Podcast Archives

In case you missed an episode, here are links to our previous webcasts, now turned into podcasts:

Language Lab Unleashed #24:
12 May 2009: Our dear friend and colleague Pete Smith from UT-Arlington invited us to take part in his university’s Digital Institute. For two days we caused trouble, asked as many questions as we answered, and had many wonderful discussions with a range of folks, from faculty to campus IT. One of those discussions we recorded and now present to you as Language Lab Unleashed #24.

Language Lab Unleashed #23:
Thursday 6 December 2007: Thanks to everyone (especially Jeff Lebow from EdTechTalk) for joining us as we talked about using video and audio for meetings and reunions, all the while experimenting with UStream and Flashmeeting.

Language Lab Unleashed #22:
Thursday 8 November 2007: After the Ellumination. The LLU Barbara and the bgblogging Barbara wrote a paper for the Knowledge Tree folks in Australia, and then moderated an Elluminate conversation about the paper and with people from all over the world. After that session, LLU Barbara and bgblogging Barbara were joined by UConn Barbara (and her students) to talk a bit more about the paper, the tools, and teaching languages with technology. Headphone hijinks notwithstanding (we had a couple of appearances by heavy breathers/Darth Vader and someone who was doing what our sound engineer calls “headset bowling”), we had a great chat.

Language Lab Unleashed #21:
Thursday, 6 September 2007: What do language teachers and technologists need to know about learner anxiety? Is it different from other learning anxieties? What’s causing this problem? Are there new possibilities through developing technologies to reduce learner anxiety and still promote learning? Join Barbara and her guests, Elaine Horowitz from UT-Austin and Dolly Young from UT-Knoxville for a great discussion ranging from the roots of language learning anxiety (and how it’s different from other kinds of learning anxiety) to how to overcome it in the classroom.

Language Lab Unleashed #20:
Thursday, May 17, 2007: This evening we were joined by Todd Bryant (Language Program Administrator at Dickinson College), Felix Kronenberg (Instructor of German and Director of the Foreign Language Resource Center at Pomona College) and Doug Canfield (Coordinator of the Language Resource Center at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville). We discussed the work these gentlemen have done in using networked, multi-user, role playing games in the teaching and learning of languages. in particular we focused on Todd’s work in using World of Warcraft for teaching German (first year level) and Doug and Felix’s collective and individual experiences using Second Life for teaching. Listeners should be sure to read Todd’s article that was published by NITLE as well. Names of free standing games were also mentioned as were places for “newbs” (such as Barbara) could get some training and experience while exploring the many possibilities gaming may hold for our language curriculum.

Language Lab Unleashed #19:
Thursday, 29 March 2007: This evening, we welcomed Don Wyatt (chair of the Department of History at Middlebury College), Elizabeth Colantoni (Visiting Assistant Professor of Classics at Oberlin College), Robert Berkman (Visiting Associate Professor at The New School), and Bryan Alexander (Director of Research at NITLE) for what started out as a discussion about Wikipedia in the classroom, but which took a couple of very interesting turns to touch on “malicious misinformation,” student and professor motivation, and other collaborative knowledge-gathering tools.

Language Lab Unleashed #18:
Thursday, 14 December: For our final broadcast of 2006, we were delighted to (finally) get the chance to talk with Dawn Skorczewski, Director of University Writing and Associate Professor of English and American Literature at Brandeis University and author of Teaching One Moment a Time: Disruption and Repair in the Classroom (UMass Press, 2005).

Language Lab Unleashed #17:
Thursday, 7 December: We were joined this evening by Amanda Blasko of Oberlin College who spoke about her experiences using Moodle for creating materials in her 300 level Russian class. Amanda talked about why this tool has worked for her in the context of her classroom. As we were beginning to talk about the social constructivist educational theory upon which Moodle is built, and whether either one of us understood that at all, we were joined, remarkably, by Martin Dougiamas, the lead developer and creator of Moodle from Perth, Western Australia. (where it was already tomorrow!) Oh, my. Martin explained the pedagogical underpinnings of Moodle and then talked briefly about some of the upgrades we can expect to see in Moodle 1.7 and eventually in Moodle 2.0, which due out this summer. (Martin had just left a Moodle Developers Meeting and then came on to join us!)

Language Lab Unleashed #16a and #16b
Thursday, 30 November: Phil Wolff, Editor-in-Chief of SkypeJournal, Steve Sloane of San Jose State University, Cal Frye Networking Guy from Oberlin College, Doug Worsham from the University of Wisconsin, and Ed Dente from Tufts University joined Barbara to discuss the recent banning of Skype at SJSU (a story which made the national news), current usage of Skype on college campuses in general and as part of a language classroom curriculum, and lots in between.

Language Lab Unleashed #15
Thursday, 16 November 2006: Many schools around the country are trying to form policies on blogging in the classroom. Some schools are just banning blogging altogether. LLU #15 brought some folks together from a variety of schools (and jobs within those schools) in order to talk about the educational mission that edublogging may serve, but also, in this age of FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) and DOPA (Deleting Online Predators Act), what we need to know before we ask our students to blog. Simply put: how -do- schools create policies for the use of these tools that keep students (and institutions) safe and yet do not limit the creativity, communication, and expression that these tools can provide?

Language Lab Unleashed #14
Thursday, 2 November 2006: This show featured a conversation about Foreign Language Podcasting Initiatives with Barbara and our guests: Julio Rodriguez, Director of the Language Studies Resource Center at Iowa State University; Noelle Isenberg, Director of the Foreign Language Podcasting Studio and Director of the German Online Initiative at Penn State University, and Joe Dale, who joined us all the way from the Isle of Wight (at 1am his time)!

Language Lab Unleashed #13
Thursday, 26 October 2006: Our thanks to Janet Swaffar for spending the evening with us and talking about her book “Remapping the Foreign Language Curriculum: An Approach through Multiple Literacies” (MLA Press, 2005). Our thanks as well to Thomas Hammond and his staff for allowing Barbara access to their network and their beautiful lab on the top of Lamont library at Harvard in order that we could broadcast our show. A side note to those of you who worry that using Skype for conversations might be too hard or too confusing: this was Janet’s first skype call ever, and she handled it like a pro.

Language Lab Unleashed #12
Thursday, 28 September 2006: This evening, Brian Alegant (Oberlin College Conservatory of Music), Geoff Andrews (superintendent of the Oberlin OH Public Schools) and Mike Baker (of the Polaris Career Center) met to talk about that pesky topic that emerges every time we talking about new paradigms for teaching and learning using new tools…. how do you grade this stuff? But wait… is it about the learning or the grading? We hit the ground running…

Language Lab Unleashed #11
Thursday, 6 July 2006: This evening we were joined by Barbara Ganley, Jan Marston and Pete Smith as we talked about this idea of an e-portfolio and the promise they (might) hold for both chronicling as well as assessing students’ work in languages over time. Our conversation touched upon the use of social software (in particular, blogs), rubrics, and assessment strategies. As the intro will hopefully make clear, Barbara (S) was calling in from a 1973 Princess® phone in Maine and her audio was a bit strange.

Language Lab Unleashed #9
Thursday, 18 May 2006: Why should I care about K-12? LLU #9 features a conversation about how or why K-12 institutions and higher ed can/can’t/should/won’t work together to promote language learning in the US. Participants included Frank Kruger-Robbins of Pine Crest Preparatory School, and Rachida Primov from the University of Miami.

Language Lab Unleashed #8
Thursday, 11 May 2006: Barbara talks with Jan Marston and Clayton Mitchell of Drake University about the DULAP program. Pete Smith of UT-Arlington, who also works with DULAP as an outside evaluator for Russian, also participates. Drake is the university that made the news for closing its language programs in 2001. Language instruction is back and flourishing at Drake… Listen in!

Language Lab Unleashed #7
Thursday, 2 March 2006: We (mostly) conquered our technical difficulties just in time to be joined by Elizabeth Hamilton and Dr. David Rose, Founding Director of CAST (the Center for Applied Special Technology), for a conversation about Universal Design for Learning.

Language Lab Unleashed #5
Thursday, 9 February 2006: Technical problems continue for LLU as Barbara talks with Ewan McIntosh, Marianne Zemil, and Barbara Dieu about language learning and technology at the K-12 level.

Language Lab Unleashed #4
Thursday, 2 February2006: Barbara’s interview with Wichita Rutherford!

Language Lab Unleashed #3b
Thursday, 19 January 2006: Barbara continues the conversation from part A with Buthaina al-Othman.

Language Lab Unleashed #3a
Thursday, 19 January 2006: Part one of a discussion about how we should assess students’ use of social software; guests include Elizabeth Hamilton, Barbara Ganley, and Mercedes Rossetti.

Language Lab Unleashed #2
Thursday, 12 January 2006: Our premiere podcast (the audio from LLU#1 vanished into the ether) – a discussion with Todd Bryant and Barbara Ganley about Skype’s potential as a tool for language learning.

Language Lab Unleashed #1:
Thursday, 05 January 2006: Thanks to everyone for bearing with us – we worked out most of the kinks of broadcasting live, but still have yet to master the art of archiving said broadcast to be later released as a podcast. So while we have no audio of Thursday’s wonderful discussion, we DO have the majority of the chatroom action available for your perusal.