| 7 • The Switch from Ink-on-Paper to CALI as Chief, Then Only, Mode of Delivery | last modified: |
Goethezitat: "Ein guter Mensch, in seinem dunklen Drange, ist sich des rechten Weges wohl bewusst."
Expanded versions of Wie, bitte? supplementary software in use by 1995:
PSU labs (not networked!), on Macs (PCs didn't always have sound); few students had their own computers. A recent miracle: 10MB hard drives (a box the size of a modern laptop)
Major revision of "Wie, bitte?" - fewer chapters, continued simplification of grammar, addition of project-based learning. Move from publisher copies of textbook to locally-produced copies.
By 1995: Most of "Wie, bitte?" converted to CALL: dialogs, grammar, glossaries, most media. Authoring system: HyperCard (and our computers now had COLOR!!). Here's a sample from the Spanish version:
Soon thereafter (beginning 1996): Have to go cross-platform as Windows becomes dominant and more students have their own computers. Method: move ("degrade") to Adobe "Acrobat" (PDF) delivery, using Acrobat's management of page / screen layout AND its navigational and multimedia tools. PSU acquires CD-ROM burner ($2000, blanks $10). Most distribution in PSU labs or, for students with computers, on "Zip" drives or from the new "Internet" (phone-modem connections). Some students thought I was the inventor of PDFs.
Next stage (ca. 1997): Browser based as a self-contained website (html & javascript). Can again use variables and if-then structures. Final version of this method: 2005 (agonies of browser compatibility, arcane coding). Distributed both as on-disk standalone and as internet-based interactive program.
Current stage: Using authoring program "Runtime Revolution", which let me revive much of the old HyperCard material, but in an up-to-date and cross-platform environment. Distribution as on-disk standalone, but not as internet-based interactive program (though with update files available for download).
The DSAP disk has "Wie, bitte?" and several specialized modules.
In the Bigger World around us (language programs, but also many other areas): the tense relation of ink-on-paper and CAI (computer-assisted instruction): textbook prices, effective learning, etc. etc.