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Barry Pett, Chairman of the CPIT Foundation addresses guests at the recent launch of CPIT's Language Self Assess Centre.
CPIT made the following press release about the project.
CPIT Language students will benefit from a recent CPIT Foundation Trust grant which has funded the refurbishment of the Language Self Assess Centre (LSAC) and the acquisition of new digital learning technology for the Digital Language Laboratory.
The new developments are important components of The Language Project directed by Dr David Gough (Dean of Health, Humanities and Science), which is part of the Deans’ Digitalisation strategy currently being implemented at CPIT.
The entire Language Project received $75,000 of funding from the CPIT Foundation Trust enabling the developments of the LSAC and Digital Language Laboratory to take place.
Established as an independent charitable trust in 1984, the CPIT Foundation works in partnership with CPIT to help fund innovative projects that can “make a difference” to individual students and staff, to CPIT and the wider community.
The Foundation’s latest grant has allowed for the implementation of new digital learning technology to be used by tutors and language students. The new learning tools replace existing analogue, tape-based equipment which have become increasingly impractical and costly to repair.
“The LSAC sorely needed upgrading,” says David.
“The LSAC represents a link between the classroom and the real world, where individuals can find a place to develop their own learning plans for their own purposes. Now, thanks to the CPIT Foundation, we have the resources (computer programmes, internet, printed and digital resource equipment) and the setting to support this development,” he says.
The Digital Language Lab has one computer for tutors and new audio panels for students and is predominantly used for listening and speaking exercises. As part of the development process, language tutors for the Schools of English, Chinese and Japanese have been trained on how to use the new technology with the aim to improve the quality of their students’ learning experiences.
The computer-based facilities in the LSAC allow for critical skills of listening and speaking, and the integration of learning with on-line delivery and computer-based, language-learning applications. In the LSAC, students study on their own with the help of the centre’s resources and with the support and guidance from teachers and learning facilitators. The resources include books, audio CDs, DVDs, CD-ROMs and other language computer programs, language learning websites including applications as podcasts and audacity.
“The digitalisation of the equipment in the Digital Language Lab and the Language Self Access Centre, together with the changes in CPIT's IT policy for 2009 (which allow students to access the internet for free), will enhance students’ possibility of accessing resources for autonomous language learning,” says Kerstin Dofs, Manager of the Language Self Access Centre.
“The digitalisation is also corresponding very well with the current development in the field of technology enhanced language learning. We are, for example, supporting students’ use of podcasts for listening practice and the use of recording programs like Audacity for pronunciation. Nowadays, almost all books for language learning come with audio CDs, CD-ROMs or DVDs, therefore, to be able to offer a supportive environment for utilisation thereof is invaluable,” she says.