World Languages Day (WLD) 2011 class list now online

WLD is scheduled for Tuesday, May 17, and we are expecting approximately 1000 Minnesota high school students, including approximately 70 virtual attendees. Registration will open in two weeks, and the class list is available at http://worldlang.cla.umn.edu/. We are offering several new classes this year including Arabic Culture and Language: A Trip to Tunisia, An Easy Way to Learn Chinese Tones, Green Germany, Introduction to Icelandic, Latin Music, Dance and Food, and Fútbol is Played with the Feet!. A big thank you to all instructors who have agreed to teach this year!

Print from your laptop in the Jones Hall Multimedia Lab

It's late. Your language class starts in 10 minutes. Your essay is saved on your laptop, and you need to bring a printed copy to class. You forgot to bring a USB drive, and you don't have time to upload it to Google docs. Fortunately, you use the Jones 135 Multimedia Lab, and you know you can print wirelessly directly from your laptop. You cruise in, print your essay, and make it to class with moments to spare.

That's right -- the Multimedia Lab offers wireless laptop printing. Users first need to download the correct driver for their laptop from the Lab web page and carefully read the installation instructions. Laptop printing is available for most PCs and Macs with Intel processors and OS10.5 and above. Once the driver is installed, users print directly from their laptops to one of the Lab's two black-and-white laser printers, and pay for printing using value stored on their student ID.

Printing in Jones 135 is always a bargain -- 10 cents per page, single or double sided, from your laptop or from one of our PCs or Macs.

Software on Language Center Classroom and Lab Computers

Do you sometimes wonder why students and teachers use the computers in Jones rather than their home computers? What software and tools do these computers have that yours might not? Beyond obvious answers such as "big headphones and an external microphone for recording my voice," the classrooms (Rooms 10, 15, 30 and 35) and Multimedia Lab (Room 135) in the Language Center offer software programs for both novice and expert users that can be used for practicing particular language skills or developing multi-media class projects. These programs are updated and maintained by Language Center staff, so you always know you are working with current, (nearly) bug-free versions of the latest or tried-and-true software! If your students start a project in a Jones classroom, but don't have time to finish it during the class period, they can go upstairs to the Multimedia Lab and find the same software and tools needed to complete their projects.


Here's a sampling of what you'll find on our computers:

• Sound editors such as Audacity or Garageband -- record your voice, and/or analyze and edit a voice or music clip. (Great for creating soundtracks, too!)


• Video editors and converters such as Mpeg Streamclip, Handbrake, Windows MovieMaker and iMovie -- create, edit, and convert a movie to different formats.


• Vocabulary and pronunciation trainers like ProVoc and Praat -- for more in-depth second-language vocabulary and pronunciation analysis.


• Screen capture through Camtasia Relay -- record what you're doing on-screen, as you're doing it -- great for creating an instructional video.

For a complete list of installed software, see our new page on the LC website.

If you want to request additional software to be installed on Language Center classroom or lab computers, please fill out a Software Installation Request and bring the form, software and licensing information to our main office, 110 Jones Hall.

Two MacBook Air Laptops Now Available

The Language Center now has two very portable, lightweight laptops available for instructor checkout. They have excellent battery life, and project easily. You can reserve MacBook Air laptops and other equipment at http://languagecenter.cla.umn.edu/onlineReserve.php

TandemPlus: New Matching Option, Mid-Winter Mixer

Attention Spanish/Portuguese/French/German/Hebrew/Russian language students -- do you want to practice your second-language skills with native speakers, without leaving campus? The Tandem Plus program at the Language Center can help you with our new Virtual Face-to-Face program, which joins U of M participants with conversation partners in different countries. Participants meet on-line via Skype or a similar platform to practice their second-language skills with students at universities in Mexico, Honduras, Chile, Peru, Brazil, Russia, Germany, France, and Israel. To sign up for Virtual Face-to-Face, you need to register online for a Face-to-Face exchange through the Language Center:

https://languagecenter.cla.umn.edu/tandem/f2fRegistration.php

From there, we'll find a partner for you.

Tandem Plus held a Mid-Winter Mixer on Friday afternoon, February 18. More than 65 Tandem Plus Face-to-Face participants and international students came to play English-language games, enjoy refreshments, and just converse. As always, it was great to see all the participants who make Tandem Plus so successful!