Digital Stream 2006 - As It Happens...

March 23, 2006

A beautiful day, warm sun, blue sky, and the following highlights - conversations over lunch about podcasting, 508 compliance on the web, a terrific keynote, strategic design. SWALLT's no-host dinner, making new connections, more tomorrow.

March 24, 2006

This second day of Digital Stream was packed with interesting sessions. Beginning with a discussion on the role of language technology support - do we teach them to fish, or just serve up a fish dinner, and ending with an inspirational talk by Barbara Sawhill from Oberlin on disruption, followed by songs and dances from various cultures from our colleagues and students at the Defense Language Institute. Highlights included:

• Jeff Winter's presentation on the new online version of CyberChinese and his evolution as a developer from Hypercard to php and MySQL.
• The always practical and creative presentation by Mimi Yu on the capture and use of various multimedia resources on the web. Applications discussed included: WM and RM Recorder, Camtasia, Smart Audio Converter, iTunes, Quicktime Pro, and Audacity.
• A wonderful presentation by Chris Jones and Heather Allen from the University of Pittsburgh on the Open Learning Initiative and French Online.
• Barbara Sawhill, president elect of IALLT, spoke of creating literacy using "disruptive technologies".

March 25, 2006

• Rick Kern's keynote on technology and its relationship with language and culture was terrific. He spoke about the evolution of technology from the beginning of written language 5,000 years ago, through print, sound recording, film, and computer technology and how these changes affect how we think about language, teaching language and teaching literacy. You just had to be there.