Nobles Technology - Digital Learning Center - History and Rationale
Barbara Sawhill, a member of the Language Department faculty, came back from the spring 1997 NERALLD (The New England Regional Association of Language Lab Directors conference held at Boston University and told the group planning the new lab that she thought they really ought to look at what she'd just learned about digital language labs. Perhaps the biggest difference is that, rather than a single tape being played on a central machine controlled by the teacher, in a digital lab the audio or video clip is a digital computer file being controlled separately by each student with Apple's "QuickTime" software. Thus, a student who didn't hear or understand a segment can "rewind" and play it again without affecting anyone else in the class. In addition, students sitting at "extra" machines could be viewing or listening to different "tapes", which would make it much easier for students to make up missed material.
Those differences alone were enough to get the group planning our lab to agree that they should take the time to explore this new option. After gathering more information and visiting some digital facilities, most notably the one at Phillips Academy, Andover, the group became increasingly intrigued by the potential of a digital facility. One very telling factor was the realization that nothing in a digital "language lab" is actually specific to the teaching of language. The hardware (Macintosh computers) and the software (QuickTime and Apple Network Assistant Toolkit from Apple, SuperMacLang from Harvard and Dartmouth Universities, SoundEfects 0.9.2, shareware from Alberto Ricci, and digitizing software such as Adobe Premiere) were all standard applications - many intended for other uses and "re-purposed" for their different roles in digital labs - and could be used to create and deliver lessons in History, English, or any of the sciences as easily as in languages. This led us to the realization that what we were contemplating should more properly be called a "digital learning space" than a "language lab".
In May of 1997, the "standard" design for digital language labs featured a very fast, very powerful - and very expensive - "video server" as the centerpiece. At the time Andover was designing its lab, there was only one firm making computers that could handle the task of individually delivering separate "streams" of audio and/or video to as many as thirty different users. By late May of 1997, however, a number of computer companies and consortia were attempting to get into this market. After attending a demonstration put on by one of these consortia as a part of the "due diligence" urged by our Business Manager, Bill Chamberlin, two of the members of the "design team" came away concerned about the obvious "seams" between the firms which were collaborating to bring their new video server to market. (It was more than a little alarming to have the reps from the participating firms "huddle" to answer each of our questions. It was particularly alarming when their "huddle" seemed to be transformed into an auction or an bazaar market when we asked them about prices. We could hear one rep saying to the rest "Well, we could provide the __ for $__" and another rep saying "We could do the __ for $___")
While talking among themselves after this presentation, it occurred to Barbara Sawhill and Christopher Smick (and Craig Evans, Technology Director of the Winsor School) to ask "What does the video server do, anyway?" The short answer is, of course, "It serves out the video (and audio) files to the students' computers". In fact, that seemed to us to be the long answer, too. The video server has nothing to do with controlling the playing of the clip - each individual student does that at his or her computer with Apple's QuickTime software - nor does it have anything to do with producing the clip; that must be done at a "digitizing station" - a powerful computer connected to various input sources such as a videocassette player and an audio tape player, and running digitizing software such as Adobe's Premiere. The video server seemed to be a very expensive way of distributing files which had already been digitized to the students' computers.
Knowing that the video server was such an expensive item that after buying theirs, Andover had only been able to install a few student computers the first year, the next question occurred to us almost immediately - couldn't we distribute the digitized files to the student computers by some other method? While a video server would indeed allow delivery of "video on demand", if we could find a way to get the files into the student computers before the class began, the students should then be able to play "their" individual copy of the video in a way which would give them exactly the same experience as if the file had been delivered by a video server. At this point, we were thinking that we were talking about temporary "workarounds" which would let us use the funds we had on hand to renovate the space, install all the student workstations and install the network cabling so we could get the lab up and in full operation from the autumn of 1997. We planned to "limp along" with our workarounds until we could raise (and justify) the funds to add a video server. (We also thought that waiting two or three years would allow the video server market to "shake out".)
The next thought - having the lab manager walk around to each machine with a floppy disk - was replaced almost instantly by a much better idea. Andover had already shown us how they have "re-purposed" Apple's Network Assistant Toolkit - a software package intended to help network administrators run their networks and provide help to users - using it to provide the communication between teacher and students which in analog labs is provided by separate, dedicated wiring. Knowing that "ANAT" also has a tool for distributing software, we realized that we could use the same software package to perform two major functions.
Feeling slightly dizzy, we had difficulty believing that it could really be as simple as it began to appear. After all, if it were this simple, why hadn't someone else had these same ideas? At this point, Nobles "deliberate, then substantial" way of approaching educational technology issues came to our aid. At a meeting with the group charged with designing and implementing the language lab, Barbara and Chris outlined what they had learned and how they thought we might be able to work around the need for a video server for the first few years. They indicated that they'd feel more comfortable about going forward along that line if they could experiment with it first. Dick Baker, the Headmaster, and Elisa Goldsmith, the Language Department Head, gave that idea their full and generous support - even though it was very close to Graduation, and taking the time to explore whether or not "running a digital lab without a video server" would work almost certainly meant that the lab - whether digital or analog - would not be ready for the opening of school in September.
In the midst of preparing for the demolition of the first floor of the Schoolhouse and setting up for the summer programs, Chris and Barbara set up an experimental "mini digital lab" in one of the Science Department's classrooms, using four of our existing Macs to emulate a "teacher's station" and three "student workstations". By early August, Barbara was satisfied that we could indeed provide at least 80% of the functionality of a digital language lab without a video server, so we ordered 24 computers and began the renovation and wiring in the Fine Classroom, selected to become the new "Digital Learning Center". We were able to begin offering some services to language classes during the second or third week of school, and added steadily to the services which the lab provides after that. The lab has been in full operation since about Thanksgiving, hosting each language class once a week, a schedule which means that the lab is in use virtually every period of every day.
After several months of operation, we are beginning seriously to question whether we will want to buy a video server down the road.
Caveats or "Some of the important things we learned while doing this . . ."
In late April of 1997 the school was poised to order an "analog" Language Lab - so-called because it uses standard analog video and audio tapes, played from a central console through monitors located on the students' desks.
FAQ | "Humanware" | Hardware/Software | "Specialware" | Computer Courses