|
|
|
Vol. 38, No. 18 |
 |
1-18-2005 Hagerty Hall begins new lifeA Jan. 10 grand re-opening ceremony unveiled the results of a five-year renovation project that transformed historic Hagerty Hall into a modern facility for the College of Humanities, offering a virtual study abroad experience for those studying language, literature and world culture. A truly national-level facility, Hagerty Hall is a unique intersection of language, culture, technology and the global environment, said Dean John Roberts. “Hagerty is the single most important initiative that the College of Humanities has undertaken to date. It symbolizes our commitment to the internationalization of the Ohio State campus and will enable us to promote and expand that mission as never before,” Roberts said. Melinda Nelson, assistant executive dean of the Colleges of the Arts and Sciences, helped oversee the renovation project. Her excitement has added an exclamation point to the many tours she has conducted through the facility as work neared completion. “We’re delighted that the building we now have is going to support our faculty and students in their teaching and learning endeavors in an unprecedented way,” Nelson said. “We are anticipating that Hagerty will become the university’s primary international portal.” While exterior changes to the building were minimal, the interior was gutted to make way for the new World Media and Culture Center (WMCC), which integrates the teaching of foreign languages and cultures with the latest multimedia technologies. Professor of Chinese Galal Walker and Professor of French Diane Birckbichler are credited with conceptualizing the WMCC. The center’s unique features include self-paced, student-directed language instruction, state-of-the-art classrooms and development labs for faculty and student projects, a video conferencing center, and a new 250-seat auditorium. “The World Media and Culture Center will dramatically enhance traditional learning. Here the major media of the world will increasingly inform the study of languages and cultures at Ohio State,” Walker said. Added Birckbichler, chair of French and Italian and director of the Foreign Language Center, “To connect successfully with the Global Village, we must have ready access to the languages spoken around our world, and a clear understanding of the need for respect for the cultural differences at play.” In addition to the WMCC, Hagerty Hall also is the new home of the departments of Comparative Studies, East Asian Languages and Literatures, French and Italian, Germanic Languages and Literatures, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures, and Spanish and Portuguese, the Foreign Language Center and Humanities Information Systems. A cornerstone of the WMCC is the Crane Café, a dining spot where students can view international broadcasts on seven wall-mounted LCD TVs, connect with friends overseas via the Internet, or sip an espresso while watching a favorite soap opera, sports or news broadcast in the foreign language they are studying. Nelson said it offers the potential for students at varying levels of a language to become immersed in conversation and culture. For example, Japanese learners can converse with Japanese speakers while listening to a program originating from Tokyo. “Unless students actually go to Tokyo, they can’t get any closer to Japanese culture than in the Crane Café,” Nelson said. Special features “We need two such facilities to meet our instructors’ needs for developing their own courseware and for capturing international media and transforming it into classroom activities,” Nelson said. Other features at Hagerty include: • The SBC Individualized Language Learning Center is a facility for self-directed language learning in Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Russian and — in the near future — Korean and Portuguese. Pioneered at Ohio State, individualized language learning allows students to learn a language at their own pace and on their own time. Students can elect to receive their study materials electronically at locations on campus, at other institutions, in their offices, or at home. The 15 meeting rooms in the center allow students to meet with instructors for a variety of purposes, from testing to tutoring. • The Cornetet Courtyard, the only interior courtyard on the Oval and an ideal place to enjoy a snack while practicing foreign language skills, serves as a performance and presentation space. Power and data hookups will allow for video showings, PowerPoint presentations and Internet access. • The Kermit L. Hall Videoconferencing Room provides the technology for 20 people to videoconference anywhere in the world. OSU students of French and university-level students in Tunisia can meet via videoconference to discuss films in both French and English; a Chinese distance education course will be offered to Kent State University students, with plans to offer Chinese and Japanese to Ohio high school students; and humanities also will continue a distance learning initiative that links fourth-quarter OSU Spanish students with their fourth-year counterparts at New Albany High School to study Spanish language and culture via videoconference. • An experimental classroom accommodates courses that are based primarily on the use of technology. The room will enhance, for example, a major media course offered the past three summers for high school teachers to learn about media literacy, media of the countries whose languages they teach and about how to develop online learning modules. • The OIT Student Computer Center convenes students for a variety of purposes: to listen to pronunciation exercises, surf the Web for class projects, e-mail foreign language e-pals, read online versions of newspapers and magazines in the languages they are studying, work on CD-ROM programs they use in their language classes, and work on essays using foreign language characters they don’t have at home. History
|