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November 25, 2009

不良研究所鈥檚 Michaelides invited to present innovative teaching tool at conference

An associate professor of foreign languages at the University of Louisiana at Monroe is scheduled to show an interactive technological tool for teaching French that he developed with assistance from Dr. Mike Beutner of Educational Leadership and Counseling.

Dr. Chris Michaelides will deliver a presentation entitled, "Click Hear: Creating Audio-Embedded PowerPoint Slides for your Students," for the annual Louisiana Foreign Language Teachers Association conference in Baton Rouge in February.

Michaelides developed audio-embedded PowerPoint files for an online second-semester French class, which received favorable reactions from students who commented the files made the online class more "intimate鈥� and 鈥渃omfortable.鈥�

While the tutorials were developed for an exclusively online environment, they can just as effectively supplement resources within a traditional classroom format, according to Michaelides, who used them for a traditional French course this fall.

Michaelides said his typical design for a tutorial slide includes a brief (3-5 minute) audio lecture on the material presented, and examples with click-to-listen words and phrases, and exercises with clickable audio and screen popup text feedback.

鈥淓mbedding sound within a slide is far more practical than linking to audio located outside the actual presentation file,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 have embedded as many as 70 audio files in a single PowerPoint slide.鈥�

When the screen appears, students click on arrows to hear French and move their mouse over diamond icons to see "pop-up" translations in English or correct answers in French.

鈥淚nstructors can easily develop their own multimedia content as audio-enhanced presentations because the content is based in PowerPoint with the use of slightly-modified MP3 audio files,鈥� said Michaelides.

鈥淚 do believe that this is a revolutionary way for teachers to actually develop simple-to-use audio-enabled content with the most common technology application used in education: PowerPoint,鈥� said Beutner.

For a working example of the Powerpoint study guide for French students visit: .

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