mmlc news

Where Did Grandfather Go?

The MMLC welcomes to Northwestern University from France Mr. Michel Ya�che, whose testimony figures in the Picpus Digital Archives. Mr. Ya�che was a French-born Jewish teenager living in Paris during the German occupation. His family, originally from Salonica, was cruelly divided by the policies that initially protected Jews considered French citizens over those who were not.

Where did Grandfather go?
A talk with Michel Ya�che

How the disparities between the policies of the Vichy government toward French Jews and immigrant Jews fractured one family.

Sunday, April 6
2 p.m.

Harris Hall Room 107
1881 Sheridan Road
Evanston, IL 60208

The Picpus Digital Archive is a Northwestern educational project funded primarily by the National Endowment for the Humanities, with additional grants from the Alumnae Association. The archive focuses on history, memory and commemoration.

This talk has been organized by The Department of French and Italian and the Multimedia Learning Center.

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Update (April 6, 2008): Mr. Michel Ya�che and MMLC Director Janine Spencer addressed an enthusiastic audience on a wonderfully sunny Sunday afternoon.

MMLC Makes Moodle Available

Starting this quarter, the MMLC has made available on a limited basis, a trial installation of Moodle, an award-winning open-source couse management system. The alternative CMS offers an enhanced multi-lingual option to Blackboard and is currently in use by three Portuguese language courses.

New Digital Image Library Launched

The MMLC launched today, with the Northwestern University Library, and the Visual Media Collection, a new "Digital Image Library" website online at http://images.northwestern.edu/. Housed there are tens of thousands of artistic and cultural images useful for the teaching of art history, and throughout all humanities disciplines.

]]> For more information about the development and integration of the image repository, please consult the MMLC project page:
Northwestern MDID Installation: The "Digital Image Library"

Open-house scheduled for October 11, 3:30-5 p.m.

The MMLC announced today that it will be holding on October 11, at 3:30 p.m. an informative Open House event to showcase the facilities, services, and media projects of the department. Invitation will be open to the entire Northwestern community. Humanities and language faculty will not want to miss this event.

]]> Showcased facilities will include:
* MMLC Computer classrooms
* Language Learning Application Software & Tools
* Video and Audio Editing Software
* Tools for Digital Art

Showcased projects will include:
* DiLL: The Digital Language Lab, developed by the MMLC
* Drehort Neubrandenburg

Showcased MMLC/Hewlett projects will include:
* Creative Writing in Italian -- a collaborative writing environment
* Museo del arte -- a web museum used by introductory Spanish classes
* Japanese Reading Comprehension, online

And more!

A formal announcement will be made in the coming weeks. Please hold the date and time on your calendars: Thursday, October 11, 2007; 3-5 p.m.

MMLC speaks to CLI

The core services and resources of the MMLC were introduced to new and returning language faculty at the annual fall meeting of the Council on Language Instruction (CLI), Friday, September 21. At the meeting, attendees learned that, with the increasing demand placed on MMLC facilities, the importance of advance reservations has increased significantly.

]]> Faculty should make room and routine AV equipment needs known as soon as possible to the appropriate members of the MMLC.

In the case of room reservations:
Ann Marshall a-marshall@northwestern.edu

In the case of equipment reservations and/or AV-Services:
Cecile-Anne Sision c-sision2@northwestern.edu

In the case of project development (involving Mark, Matt, or Zach):
Janine Spencer, Director j-spencer@northwestern.edu

Internet addresses (URLs) mentioned by the MMLC (and by special guest Don Kenyon from Academic Technologies Classroom Technologies Group) can be found on a special links page:
http://www.mmlc.northwestern.edu/external/cli2007/

MMLC Open During NSW '07

The MMLC is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays during New Student Week. Regular hours resume on Tuesday, Sept. 25.

Regular hours are:
Monday through Thursday
  8:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Friday
  8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Saturday
  12 to 4 p.m.

Sunday
  12 to 8 p.m.

MMLC Open for New Student Week

The MMLC is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays during New Student Week. Regular hours resume on Tuesday, Sept. 19.

Regular hours are:
Monday through Thursday
  8:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Friday
  8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Saturday
  12 to 4 p.m.

Sunday
  12 to 8 p.m.

France Awards Academic Palms to MMLC Director

MMLC Director Janine Spencer was recognized for her accomplishments in the areas of teaching, scholarship, and research by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a ceremony held at Northwestern University.

Established in 1808 by Napoleon Bonaparte, the Academic Palms is the oldest extant civilian accolade awarded by the French Government. Following a decree in 1955, the "Palmes Universitaires" was raised to the status of a ministerial order with three ranks: Commander, Officer, and Knight.

Professor Spencer has received the honorary rank of Knight ("Chevalier"), in the company of family, friends, supporters and colleagues from the Department of French and Italian, the Council on Language Instruction, the Multimedia Learning Center, and the administration of the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences.

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Professor Janine Spencer, Knight of the Order of Academic Palms

(Additional photos from the event)

More information on the Order of Academic Palms:
http://www.ambafrance-us.org/culture/people/texts/palms.html

MMLC Employees Honored with Service Excellence Awards

Congratulations to Mark Schaefer and Zachary Schneirov, who were honored Wednesday with Service Excellence Awards!

Any member of the University community may nominate an employee who goes above and beyond the call of duty for the Service Excellence Award, given by Human Resources at the annual Service Excellence Recognition Luncheon.

Mark is celebrating his 15th year at Northwestern, and his 5th year at the MMLC. Zach is an NU graduate and worked as an intern at the MMLC before he was hired last year as a permanent staff member.

Updated Room Reservation Policies

In light of increased demand for both computer classroom labs and smart classrooms, the MMLC has revised its policies on room reservations.

Room reservation requests should be made before the fifth week of classes in the preceding quarter. Requests will be limited to classes in the Humanities until this time, when reservations will be opened up for the rest of WCAS.

Computer Lab Policies
The computer labs may be reserved only for classes in which students need individual access to computers or the DiLL software. Instructors should make reservations only for the dates their students are actively using the equipment. A syllabus may be requested to show that the room will be properly used.

The computer labs have a limit of 20 student seats, and classes with greater enrollment will not be allowed to meet in the lab.

Smart Classroom Policies
Only classes which need to use the projection capabilities on a regular basis will be allowed to reserve the room, and again, a syllabus may be requested to demonstrate this usage. Priority will be given to classes with a larger enrollment.

The smart classroom has 55 desks.

PICPUS Presented at ACTFL

MMLC Director Janine Spencer and staff member Matthew Taylor presented the ongoing work of the Picpus, Walled Garden of Memory Digital Archive while in attendance at the 2005 conference and expo of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL).

Attendees were able to share in the discovery of a place that is relatively unknown in spite of rich in histories tied to Lafayette, the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and two world wars.

The presentation elicited the pedagogical basis, content, and structure of the digital archives which will serve as a research tool for both linguists and historians as well as an educational tool for teachers and students at the secondary and post-secondary levels.

The digital archives in production now and are expected to be completed and made available next June, 2006.

Intro to DiLL Workshops

The MMLC is holding introductory workshops to its Digital Language Lab (DiLL) software. All language faculty and graduate students are invited to attend the demonstration by creators Matt Taylor and Zach Schneirov.

Workshops will be held in Kresge 1-315 on Wednesday, June 1, from 10 to 11 a.m. and on Friday, June 3, from 3 to 4 p.m. No registration is necessary.

More information about DiLL can be found at:

http://web.mmlc.northwestern.edu/projects/DiLL.shtml

Taylor chosen as Employee of the Year finalist

MMLC Systems Architect Matthew Taylor was honored as a finalist for Staff Employee of the Year on May 2 at the annual Staff Service Awards luncheon. Only 3 employees from each campus were selected as finalists.

Taylor was awarded a plaque and savings bond for his achievement.

Summer 2005 Student Internship Opportunties

Students, need a job this summer? Ever wanted to know more about making multimedia for the internet? Summer on-campus internships in media/web development are available at the Multimedia Learning Center!

From June 20-August 12, work on various projects supported by the WCAS Hewlett Fund for Curricular Innovation.

Experience and mac savvy preferred but not necessary � we can train you in the following:

* Web Development (Macromedia Flash/Dreamweaver/Freehand, Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator/GoLive)
* Video Editing (Final Cut Pro, Avid Xpress)
* Video encoding for Web Distribution
* Dynamic web development (Database-driven web design, PHP, JSP)

If interested, please send an email with your resume/CV attached and with the subject heading �Hewlett Internship Application� to: Ruth Reingold (WCAS Assistant Dean for Computing Technology, reingold@northwestern.edu) and Mary Finn (WCAS Assistant Dean, mfinn@northwestern.edu)

You can also write to info@mmlc.northwestern.edu for additional information.

Elementary Chinese Uses Digital Language Lab

The latest version of the MMLC-developed Digital Language Lab system (code-named DiLL) was introduced this spring quarter to four class sections of Elementary Chinese. The introduction was very well received, representing a very important milestone in the long-term strategy to completely replace the analog Tandberg audio system used in the MMLC with an extensible, flexible, and non-proprietary computer-based solution.

An early section has 14 students.

The Digital Language Lab software has been developed by the staff of the MMLC in consultation with language faculty, and with support from the Hewlett Fund for Curricular Innovation of the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences.

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A student uses the intelligent 'recap' function of the Digital Language Lab.

The "DiLL" project began in 2003 as a funded summer project to build a proof-of-concept audio network system. In 2004, this reference design was completely rebuilt and enhanced by a database management application that maintains a centralized audio catalog, tracks student usage, and safeguards student recordings.

Professor Li-Cheng Gu interacts with students.

During the next year, as the Digital Language Lab software is completed, work will begin in tandem to refurbish the MMLC's primary language lab classroom. The constraints of the current analog audio system and instead replaced with configurable seating and low-profile computers allowing for a variety of pedagogical configurations such as lecturing, conferencing, pairing, and/or testing.

The focus remains on the listening, not on the software.

The Digital Language Lab software is the only software of its kind for the Macintosh platform and boasts several important innovations that are unique to any platform. Because of this MMLC is working to prepare the software for eventual licensing to interested institutions later this year, after it will first be shown at the annual conference of CALICO (Computer Assisted Language Instruction Consortium) during May 17-21.

More information about the Digital Language Lab can be found here:
http://web.mmlc.northwestern.edu/projects/DiLL.shtml