Digital Stream 4- CSU Monterey Bay

by LeeAnn Stone

SWALLT co-located its business meeting and Spring conference this last March with CSU Monterey Bay's 4th annual Digital Stream conference. The collaboration was such a success that the attending SWALLT membership voted to hold its Spring meeting annually in conjunction with this conference.

Frank Borchardt (German, Duke University) opened his presentation with a 500-year history lesson on language learning and technology, beginning with a reference to Erasmus (1511) on "the stupidity of teachers who hammer grammar rules". As he discussed the [loss and] rediscovery of effective language learning principles over the years, he warmly recommended the "remarkable thinking" of a Wilfred Decoo, in a lecture he gave at BYU entitiled, "On the Mortality of Language Learning Methods" (available at http://www.didascalia.be/mortality.htm). For Borchardt, the troika of critical language learning methods for adults include immersion, structure and reading. Reading, he declared, provides "masses of linguistic data"- the "intensity of data" -necessary for language acquisition. He highlighted the role technology can play in advancing acquisition through reading as he discussed programs that "didacticized" text (glossed text) and through a demonstration of Hypereader, a free downloadable program that advances reading speeds to almost unbelievable rates (available at: http://www.duke.edu/~frankbo/csumb02/Reader.exe). *

Of particular note to this attendee was the international perspective within Borchardt's presentation. In looking in retrospect at language conferences over the years, it appears to this author that within the American language education arena, we are becoming less parochial, and less insular from the rest of the language teaching and learning world. Why this is the case, I don't know, but, as Bernd Ruschoff's address confirmed, we are more commonly speaking the same language in terms of methodology, problematic issues, and applications of technology, and we are more frequently referencing works of those outside the U.S.

Nevertheless, Bernd Ruschoff's (Essen University) address illustrated that there are still differences to be found among the continents. Reflection upon the learning process- students building knowledge instead of consuming it- is a concrete element within European language learning standards that does not exist within the U.S. National Foreign Language Standards. Thus, in Europe, the role of the language center is being promoted as one of "learning awareness", that is, helping learners learn how to learn. Helping learners build the knowledge and skills necessary to carry through with their own independent learning processes. Ruschoff emphasized the use of "multimodal" versus "mulitmedia" learning, the emphasis being on the process experienced by the learner (multimodal learning experiences) versus emphasis on the technology itself (multimedia). Ruschoff's keynote as well as other publications are available at: http://www.uni-essen.de/anglistik, and then clicking on "Virtual Resources", and then "Online Publications".

SWALLT Sessions
This was the first year that SWALLT was given slots for member sessions. Digital Stream organizers met with us during the SWALLT membership meeting to confirm that SWALLT will be allocated session slots next year as well. SWALLT member proposals will be vetted by SWALLT and forwarded to Digital Stream organizers for scheduling next year. SWALLT sessions this year included :

Judi Franz
Planting Seeds of Change: A Collaborative Approach to Faculty Training
Dreamweaver 101

Cindy Jorth, LeeAnn Stone, Harold Hendricks, Pat Miller
The Role of the Language Lab for Teaching Languages and Culture

Gus Leonard
Virtual Learning Environments and Communities of Practice

Carol Reitan
Elementary Language Instruction Online: A Case study

LeeAnn Stone
Creating Web-Based Lessons with TrackStar

Digital Stream 2003
Save these dates, March 20-22, 2003, for next year's Digital Stream/SWALLT conference, and keep your eyes posted in the Fall for call for session proposals (proposals for DigitalStream 2003 will be accepted beginning August 15, 2002). This is a conference that I highly recommend not just to my local SWALLT-region colleagues, but to folks I meet as I facilitate workshops across the country. With its footing in the "language learning capital of the United States", Digital Stream is building into a conference of national- if not international- caliber.

LeeAnn Stone
University of California, Irvine

*The PowerPoint version of Borchardt's presentation is available online at:
http://www.duke.edu/~frankbo/csumb02/CSUMB/circle1_files/frame.htm