St Monica's Language Lab Project

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St Monica's Language Lab Project

• St Monica's Language College
• Headteacher
• Mr Frank McCarron
• Language College Director
• Mr Eric Farrell
• The Learning Machine
• Ian Lynch
• Fensystems
• Michael Brown

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Long-term Goals

• To provide a free software lanaguage learning
  environment to all schools.
• To better understand the issues involved in
  developing FLOSS applications in schools.
• To develop applications useful to schools that
  are free and open for all to use.

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Project Background

• St Monica's RC High School in Bury, achieved
  specialist school status in September 2003
• Researched language laboratories from suppliers
  such as Tandberg
• Found the cost is around 1000 a seat just for
  the language specific things
• Realised a modern language lab is effectively a
  general purpose computer network with some
  specialised software

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Functions required

• Internet access
• Computer desktop environment and productivity
  tools in the target languages
• Instant switch between languages between and
  within lessons
• Digital audio recording and playback
• Teacher observation and control of pupil
  desktops, ability to listen into pupils and speak
  to them.

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Cost Analysis

• Approximately 20,000 per room for language
  specific software, teacher control etc by the
  traditional route - 2 rooms so 40,000.
• Computer hardware, furniture etc are additional
  costs and so that element is common and can be
  ignored.
• Cost of developing installing and setting up
  language specific systems so far lt 5000
• Next year approx 20,000 required to develop
  teacher pupil communication systems using VNC.

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What does it look like?

• Some pictures taken from one of the new language
  teaching rooms

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System features

• Runs Windows XP locally on clients to ensure
  curriculum software can run saves about 100
  per seat if we can get rid of this dependency
• Runs Linux thin client and medium client from low
  cost rack mount servers
• Uses OpenOffice.org in required language
  localisations on KDE desktop with suitable
  localisation
• Uses Audacity free software for audio recording
  and play back.

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Development issues

• Main missing feature is teacher pupil
  communication over the network.
• Will cost around 20,000 to develop but then
  everyone can have this free.
• Does it make sense to spend tens of thousands in
  every school when a project affordable by one or
  two schools can produce the same function and
  then keep development open to anyone who wants to
  make it so?