FALL 2008 / Volume 8 - Issue 1
 | Technology erases boundaries between students, other countries
BY CHRISTA SKILES
relatively inexpensive piece of software, Web camera, microphone and high-speed Internet connection: These common tools are the building blocks for a unique partnership of education and technology that is bringing together students in Kent, Ohio, with residents, business representatives and cultural leaders in the small town of Paimpol, France.
Thanks to the use of modern videoconferencing equipment, participants in Dr. Richard M. Berrong’s French composition and conversation classes at Kent State University are not simply studying foreign language. Instead, they are regularly practicing their dialogue and listening skills with native French speakers in Paimpol through a series of cyber meetings scheduled in the course syllabus.
Paimpol, the adopted home of Berrong, a professor of French in the Department of Modern and Classical Language Studies, is located on the northwest coast of the country, in Bretagne, or Brittany. With strong Celtic ties, Paimpol has a culture and language that is unique from other parts of France, although Berrong’s students carry on conversations strictly in French. Once the center of a very successful cod fishing industry, 19th-century Paimpol was immortalized by author Pierre Loti in his popular French novel PÍcheur d’Islande (Island Fisherman), which students read in the composition class.
avid Cunningham, ’99, manager for educational technology and distance learning in the university’s Division of Information Services, knew of Berrong’s connection to Paimpol and his interest in using technology for instruction. James Raber, ’02, a senior information technology support analyst, had previously coordinated multiple international videoconferences with locations including Australia, England and Taiwan. The two spoke with Berrong about the possibilities of using new technologies to connect his Kent State students to France.
"When we first started doing videoconferencing roughly 10 years ago, getting out of Kent State was difficult, expensive or both,î says Raber. ìWe were still learning the technology, and the technology itself was in its infancy, so it got a bad reputation. Now, the platform is more robust, more flexible and more reliable."
The equipment expenses have dropped significantly as well. Cameras that once cost more than $9,000 are now only $700.
The trio admits to hurdles at the beginning. The Cybercommune in Paimpol is funded by the government, so resources were limited. The six-hour time difference was also a consideration.
But trials Berrong conducted while in Paimpol during the summer of 2007 resolved these challenges. The videoconferencing project was piloted during Fall Semester 2007 with the French composition class, and then incorporated into the core curriculum for the spring 2008 French conversation course.
The result is an unqualified success, Berrong says. "Brittany is a completely different world from Kent. And the more real I can make it, the better,î he explains. "If I were to make huge generalizations, the college generation today is far more visual than the college generation of my era. This technology lets me make a text visual."
In the conversation course, the rewards are even more apparent. "This is going to be a huge change in the way my French conversation classes are conducted," he adds.
"Students actually sit there and talk to French people in the class rather than practicing conversation with other Americans, which is artificial."
Paimpol, France; Paimpol is located on the northwest coast of France, in Bretagne, or Brittany.
"I can feel myself getting stronger at French," says Melissa Teel, also a French major. "I feel more confident each time we talk to them. I love it."
"From my perspective — I’m a future teacher — this just opens all kinds of windows for me . . . and doors," Elder adds. "This is a really good way to learn. I wish when I was going through university the first time that this opportunity had been available."
Berrong admits that the time and planning required for projects of this type might be reasons more educators have not embraced the opportunities technology offers for an enhanced classroom experience. "It takes work. I could teach this course the way I first started to teach it — you came to class, you had a book. I could still be doing that.
"I teach completely differently from the way I did when I started," Berrong says. "I’ve been a college professor for 30 years now. This is why I get up in the morning, because I can do new things."
aber and Cunningham concur that the technology is underutilized. "From an educational point of view, connecting to France weekly is one of our most venturous projects to date,î says Raber. ìPrimarily, the technology has been used to allow students on Regional Campuses to take classes offered on other Kent State campuses. I could see this being used more, not just in foreign studies, but in physics, to allow students to take a virtual field trip to a lab in Switzerland to see the world’s largest superconducting magnet, or to allow departments to form relationships with international schools."
"I don’t see a discipline where this couldn’t be used," Cunningham adds. "At its simplest, anyone could bring a guest speaker into his or her classroom when previously it may not have been viable. I think you could find an application for this technology in every field. And because of advances in the technology, we are more likely to find others with this capability.
"Since we upgraded the system two years ago, we’ve connected to 15 different countries, and sometimes multiple locations within a country."
While Berrong appreciates the effort and ongoing maintenance needed, to him the outcome is greater than the sum of its technical parts. "For me, this is still bordering on magic. To be able to let my students talk to people in France and see them — it’s not just electricity and computer chips. There’s an element of magic about it."
For more information, visit www.kent.edu/magazine.
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