Summary remarks for A Virtual Tour of Computer-Based Language Learning at the MLI

Vance Stevens, Randy Gonzales, Ed Chaffin, and Paul Crane
Military Language Institute, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Back to Title page | Introduction to Online Student Center | Online Student Center

One of the guiding principles governing the establishment of the Military Language Center in Abu Dhabi in 1998 was the concept of 'seamless' computer integration in a tool-based environment in which the focus is squarely on the curriculum. What this means is that teachers at the MLI are involved in developing curricula using the tools they find available in the workplace. There is nothing unusual about that - teachers and practitioners of any profession make use of the available tools, which in the case of teachers might include board markers and overhead projectors. At the MLI, these tools also include computers on every teacher's desk, in every classroom, and available to students in CALL, or computer-assisted language learning, labs. The repertoire of available tools also includes, to give just two examples, software ranging from a versatile little program called Hot Potatoes <http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/halfbaked/> to MS Office. The beauty of these two tools is that,

• one, they are readily available (that is, freely downloadable in the case of Hot Potatoes, and bundled with our computers in the case of Office);
• two, they are fairly intuitive to use;
• and three, they lend themselves to integration with other compelling media, such as audio, video, and many imaginative types of graphic multimedia, as well as to extension through an interconnected, liberating, and empowering world of hypermedia.

Our Virtual Tour of the MLI will be a display of our facility as seen through its web pages <http://www.mli.ac.ae/>. Our website shows many aspects of the MLI, but we intend to focus here on our CALL facility. Although the 'heart' of this facility resides on our server, we have mirrored here some of its elements. Our Virtual Tour is a showcase of samples of work that has been done with CALL at the MLI since its inauguration in 1998. A part of this showcase is our Online Student Center, designed to give students and visitors a chance to sample more dynamic materials development at the MLI. A third area we intend to develop is examples of project work from student portfolios. Our presentation is a guided virtual tour of this showcase.