June 30-July 3, 2008

9:00AM – 4:00PM (with a one hour lunch break)

A professional development Summer Institute designed to help teachers integrate technology tools and 21st century language pedagogy in the NVCC/APS Arabic and Chinese curricula. The infusion of modern methodologies in the Arabic and Chinese programs will promote time on task among students and motivate them to persist in their language study. In order to keep learners engaged, teachers must include the most effective, standards-based activities, emphasizing  all modes of communication and culture.  Arabic and Chinese teachers in each language will create a collection of activities to expand the curriculum presently in place. The networking that will result from the course will enrich instruction and save teachers the task of “reinventing the wheel” by creating materials in isolation.

Dr.Marjorie Hall Haley, Associate Professor, George Mason University
Dr. Mohamed Esa, Associate Professor, McDaniel College, Arabic consultant
Ruihua Dong, Lead Trainer of Chinese Language, World Bank, Chinese consultant
Dr. Laura Franklin, Professor, Northern Virginia Community College

• Participants will attend all four days and do a daily reflection on the day’s proceedings in Blackboard.
• Participants will work with facilitators to develop a variety of classroom activities in their target languages.
• Participants will have hands-on time to work in the language lab each day with consultants there to guide them.
• Participants will take part in a culminating showcase where they will demonstrate their finished products. These may include:
  
1. Chinese or Arabic software activities
2. Learning assignments archived in MERLOT
3. Personal  Collections
4. Blogs or wikis
5. Online language exchanges

• Participants will receive a modest stipend for their participation and completion of all activities and all four days.  Faculty who anticipate absence should not join the program.
• There is very limited parking at Arlington Center. Participants are encouraged to carpool, to use public transportation or to park at the designated spaces S18-37 behind Arlington Center. Parking is also available across the street in Ballston Commons Mall at a very reasonable cost.
• Lunch will be on our own, although the stipend should more than cover this and other expenses. Plan to have one hour free time for lunch each day.
• STARTALK, our grantor, may schedule site visits and there may be media presence on some occasions.

Day One
Participants will meet each other and their discipline-specific consultants who will facilitate a discussion that will go on for four days. The leading question will be: How do we incorporate technology to meet the needs of the 21st century learner?
In the curriculum development workshop, faculty participants will learn from Dr. Hall Haley, an expert in teaching methods, multiple intelligences and activities to address all learning styles.

Day Two
 In the online communication workshop, faculty will work in a facilitated environment to incorporate  technology  activities in their syllabi. Blackboard, blogs and wikis will be reviewed.
In the MERLOT familiarization workshop, participants will learn how to search and browse  the collections effectively. This day will end with a discipline specific session, facilitated by Professors Esa and Dong, where all participants will share best practices that they learned in Day Two. There will be further refining of how to write a technology-enhanced syllabus.

Day Three
This day will begin with discipline specific sessions that will include a guest speaker and/or a video presentation. Facilitators will lead a group discussion following this activity. The morning will end with open lab time so that participants can ready their demonstrations for day four. In the afternoon, Franklin will demonstrate how to make Personal Collections and archive lesson plans in MERLOT. Participants will spend the rest of the afternoon completing Personal collections in Chinese and Arabic.

Day Four
Facilitators will make their final presentations on the technology-enhanced syllabus and advise participants during the last open lab session. The faculty showcase will begin an hour before lunch and continue after lunch until all have presented. Participants will evaluate the institute and receive certificates of participation.

Applications will be accepted until the program fills. Please send questions to lfranklin@nvcc.edu.
Apply now for Startalk 2008.