MERLOT Classics Series

MERLOT and Elluminate are coordinating a MERLOT Series on Steve Hargadon’s Future of Education site: http://www.FutureofEducation.com. The series will feature MERLOT Classic Award winners from the 2008 and 2009 MERLOT International Conferences. The authors of these exemplary materials will describe their sites and the rationale for developing the site. The event will be co-hosted by Cathy Swift (MERLOT Director of Academic Partner Services) and Steve Hargadon (Elluminate Social Learning Consultant). The webinars are live and interactive, and typically are one hour long--allowing for a live Q&A after the presentation. All of these will be at 8 PM Eastern/ 7 PM Central/ 6 PM Mountain/ 5 PM Pacific.

Location: In Elluminate. Log in at http://tr.im/futureofed. The Elluminate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Elluminate, please visit http://www.elluminate.com/support. Recordings of the session will be posted within a day of the event at the event page.

Thursday, April 1st

Texas Language Technology Center – World Languages Classics Award

The Texas Language Technology Center is a model for innovation in technology-enhanced learning materials to teach languages. Many of its projects have won prestigious awards already and several have received five-star peer reviews in MERLOT, such as Tex’s French Grammar, Le Francais interactif, Ta Falado and Spanish Proficiency Exercises.

Carl Blyth is the Director of the Texas Language Technology Center (TLTC) and Associate Professor of French Linguistics in the Department of French and Italian. He has held several administrative positions prior to TLTC: Coordinator of Lower Division French (1993-2002), Acting Director of Technology, Literacy and Culture (2001-2002), and Director/Asst Director of the UT Summer Program in Lyon, France.

Carl researches sociocultural approaches to language acquisition as well as the dynamics of face-to-face interaction in French-speaking societies. He is also involved in various research projects concerning the social and psychological factors in computer-mediated language learning. As director of the university's Texas Language Technology Center, he helped develop the online French grammar tools "Tex's French Grammar" and "Francais Interactif." Before joining the university, Dr. Blyth taught at Louisiana State University-Baton Rouge, where he conducted research on Cajun French.