One problem with this 'comprehensive' approach is illustrated by the case
of Modern Languages.
The TELL Consortium produced a range of 26 commercial materials, but each
institution is only likely to find a subset useful. For example, not all
the five languages supported (French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and
Italian) may be taught in the institution, and not all the language
teaching methodologies (e.g. communicative, grammar-based, translation,
interpreting) may be supported by the institution. The TransIt-TIGER
Authoring Shell is a very useful piece of software, but if no-one in your
institution teaches languages via translation, it's money down the drain.
So I would certainly suggest contacting departments to see what might be
useful. However, a further complication is identifying where in your
institution language teaching takes place - and it may be several places.
Language Departments, Language Centres, Business Schools, Education, Adult
& Continuing Education, for example, may all have differing needs.
Jenny
At 10:02 25/02/99 GMT0BST, you wrote:
>I remember at one meeting, someone quoting a figure for what it
>would cost to buy in all the TLTP materials, to provide the
>backbone of a central library of software for an institution. Could
>that person post the estimate ? I'm interested not just in what it
>would cost, but in whether it was considered a worthwhile thing to
>do.
>Have any other institutions attempted to buy in bulk, and what has
>been their experience ? Did you aim for a comprehensive purchase
>of all materials, or did you ask departments to suggest what might
>be useful ? Did you hold materials centrally, within departments, or
>available on-line ? Were they ever taken off the shelf ?
>
>All comments welcome,
>
>Steve Brydges
>
>====================================================
>= Steve Brydges [log in to unmask] =
>= CAL Group Tel 0115 9515151 ext 18995 =
>= University of Nottingham =
>====================================================
>
>
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Jenny Parsons
Information Officer, CTI Centre for Modern Languages
Consortium Manager, TELL Consortium
University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX, UK
Tel 01482 465872
Fax 01482 473816
Email [log in to unmask]
Web http://www.hull.ac.uk/cti
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