Ils sont fous, ces Français: A multimedia reading application
 
  Jeg har gennem mange år fulgt Robert Fischer og hans arbejde. Robert Fischer er præsident for CALICO, en amerikansk søsterorganisation til EUROCALL.

Foredraget af Robert Fischer var også dette år inspirerende, han har arbejdet med et multimedia materiale til franskundervisning. Materialet bruges sammen med et kommercielt system som supplement. Robert Fischer har udarbejdet en sund pædagogisk ide hvor kursisten først stifter bekendtskab med en tekst med det ene formål at besvare et par enkle spørgsmål. Efterfølgende arbejdes der trin for trin med mere dybdegående indsigt i tekstens budskab og de enkelte udsagns kulturelle betydning

 
 

 
   
   
  Robert Fischer s abstract:

Ils sont fous, ces Français: A multimedia reading application

The presenter will demonstrate a multimedia reading application currently being developed by means of the Gemini authoring system. This on-going ct s seojoct ol b sedttn olly Platt's book, Ils sont fous, ces Français 'French or Foe,' which underscores the cultural differences that Anglo-Saxon business types often encounter in France. The reading application presents the text of the book replete with multimedia annotations and systematic comprehension checks. The annotations (textual, graphic, and audio) focus on lexical, syntactic, and discourse-level structures in the text that may cause problems for reading comprehension. The comprehension checks (using several question formats available in the authoring system) are designed to encourage students to use appropriate reading comprehension strategies as they read the text.

The Gemini authoring system underlying the application enables developers to create sophisticated instructional designs with relatively little programming effort. Its authoring tools consist of making (and modifying) predefined templates that can then be organized in a variety of configurations; no scripting or other computer coding is required. The presenter will discuss the pedagogical features of the application's instructional design and illustrate the use of the authoring tools used to make that design. In addition, the tracking system included in the authoring system allowed the developer to collect student-use data to determine the extent of use and the relative instructional value of these pedagogical features. The final form of the application will contain most of Platt's book and will be distributed on CD-ROM and the Internet.