Teachers are known for their creative and innovative approaches to using new technologies in the field of language teaching and learning.

Specifically, new developments related to the internet have opened up a kaleidoscope of opportunities for educators to explore in this multidimensional forum. As the creator and chef of Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab, I have been repeatedly asked about the development of my own site, and how teachers and students can benefit from its resources. I will answer some of these questions here.

What is Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab and how did it get started?
While living in Japan several years ago, students constantly asked me how they could improve their listening comprehension skills on their own. For them, accessibility, cost, and authenticity were key issues in the selection of such materials. Lamenting the fact that I could not provide a solution for them, I turned to the Internet as a means of finding the self-access options they needed.

I quickly discovered the dearth of material in the area of listening comprehension, primarily because of the difficulty of creating manageable sound files that would be easy to access, download, and use efficiently. Seeing that this could be an area to explore, I started experimenting with a variety of audio technologies and decided on the use of streaming audio and video as the key to opening the window for language learners. I launched my site on January 1, 1998, and its purpose has been to provide students with opportunities for improving their listening comprehension skills. The Lab is a large collection of online listening activities which can be used for both autonomous and classroom instruction. These include both audio and video sections which are divided up into several different parts, both by content, language function, and learner proficiency level (easy, medium, difficult, and very difficult). Most learning activities contain a self-grading test with supporting pre-listening, listening, and post-listening activities, a listening transcript, dictation exercises, and an explanation of the answers.

The most popular parts and best features
Most visitors have commented that they enjoy and want to see more of the long listening quizzes using streaming audio, particularly those focusing on English for academic and specific purposes. Users feel a great need to learn to use English as a vehicle to greater expression and comprehension in the areas of work or study that they are engaged in. The features visitors really enjoy deal with my use of newer synchronized multimedia integrated language (SMIL) which allows for the combination of both audio, video, and text at the same time in the viewer window. In other words, you can watch a video clip and see the captions of the spoken text on the same screen. The multidimensional and multisensory nature of this technology appeals to a variety of learning styles that many of our students bring with them into our classrooms. Another important element has been the addition of vocabulary lists for each quiz as well as the use of dynamic HTML to create popup windows (see top right) which appear when selected words are chosen when the mouse cursor passes over them. What makes this an essential element is that students can learn new lexical items while self-testing their listening comprehension skills.

Advantages to having materials online verses traditional cassettes or CDs?
In the beginning, I saw several merits to developing materials, particularly audio-related resources, for language learners:

Interactivity: Online materials combined with certain types of scripting (JavaScript and CGI) can making learning more interactive. Rather than just reading text and scrolling down the page, visitors can interact with the page by making selections via mouse clicks and then receive instant feedback (like with quiz pages);

Access: 24 hours a day, seven days a week;

Platform Independence: Web pages are not platform specific, so you can use web-based materials on many types of computers, allowing students the ability to communicate with other computer users in remote locations in real time. Especially in EFL situations, students enjoy this interaction that takes them beyond traditional classroom boundaries;

Development Speed: Online materials can be updated, modified, and enhanced very quickly. Writers don't have to lament mistakes and then wait for them to be corrected in the next addition of a textbook;

Multisensory Pages: The combination of text, sound, and visuals seeks to accommodate varied learning styles. This redundancy of these elements improves language retention and learning.

Is the site really all free?
Since the beginning, the only purpose I had was to give back something to the teaching and learning community, and a free online lab seemed to be a great way to spread the message of goodwill. My wife calls me the "poor, well-known Randall Davis" because I definitely haven't gained financially from it. Well, that's if I don't count the dozen cookies one student game me as her way of saying thanks. I have financed the entire site, and I hope to continue to do so. It's not cheap, but life's worth isn't measured by what you earn, but by what you give.

Creating multimedia on the web?
Good news! You don't have to be a nuclear scientist to start creating your own pages. Okay, it does require some knowledge of HTML and scripting, but I can assure you that the materials that I have created were done on a shoe-string budget with very little know-how from the beginning, and the learning curve is quite gradual. Many visitors assume that I work in a sound studio equipped with the latest technological gizmos and gadgets, but I started things on a Macintosh Classic.

Basically, the bare-bones essentials for working with audio are: (a) a computer with a sound card, (b) audio recording and editing software, and (c) a microphone. Although there are many options and prices for these components, I suggest going with the basics for starters and expanding from their if you catch the audio bug. My online tutorials go into this in more detail. Just rest assured that you can do a lot at a minimal cost. Creating a quiz involves coming up with a good script, writing the test items and accompanying pages, modifying the HTML and JavaScript, creating the sound file(s), adding sound effects, encoding to RealMedia files, passing the quiz by my evaluation panel (my children and colleagues), fixing problems, and uploading to the server. Is all of the material original?

The content for all of the quizzes and accompanying exercises was created by me, so I take all of the credit or blame for any mistakes. I based my selection of topics and language functions for the quizzes on familiar topics for everyday living. I must recognize, however, the help many of my colleagues provided in tweaking the ideas to best suit the needs of language learners.

Finding time and energy to create and maintain the Lab?
Since the beginning, I have always considered this just a fun hobby, and it has always been my intention to create something for free that visitors could use 24 hours a day no matter where they lived. I might spend between eight and 12 hours to create one quiz. And while the creation process can be demanding, the only reward I really enjoy is hearing from students or teachers that they learned something from it. I must thank my family and give credit to many colleagues for their support.

Future directions
One of the greatest needs in developing web pages is to make them more interactive and which require more participation from the viewer. At present, most listening material on the Web requires little user involvement, especially when it comes to the production of language from the learner. I see the further development of multidimensional audio and video presentations on the web as a key technology that will punch a massive hole in current limitations of text-only sites. Audio players like the RealAudio Player and Microsoft's Media Player are mostly limited to playing audio only. New products will allow users to record their own audio tracks.. With this in mind, I plan to add exercises that will require student input and interaction.

Creating Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab has been a real pleasure, and I hope teachers and students enjoy using it as much as I do.