Technology Tips to Prepare for H1N1

We are offering some quick tips for instructors to use technology to minimize the negative impact of H1N1, whether it affects 1 or 2 students or a large number of students.

1. If you are not using any course management system yet, this should be a good time for you start using one. A course management system, such as Moodle and WebVista, offers convenient tools for instructors to communicate with students, to distribute course content, and to conduct class activities online. The University supports both the WebVista and Moodle course management systems. To request to have a site set up for your class, go to http://webvista.umn.edu/forms/request-site.shtml for WebVista, or http://www1.umn.edu/moodle/instructor/request.html for Moodle.

2. Use Netfiles. Netfiles is a file-storage resource with collaboration and sharing features. With Netfiles, you can upload class-related files and share them with colleagues and students. Current UMN Staff, Faculty and Students are eligible for a NetFiles account. To activate your account, go to your internet account options page at https://www.umn.edu/myaccount.

3. Use iTunes U to distribute audio and video content to students in the form of a podcast. iTunes U provides both restricted and public access to educational content and makes the distribution of audio, video or pdf files to your students an easy task. To sign up for an account, go to http://itunes.umn.edu/

4. Use the Digital Content Library to deliver copyrighted movies and other audio/video content. To find out more information and to submit content, go to http://dcl.umn.edu/

Other tools that we recommend include Media Mill and Media Magnet for creating, managing and distributing media content, and Camtasia Relay for capturing your class. Please contact the Language Center for help if you are interested in using these tools.

Stay healthy!

World Languages Day, May 18, 2010

After the success of World Languages Day (WLD) 2009, the College of Liberal Arts Dean's Office and the WLD Planning Committee have decided to go forward with the seventh annual event. It is scheduled for Tuesday, May 18, 2010, the week after U of M classes end.

WLD is an opportunity for Minnesota high school students to explore some of the languages and cultures of the world and to experience life at the University of Minnesota. The event is intended for sophomore-level language classes, and all students in those classes may attend, even if they are not sophomores. Teachers, counselors and parents are also invited to attend.

Demand for the 2009 event far exceeded capacity, and we attracted the most diverse group of students in the event's history. The biggest change for 2010 is a more controlled registration process that we hope will result in even more geographic, linguistic, and cultural diversity.

We are in the early stages of planning, but some information is available at http://worldlang.cla.umn.edu/. Information on the event, particularly for high school teachers and counselors will also be available via Twitter at https://twitter.com/StephTreat.

Please let me know if you have suggestions for the 2010 event or would like to be involved.

7th Annual Sundae Social

On Tuesday, September 22, the Language Center celebrated language learning and recognized language instructors, support staff, and even some learners with the annual Sundae Social. At least 200 dishes of ice cream were served despite the chilly weather. Thanks to everyone that helped organize the event and joined us outside of Jones Hall to make the event such a success!

Staffing changes in the Testing Office

We are pleased to announce some staffing changes and additions in the Testing Program for fall semester. Joanne Peltonen, the Spanish Testing Coordinator, will reduce her appointment to 75% through December 18 so that she is available to conduct proficiency evaluations for Spanish-immersion students in the public school system.

To fill this void, Gabriela Sweet will join the Testing Program staff part-time for fall semester. Gabriela has taught Spanish at U of M and has worked for CARLA as an assessment coordinator. 

Welcome, Gabriela!

Language Center Launches New Website!

If you think you've noticed some differences with the Language Center website -- well no, you're not wrong -- some updates have been made.

The new design based is on the University templates for University of Minnesota websites and adds a number of soon to be required features for University sites.

Along with being University-compliant, the new site has a new organization. Instead of the former headings Instructor, Students, Reservations, Links and TandemPlus, there are three major content categories. The first Classrooms, Media & Equipment yields all of the information available for using and reserving LC classrooms, media and equipment. In this content area you will find, the Online Reservation form, the classroom schedule, and the search page for LC media, along with other resources available to instructors. In the Instructional Services section, you will find pedagogical information to help you best use the classrooms. In this section you will find information about LgTT classes, CARLA Summer Institute, iTeach Workshops, language learning links and more. The third section, Student Services gives information about services at the LC available to students, featuring the Multimedia Lab. The two remaining sections link to the TandemPlus website and the Language Testing website.

New feature -- Action Links. Have you ever been frustrated that you can't remember how to find that one item that you always use when visiting the LC website? Hopefully the Action Links will help. The Action Links can be found on every page of the LC website and link to what we think are the most commonly visited pages -- the Online Reservation form, the A-V database search, view of Language Center classrooms, language links page, link to Elsie's new blog and the LC Twitter site.

With the new website structure, users will be able to navigate to almost any content from almost any page.