About+MLC+2006

=**Institute Purpose**=

To empower participants to //initiate, implement, and sustain change on multiple levels// (individual, departmental, program, district, university, local community, state, regional, or national) regarding a facet of foreign language education that is personally meaningful to them (such as curriculum development, classroom instruction and assessment, program advocacy and articulation, professional development, or policy issues).

=**Institute Objectives**=

To develop, refine, and synthesize professional knowledge, skills, and expertise in focus areas that are likely to affect the foreign language profession in profound ways over the next decade;
 * To equip and empower foreign language professionals (already tapped as mentors and leaders in their schools and organizations) to assume some of the roles and responsibilities of a retiring cadre of national leaders;
 * To strengthen professional networks of associations through collaboration;
 * To promote "cross fertilization" in experience and expertise through mentoring;
 * To explore the nature of compelling experiences, extract key concepts and principles of design from them, and apply them to educational contexts;
 * To experiment with the use of new technologies and their applications (such as aggregators, blogs, cyberportfolios, digital storytelling, machinima, podcasting, RSS feeds, social bookmarking, vlogging, vodcasting, and wikis) as powerful pedagogical tools;
 * To acquire research-based techniques for initiating, implementing, and sustaining positive change in a wide variety of contexts.

=Focus Topics=

The focus topics for the institute were selected based on current national trends and initiatives in economics, politics, policy, and research that are likely to affect the foreign language profession in profound ways over the next decade. Initially, participants will be grouped by their expertise in these areas: Community Outreach, Differentiated Instruction, Professional Development, Program Development and Teacher Preparation.

=Content Area Groups=

Each content area group will work together from a distance prior to the institute to develop a one-day workshop designed to bring the most current thinking with respect to its topic to the other participants. In each group, that work will be facilitated by new technologies and coordinated by the designated group facilitator.

media type="custom" key="273229"