many students have been “taught” a language in a classroom but didn’t learn?

13. Take a reality check, courtesy of Father Guido Sarducci • “The Five Minute University.”

14. How do you KNOW how successful your teaching has been? • The unfortunate example from Kentucky

15. Do you KNOW that the same thing is not occurring in your institutions? • Remember, the plural of anecdote is not data.

16. If teaching is not the entire answer in language acquisition, then what?

17. Is this in the future of world language education?

18. How closely does your instructional package match the following . . .

20. Speak Now! uses games and quizzes as a basis for making the learning process fun and relaxing. There’s no better way to teach an old dog new tricks and this fun element of the program means that your fears are forgotten as you absorb words and phrases without even realizing you are learning them.Great Feature ----> Learn to speak using your own native language!  Most language software requires you to first be proficient in English before you can learn another language. Not with EuroTalk software! All on-screen help and menus, words and phrases, quizzes and tests - even the printable dictionary can be changed to the language of your choice!

21. Speak Now! is ideal for beginners. • Comprehensive - Topics include phrases, first words, food, shopping, countries, colors, telling time, numbers and human body parts • Interactive - Immediate response to every choice you make. Addictive, fun and easy! • Compare your pronunciation - Compare yourself with native speakers using the record facility. Microphone required. • Test your knowledge - Easy and hard quizzes, plus a challenging memory game. • Monitor your progress - Keep a check on your total score and print your own awards. • On-screen help - Help available at all times in over 70 languages. • Print a picture dictionary - Print your own dictionary for a handy reference.

22. If Best Buy isn’t in your curriculum, let’s examine some of what might be in there.

23. Two “haunting” questions: • How long does it take to learn [German II]? • What’s a C-, and more importantly, what’s it • doing on my transcript?

24. Consider . . . • In 1904 it took 1432 m/p/v to produce a car • In 1908 it took 750 m/p/v to produce a car • In 1929 it took 450 m/p/v to produce a car • In 2004 at a Saturn plant in Tennessee, it takes • 15 m/p/v to produce a car

25. In U.S. Schools . . . • In 1904 it took 3 hrs/wk x 16 wks to earn a credit in German II • In 1908 it took 48 hours to earn a credit in German II • In 1929 it took 48 hours to earn a credit in German II • In 2005, with all the technology, all the brain research • and all we know about best practices, it still • takes 48 hours to earn a credit in German II

26. How long DOES it take to learn German II? • What brain research has helped us conclude that it takes a HS student’s brains 125 hours to learn a language “level” but only 38.4% of that amount of time at the post-secondary • level?

27. If that were true, high schools could save BILLIONS just by using those methods • – or even just by sending the students to colleges for language learning.

28. Is it “OK” that we keep the time=learning mentality?

29. Where are we going? • Are we trying to recreate or improve on the past? • Or should we be trying to create a new pedagogy, and a new paradigm to fit with new technology?

30. The Paradigm shift • From language teaching . . . • To technology-enabled language learning

32. Examine the teaching and learning equation and the way it has fundamentally changed over time

33. Learning used to be dependent on a “proprietary” approach • Teachers “owned” everything. • “How can I learn world history?” • The answer was teacher and text

34. How can I learn a foreign language? • 1st person experiences • School settings

35. How can I earn a credit in a foreign language? • Dependent on the professor • Earning a credit was divorced from a • definition of learning

36. The shift to “open source” learning is beginning to occur • No more teacher monopoly on resources, timing, pacing, or even content • Students want to control the when and how of their learning

37. What do students want? • Do they want to be “taught” a language or do they want to learn a language?

38. Thanks to technology the days of teaching language are behind us. • The days of facilitating language learning have arrived.

39. The question should not be merely “What’s the best way to teach the students in my class? • That response often leads to the tools the teacher is most comfortable with or attracted to.

40. We know what happened in the corporate world to industries who thought they, and not the customer, would always be in control . . .

41. You can have any color of car you want . . . • . . . As long as it’s black! • -- attributed to Henry Ford

42. It has never been proven that Henry Ford ever said, "You can paint it any color...," but the phrase has survived for 3/4 of a century and does indicate something about America's beloved Model T: its "steadfastness," its enduring and endearing "sameness."

43. “When the rate of change on the outside exceeds the rate of change on the inside, the end is in sight.” • -- Jack Welch, CEO General Electric

44. In a learning-oriented world with an “open source” approach, the teacher no longer maintains control over every aspect of learning.

45. A word of caution, in education, “open sourcing” can lead to “outsourcing” as learners begin to exert greater authority over what, when and how they will learn.

46. Thanks to technology • Even the education world is • going to go “flat”

47. What has been the effect of outsourcing • on major industries?

48. Is education immune to outsourcing?

49. Consider current examples of “outsourcing” in U.S. higher education. • University of Phoenix • Walden University

50. And competition is not just at the national level . . . • Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publicationsTuesday, Mar 08, 2005