Website: http://www.nerallt.unh.edu

IALLT website: http://iallt.org/

Published 4 times yearly

The
Prez Sez

From the President of NERALLT: (The New England Regional Association for Language Learning Technology)

Happy New Year!

  The November 10 th -11 th meeting at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY was very successful. Meeting participants included 52 attendees and presenters from 12 states, representing 26 colleges and universities and six publishing companies. Our host, Claire Keith , and her assistants were superb; the Hudson River scenery, campus facilities, food and refreshments were top notch.

I would again like to thank the program committee- -- Andrew Ross, Mary Simone, Mary Morrisard-Larkin, and Claire Keith who organized very engaging sessions, and the presenters, who illuminated varied instructional perspectives related to the changing landscape of textbook publishing. In addition, the copyright workshop with Arlene Bielefeld and Howard Barnaby and lively reception got us off to a friendly start.   

In this issue you can link to information provided by some of the presenters, enjoy the photos snapped by Claire, and read the business meeting summary. We have also included a feedback summary from the meeting's evaluation form, collated by Andrew Ross.

At the meeting, two key decisions were voted on unanimously and have taken effect: NERALLD has become NERALLT, and the newsletter is available to members electronically only from the website, via a PDF file. This issue features our new name and logo, which was designed by Mary Morrisard-Larkin.

One e-mail response to the name change came from Read Gilgen, Director, L & S Learning Support Services, University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Tell me it ain't so!! This venerable institution, forerunner even of  

NALLD/IALL/IALLT itself is changing it's (sic) name?   I guess that shows we really are in this game together!! <grin>

In addition to the aforementioned changes, Dick House, NERALLT's webmaster, has set up a new NERALLT page at UNH, with a new URL: http://www.NERALLT.unh.edu   Folks going to the former NERALLD website can link to the new one.

See you in the spring!
Debra H. Mandel
Northeastern University
d.mandel@neu.edu

Business Matters!

SAVE THE DATE! Friday, April 28, 2006, NERALLT's Spring Meeting, Connecticut College, New London, CT.  

"The Language Resource Center and Emerging Structures on Campus;

Integration, Innovation, and Independence."

The blending of technology with teaching and research, and the vast amounts of information available online are influencing institutions to re-tool how they deliver language study services and materials. The traditional language lab is evolving from an independent facility holding specialized information for an exclusive clientele to a collaborative model, in which a range of traditional and new technologies are shared with partners across the academic institution, providing us with both opportunities to embrace and pitfalls to avoid. For further information, contact the Program Committee Chair, Dick House, at rhouse@cisunix.unh.edu or 603-862-3556.

From IALLT President, Claire Bartlett

The IALLT summer Leadership Meeting will take place this summer at Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, USA. Our host will be Ed Dente. The meeting will begin on Thursday June 22, at 5:00 PM and will end Saturday evening with a grand tour of Boston.

All IALLT members are welcome. We especially encourage the IALLT council members to join us.  

This meeting is our annual business meeting during which we discuss various IALLT issues, and have an opportunity to visit the campus of the university who will host our next conference.

We look forward to seeing many of you there.

NERALLT Committee for Nonprofit Status Hits the Ground Running

On December 22, members of the NERALLT Committee for Obtaining 501 (3)(c) Nonprofit Status   held a very productive three-hour session to discuss first steps. Cindy Bravo, David Kanig, and I met in Boston College's language lab and talked via speaker phone with Barbara Sawhill, Mary Morrisard-Larkin, and Ed Dente. Kudos to Cindy for providing the Polycom technology support and fabulous treats.

The following summary includes our recommendations to propel NERALLT forward, in both achieving non-profit status and improving the organizational structure. These goals go hand in hand. I will formally present these recommendations at the April 28 Connecticut College business meeting and ask for your vote on these items.   In the meantime, please send me any comments or ideas to help us in this process.   If you have experience in this arena, we would value your assistance.

December 22 Meeting Agenda and Recommendations:

1. The goal(s) of going Nonprofit :

Discussion: Obtaining 501 (3)(c) status will enable NERALLT to write grants that will fund outreach and other worthwhile pursuits not covered by dues. One such endeavor might be providing workshops for K-12 language professionals, Grant funding would enable us to expand our audience outside the membership.   Nonprofit status will also be more attractive to potential donors who can claim tax deductions.

Action steps: The committee will pursue more relevant research during the winter and determine logistics for attaining nonprofit status.

2. 501(3)(c) status of other IALLT groups :

Discussion: The only other IALLT regional that has this status is NEALLT.

Action steps:   Barbara will double-check this and try to assess regional desires to go the nonprofit route.

3. Mission Statement :

Discussion: The group agreed on the following new mission statement: New England Regional Association for Language Learning Technology (NERALLT) is an organization of professionals, who have come together as volunteers, dedicated to the application of information and media technologies to second language teaching and learning. Membership is open to administrators, technologists, faculty, graduate students and researchers in post-secondary and K-12 institutions.

4. Creating a working board of officers and organizational structures.

Discussion: We reviewed other IALLT group structures and agreed that it would be advantageous to have officers, who will be elected officials, and a Board, to be comprised of officers and other positions.

Officers: At the very least, we need a President, Vice-President, Secretary, and Treasurer, but we are proposing the following positions:   President , President Elect, (new), Treasurer (new), Secretary (to replace Vicious Recording Secretary), and Outreach Coordinator (new).

Board: To include all officers, plus Past-President , Webmaster , Newsletter Editor, and Membership Coordinator .   This is a total of 9 votes which will help break possible ties.

Action: Committee will need to review positions, define their roles, draft a schedule of election dates, and an electoral process. The Committee will also decide how often Board should meet.

5. Membership Fee Structure:

Discussion: we will review other IALLT membership fees and meeting rates and will make recommendations for possible changes at the spring meeting. All NERALLT members will be issued a card and can vote at the business meetings, to be held at least once a year.

Coming Events

MULTIPLE LISTINGS :
Computer Assisted Language Instruction Consortium, (CALICO) website: http://calico.org/calendar.html

IALLT Regional Groups
http://www.iallt.org/about_iallt/regional_groups.html

North East Regional Computing Program (NERCOMP) has many excellent offerings this winter. Read them all! http://www.nercomp.org/

HOT DATES:  

February 24-25, 2006 “ Teaching and Technology:
All Languages, All Levels, All Institutions” SOCALLT,   hosted by Collin County Community College, Plano, TX
http://www.mola.tcu.edu/socallt/SOCALLT_2006_conference.html

March 9-11, 2006 “From the Mountains to the Sea: Language Technology in the 21 st Century.”   SEALLT and MAALLT Joint Conference at the College of Charleston March 9-11, 2006 (tentative date) Charleston, South Carolina
http://maallt.org/

April 7-9, 2006 “Technology-mediated Language Learning Beyond the Classroon.” NEALLT 2006.   University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA. http://www.swarthmore.edu/Humanities/langlab/NEALL/main.htm

Ten Questions you should ask before Adopting a Web-bases (WebCT or Blackboard) Textbook Module: Patricia Early, Language Lab Coordinator, Georgia State University
( PowerPoint presentation )

Back to the Beginnings: Drafting an Arabic Textbook in 2005 in the US:   Hezi Brosh , Associate Professor of Arabic and Hebrew , Bard College.

Living on the Edge: The Tech Oriented Teacher as Institutional Mover of Online and Multimedia Instruction: Kevin Gaugler, Assistant Professor of Spanish, Assistant Dean of Liberal Arts, Marist College.
(Powerpoint Presentation)
(.mp3 Audio recording of Presentation)

After Going Digital: Some Thoughts And Some Speculations About Taking the Language Resource Center on the Network to the Next Level .: Stéphane Charitos , Director, Language Resource Center, Columbia University; Otmar Foelsche , Director, Humanities Resource Center, Dartmouth College and Andrew Ross , Director, Language Resource Center .

The meeting was called to order and led by President Debra Mandel.

I – Financial Report A balance of $686 was reported for 10/21/05. The Spring 2005 meeting expenses were $866.48, including pre and post meeting newsletters.   Meeting receipts were $1005; thus $138.52 was added to the coffers.