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U N I V E R S I T Y O F P I T T S B U R G H |
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Volume XI, No. 3 |
March 2006 |
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U N I V E R S I T Y O F P I T T S B U R G H |
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Volume XI, No. 3 |
March 2006 |
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Blackboard Allows Consistent Foreign Language ContentBy Cindy Lu, CIDDE Instructional Technologist Multilanguage support in recent versions of Blackboard allows faculty to offer consistent online content in any of seven languages. In addition to English, the default language for menu buttons, Blackboard allows instructors to convert menu buttons to German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, or Spanish (see Figs. 1 and 2). East Asian and other languages will be supported in Blackboard 7, to be adopted by the University in the future. This tool is useful to faculty who enrich their online course content and who do not allow English to be written or spoken in their courses.
Explaining the usefulness of this tool, teaching fellow Rob Mucklo, Hispanic Languages and Literatures, comments, “The proficiency of my Spanish 1 and 2 students in the language is somewhat limited, and even more so when it comes to technology. I translate the buttons for several reasons: (1) to provide further exposure to the language (2) to provide a real context for vocabulary (3) to use student knowledge of standard CourseWeb button arrangement and cognation of terms to aid in learning. “On my course evaluations students have commented that they like the way I speak to them entirely in Spanish and use Spanish wherever possible. They’ve also mentioned that they like having CourseWeb available to them for the course. I post all of the day’s activities, handouts, and homework on CourseWeb (all in Spanish); so if they’re absent, they have it all at their fingertips.” Lina Insana, French and Italian Languages and Literatures, comments, “We in the Italian program have made a very strong commitment to maintaining the target language in all of our courses. This means that, when possible, instructors’ out of class interactions with our students take place in Italian, whether we’re at a departmentally sponsored event like the ‘Tavola Italiana’ (weekly conversation hour) or in more casual settings like the hallways of the Cathedral of Learning. “Recently, our instructional activities have begun to spill out of the classroom space in more and more interesting ways: not just into physical corridors, but into virtual spaces like CourseWeb, as well. It is important that this commitment to an Italian-only experience be exclusive and total, and details like the ability to change the language (or ‘Locale’) of our CourseWeb settings contribute to this goal. In this way, students entering a course’s CourseWeb site can feel that they are still in an Italian-only space. This function also makes for a smoother management of the course within traditional walls: if I know that my students know the Italian terms for ‘Syllabus’ and ‘Digital Drop Box,’ I can use them in the classroom to direct my students’ usage of the CourseWeb site. Students have reacted very well to this standardization and appreciate the acquisition of new and important vocabulary in such a contextualized, practical way.” To change menu buttons to a language other than English, instructors should go to the Control Panel and select “Settings,” then “Set Locale.” (As with any Blackboard application, faculty can delete and add buttons to suit their content.) Instructors should be aware that when a “locale” is selected in Blackboard, the entire control panel text changes to the language of that locale. In addition to setting the locale, there are other ways to include non-English content in CourseWeb. For example, text typed in any language in a Microsoft Word document can be cut and pasted into Blackboard. To use a particular language in Microsoft Word, instructors may select “Control Panel,” then “Regional and Language Options.” Click the icon that appears in the lower right side of the screen to activate text to be typed in the desired language. European language keyboards are similar to those of the United States, with the addition of certain characters and accents. On a U.S. keyboard, other characters can be inserted by clicking on “Start,” then “All Programs,” “Accessories,” “System Tools,” and “Character Map.”
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A newsletter devoted to the support of teaching and learning at the University of Pittsburgh |
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