Online Video Creation by Undergraduates: Consequences for Media Literacy, a project briefing session presented at CNI's fall 2011 membership meeting by Anu Vedantham of the University of Pennsylvania, and Renee Hobbs of Temple University." Discusses why it's important to engage Undergraduates in video creation projects to develop their media literacy.
YouTube: http://youtu.be/HNwSh62owu4
"Since 2004, the annual ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology has sought to shed light on how information technology affects the college experience. We ask students about the technology they own and how they use it in and out of their academic world. We gather information about how skilled students believe they are with technologies; how they perceive technology is affecting their learning experience; and their preferences for IT in courses. The ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2009 is a longitudinal extension of the 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 studies. It is based on quantitative data from a spring 2009 survey of 30,616 freshmen and seniors at 103 four-year institutions and students at 12 two-year institutions; student focus groups that included input from 62 students at 4 institutions; and review of qualitative data from written responses to open-ended questions. In addition to studying student ownership, experience, behaviors, preferences, and skills with respect to information technologies, the 2009 study also includes a special focus on student ownership and use of Internet-capable handheld devices."
"Boren Scholarships and Fellowships provide unique funding opportunities for U.S. undergraduate and graduate students to add an important international and language component to their educations. We focus on geographic areas, languages, and fields of study that are critical to U.S. interests and underrepresented in study abroad."
"The Llama tests are an ongoing demonstrator project that we use to teach research skills to undergraduates. The result is a set of innovative, and slightly-off-the-wall tests which we think might be used to assess language aptitude. In terms of theory, the current suite is largely based on the MLAT tests, but the formats have been radically adapted to a more snazzy presentation style.
The Llama tests are very experimental, and should be handled with extreme caution. Although they are user-friendly, and quick to use, they have not been extensively standardised, and should NOT be considered a replacement for MLAT in high-stakes situations."
"Online education is booming, but not at elite universities-at least not when it comes to courses for credit. Leaders at the University of California want to break that mold. This fall they hope to put $5-million to $6-million into a pilot project that could clear the way for the system to offer online undergraduate degrees and push distance learning further into the mainstream. The vision is UC's most ambitious-and controversial-effort to reshape itself after cuts in public financial support have left the esteemed system in crisis."
The American Councils Advanced Russian Language and Area Studies Program (RLASP) serves both graduate and undergraduate students. The academic program is designed to improve participants' oral, listening, reading, and writing proficiency in Russian language and to develop their knowledge of Russian history, politics, culture, and society. The academic year, semester, and summer programs provide approximately twenty hours per week of in-class instruction in Russian grammar, phonetics, conversation, and cultural studies at Moscow International University, the Russian State Pedagogical University (Gertsen Institute) in St. Petersburg, and the KORA Center for Russian Language in Vladimir. One day per week of the academic program is set aside for local cultural excursions.
AAC&U is the leading national association concerned with the quality, vitality, and public standing of undergraduate liberal education. Its members are committed to extending the advantages of a liberal education to all students, regardless of academic specialization or intended career. Founded in 1915, AAC&U now comprises 1,200 member institutions-including accredited public and private colleges and universities of every type and size.
Submission Deadline: Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Acceptance Notification: Early October
Abstracts are invited from undergraduate and graduate students for 15-minute presentations including, but not limited to, relationships between and among language, linguistics, and their many applications:
* American Sign Language
* natural and artificial languages
* extinct and endangered languages
* speech pathology and hearing sciences
* language and cognition
* theoretical and applied linguistics
* structural, semantic, or phonological analyses
* comparative grammars
* discourse/text analysis
* applications in rhetoric, the arts, and the humanities
* applications in academic, cultural, and sociological constructs
The Generation 1.5 project was launched in 2006 by a small group of researchers at the University of Michigan (U-M) English Language Institute (ELI). We are collecting texts from writers who are just starting their academic careers at the university, specifically 1st and 2nd year undergraduates, who speak a variety of Korean or Chinese at home. Ultimately, the aim of this data collection is to provide an empirical basis for developing recommendations for writing/language instruction specialized for the Generation 1.5 group.
"In 1996, five Comparative Literature majors, with financial support from Comparative Literature, founded an annual undergraduate journal of poetry and visual art dedicated to the publishing of student writing in languages other than English, with facing page translation.
The mOthertongue journal is now in its 13th cycle, and enjoys support from the Arts Council and the Alumni Association as well as Comparative Literature, and is still edited by Comparative Literature majors, who celebrate each publication in a public reading and reception attended by audiences of 50 or more"
"A program of United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program will offer intensive summer language institutes overseas in thirteen critical need foreign languages for summer 2010. The on-line application for CLS Program awards is now available, and the deadline to apply will be December 18, 2009. "