I hope that everyone is enjoying Carnival, I'm starting to think that it's as much an opportunity for students to catch up on work as it is for them to let their hair down a little, coming so close as it does towards the end of the semester. For those hoping to head down over the weekend, here's a link to the full schedule.
Last weekend, Marc and Stephan attended the NEALLT Conference last week and despite technical hiccups with my slide deck, the response to a talk about the Global Languages & Cultures Room was positive and encouraging.
The split button at the University of Pennsylvania.
Many language departments are exploring the use of VR in curriculum delivery, using existing tools such as Google Earth VR, watching documentaries created by news and current affairs channels, and engaging their students in the creation and development of bespoke apps to support projects around study abroad, language acquisition and cultural competency.
I won't do a weekly plug, but if you want to get some ideas for VR activities that you might try out, then please visit our research blog on the Global Languages & Cultures Room website.
Thank you again for your comments and suggestions, please feel free to forward this newsletter to colleagues across the university or at other institutions who might be interested in this content.
This is the third of a series of newsletters providing you with a selection of carefully curated links, resources, and useful information to support technology, teaching, learning, and research in Modern Languages.
On Screen
Import byEna Sendijarević
A young Bosnian refugee family ends up in a small village in the Netherlands after getting a residence permit in 1994. Absurd situations arise as they are trying to make this new world their home.
Links and News
This fascinating article looks at the silent conversation between authors and translators and their unique relationship. It's especially poignant as we launch our new MA in Global Communication and Applied Translation.
Apparently your voice reveals more emotion than your face, researchers at Yale found that our sense of hearing maybe even stronger than our sight when it comes to accurately detecting emotion. I'd say this might be one of the reasons I love podcasts and audio? Perhaps a phone conversation is better than Facetime or Skype?
I wanted to point you to this article in the Chronicle of Higher Education exploring the use of blogs, podcasts, and videos as assignments. As you know, this is something we've been exploring in several courses in ML, and it's good to hear from colleagues elsewhere on the challenges and successes of working this into the curriculum.
Finally Sound of Text is a free website tool that allows you to enter up to 100 characters of text in one of 44 languages. Once you click Submit, the site generates audio of the word or phrase, which you can play or download. I can see multiple uses in listening activities, opportunities for students to practice words and phrases, create their own responses, and explore machine learning.
Please drop us a line if you would like to include a link or let us know about an upcoming event. Thank you for reading and please share and forward this newsletter to those who might find it useful.