Project RITE

After the end of the semester, it was time to gear up for the presentation of the final projects. The elaboration of websites was more or less smooth depending on groups but in the end, all groups came through with good projects and decent presentations.

The technology performed exactly the role that it was supposed to perform for the teaching side of the project, not so much for the research side. I was still able to gather valuable data but it looks as though I am going to have to wait a little longer to really record these webcam sessions in a format that allows me to retrieve them without compromising the integrity of the class.

This idea for this object exchange came out of an idea that happened in Nantes, France at the turn of the century/millennium. The city decided to create a “grenier de la mémoire” (literally an “attic of memory”) by collecting objects from people. The idea was to donate an object that embodied the 20th Century for future generations. In our case, the idea was for students to donate objects that represented life at their respective schools in 2007 for future generations of incoming students. Objects were placed in boxes and both boxes were opened on the same day in a videoconference session. When an object came out of the box, the student who contributed the object had to explain why s/he chose this object and other students could ask questions. A fascinating conversation!

Of course, I was out of town again, presenting at the annual meeting of the American Association of Applied Linguistics. So the technological setup for this session was a little adventurous… I had to videoconference in through Skype hooked up to a camcorder so that I could see both my students and the French students and so that all parties could ask me questions.

This is the last official webcam session. Students have to finalize their projects and present the data in such a way that they can be uploaded onto their respective websites for presentation during the final exam. Of course, most groups are behind and it is a race against the clock. On a positive note, students now feel comfortable with the technology to be able to arrange for a session with their partners on their own time. That in itself is proof that their level of electronic literacy has increased.

These two weeks, I am in France presenting about this project at an international conference on the use of technology to teach culture in foreign language classrooms. You think I am on topic? I attended the class through webcams from the other side of the Atlantic. Students were quite amused to be able to see me on the same classroom as their partners. It was a good chance to visit with the French students as well and talk to them in person. I was also able to teach my classes through videoconferencing. No more canceling classes to go to conferences! ☺

The conference went well. Good feedback from the audience on the assessment procedure and the project in general. Perhaps future collaborations in the making…

I took advantage of this trip to bring objects from the UT students for our upcoming object exchange. I also received lots of objects from the ENSEIRB students to take back to UT.

We are now back from spring break. I have given up on recording the webcam conversations: the semester is more than half over, putting a damper on the ability to witness trajectory or development. Moreover, I cannot have technology be in the way of learning rather than at the service of learning. The rest of the project is going well: groups are coming up with good ideas for their semester research projects and conversations among groups seems to be going well according to journals.

This week was the photo exchange, our second videoconference of the year. Each student (at ENSEIRB and UT) had to post pictures on the blog representing each of the following three words: “myself/moi,” “home/la maison,” “my school/mon école.” This was a great success as talking about these pictures inevitably leads to discussions of public and private spheres, what is (re)presentable and what is not, what aspects of life at school or at home are emphasized and why, etc.

This week the French students were back and groups had work to do to prepare their midterm proposals in which they will have to outline their topic (including a rationale), research questions (at last some version of them), delimitations, and methodology (including anticipated data sources). Time is passing fast and some groups have a hard time narrowing their topics and giving them a sense of directions… All topics are promising, however, ranging from controversial (e.g., racism, affirmative action) to more fun (comedies, drinking).

The French students are on vacation this week, so I took advantage of the week off to do a more detailed debriefing of the experience so far (overall really good) and start a conversation on education (both at school and at home). Quite en endeavor… It is always difficult for students to question a system of which they are the product.

Conversations with TechSmith have drawn a blank. Nobody knows why we are experiencing the problems we did. We are experimenting with the Conference XP archiving services, but in vain so far.

Students had a hard time with last week’s topic as indicated in their journals. Surprisingly, they cited lack of interest as the main reason. This week, all groups had to pick a topic and generally decide what aspect(s) of that topic they want to explore over the course of the semester. I decided to take a break from recording this week as it has occasionally been impeding a prompt start of the discussion for some groups and we still have not figured out a good way to solve the problem.

On all accounts, last week was just what I thought. Students indicated in their journals that they had a hard time with the topic, either because it was a delicate topic or because they were more interested in getting to know their partners than they were in accomplishing the task that we had assigned to them. It is good and bad. The good sign is that they are bonding, which will be useful later in the semester. Last week was what I thought from a technological standpoint as we do not seem to solve our problems with Camtasia. Problems seem to come in three different forms:
• we cannot record both sides of the conversation (we have the audio but only one of two videos)
• recording induces significant slowing down and choppiness of the video
• recording induces echo and/or feedback of the audio
If all else fails, we will have to call TechSmith.
On a positive note, the new headsets are working really well.
This week’s topic was about women in power. For the first time in history, both France and the United States have a woman running for president and, in both countries, they are on the more liberal side (Senator Hillary Clinton in the US, and Ségolène Royal in France). Students were encouraged to reflect on the issue of what women bring to the table when in position of leadership. Another difficult and controversial topic that seemed to have met with mixed reactions. Out of twenty ENSEIRB students in the French group, only four are women. At UT, by comparison, seventeen of my nineteen students are women. If anything, this gender distribution should make interesting dynamics…