Proposal for:
Project Title:
Author:
Institution:
Fellowship Period:		 ACS Teaching with Technology Fellowships
Celles qui ont fait la France ("The Women Who Made France")
Patricia L. Pecoy
Furman University
Spring 2000
Course Description: This proposal is being presented in conjunction with the development of a new course in French to be offered for the first time in the summer of 2000.  The course (French 95, which is the numerical designation for a special topics course at Furman) is entitled "Celles qui ont fait la France" ("The Women Who Made France").  Interdisciplinary in nature, the course will integrate aspects of social, political and cultural history, literature and the arts in order to explore the role of women in the development of France.  The course description as submitted to the Curriculum Committee reads as follows:
 
Survey of the literary, artistic and cultural production for, by, and about the women who shaped France.   Using literary texts and authentic documents, we will consider the saints and sinners, the prostitutes and nuns,  the rebels and reformers who contributed to modern France. 

The course has already been approved by the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures.  It has also received approval to be included on the list of courses that may be counted towards a concentration in Women's Studies.  I am awaiting final approval by the Curriculum Committee, which I expect will be forthcoming by the middle of November.
Why Now? I am applying for a technology fellowship for the spring of 2000 for two reasons:
  1. The course is a new course to be offered for the first time in the summer of 2000.  I will be spending much of this year preparing materials for the course.  In the event that there is insufficient enrollment for the summer course, the Department of Modern Languages has expressed interest in integrating the course into the regular rotation of upper level literature courses.  One way or the other, this course will eventually see the light of day!
  2. I am on a "sort-of" sabbatical this year.  My responsibilities as director of the Language Resource Center made a "real" sabbatical almost impossible.  So, we have worked out a compromise.  I am "on duty" in the LRC on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  I am "on sabbatical"  on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays all year.  I will be able to spend some time throughout this year preparing materials, but the major thrust will come in the spring term of 2000.  So, although technically I am applying for the fellowship in the spring term, I will actually be working on the project throughout the year.
Technology: My courses are always anchored by an accompanying web site.  This course will not be an exception.  The web site will include the usual course description page, "hot" syllabus, online reference tools, links to e-texts and online resources used in the course, visuals, e-mail, and a threaded discussion group.

However, I would like to go beyond the typical web site in developing this course by preparing multimedia materials to accompany it.  At this point, it appears that putting these materials on a CD-ROM will be the most practical approach.  I would like to s...t...r...e...t...c...h both myself and my students in the use of technology to enhance learning by incorporating the following elements:
 
  1. PowerPoint presentations will be used to enhance lecture materials.
    • The presentations will include recorded narration
  2. A hypertext timeline will be produced for historical chronology.
  3. Annotated texts will be developed for reading comprehension (all readings will be in French).
    • It is likely that I will use Glossmaker (or a variety thereof) to produce these annotations.
    • One possibility is to have students produce annotations of short texts (poems, authentic documents, etc.) that would add to the growing database of accessible materials for the course.
  4. NetMeeting will be used for peer editing of compositions using the revision tools available in Microsoft Word.
  5. RealSlideshow presentations will be developed for independent study of cognate material.
  6. Viewing guides will be developed for the four films scheduled to be shown during the course.
    • I intend to incorporate video clips into these guides along with annotated viewing instructions and review materials
    • The guides will be html forms which can be submitted to the instructor via email.
  7. Tutorial materials will be developed using authoring software.
    • At this point, I am leaning towards Authorware, but I may ultimately be talked into using Director for this project (Jim Elmborg is working on me!).
  8. Online assessment
    • Online assessment is one of the major thrusts of this project.  I would like to experiment with various ways of using online testing for this course.  This is one area in which I have absolutely no expertise and will be grateful for any and all assistance.
    • As a corollary to online testing, I will also be using a new grading program (ThinkWave Educator) which allows password protected student access to grades via the Web.

Institutional Support: As the Director of the Language Resource Center at Furman University, I find myself in the unique position of having access to a first-rate multimedia facility that has available all the hardware and software I will need to develop this project.  For this reason, I am not applying to be a Fellow In Residence at the ACS Technology Center.  Through the Furman-Wofford Mellon grant, I am also able to call upon the expertise of Jim Elmborg, the cybrarian we share with Wofford.  In particular, he has offered assistance in working with Director to produce the multimedia tutorials, should I opt for that authoring software rather than Authorware.  In dire straits, Kevin Treu is also here at Furman, but I will not abuse his time with trivial questions; I will call upon him only if absolutely necessary.  Still, he is a wonderful resource person to have at one's elbow.

Through the various Mellon grants Furman has received, the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures is also a part of the Project 2001 consortium and as such, we have access to the workshops at the Center for Educational Technology in Middlebury, Vermont. The week of October 28, I will be participating in a week-long workshop at Middlebury designed to teach advanced video and graphics skills.  I will be able to put these skills to good use in the development of the course materials.

I am a veteran of many ACS workshops (Beginning, Intermediate, Advanced Web workshops with Kevin Treu; Pilot Program in Language and Technology at Millsaps under the direction of Robert Quinn and Jim Purser (two years); Technology and Course Design Pilot Program at Birmingham Southern (two years), directed by Susan Hagen).  The training I have received in the course of these workshops will be invaluable preparation for my current project proposal.
Evaluation Evaluation of this course will be done on two fronts:
  1. A departmental course evaluation form will be used to have the students evaluate this course.  This is standard procedure in our department.
  2. Because of the extensive use of technology in my courses, I have also developed a technology assessment tool for evaluating specifically the technological aspects of my courses.  This tool will be refined to incorporate the new elements I hope to introduce.
Finally, I will go out on a limb here and ask to have my head cut off.  For years, in various ACS workshops, we have been talking about introducing some sort of peer review of online/multimedia materials.  I will offer myself up as a sacrificial lamb and submit my materials to an ACS review board, if such can be constituted. As requested in the application procedure text, I would include a "brief guide to assist colleagues."   It might make for an interesting test case and I might be a good person to start with since I am already a tenured full professor and have nothing to lose on the tenure/promotion front.  I could benefit greatly from the critique and ACS might finally set the wheels in motion on constituting such a peer review board!!
How will this project enhance teaching and learning? The interdisciplinary nature of this course lends itself very well to the introduction of multimedia materials that will enhance foreign language teaching and learning.  Visual support (through online visual materials, video clips, PowerPoint presentations, Realslideshow presentations) provides the learner with a valuable support tool for language acquisition.  For the listener, audio materials (narrated presentations, slideshows, etc.) increase exposure to the spoken language that is not always possible in the classroom.  Previous student evaluations of courses which incorporate technology have consistently stated that online access after class hours is the most powerful learning tool available for reinforcing language acquisition.  For the instructor, multimedia tools for teaching provide order, organization and logic.