French: A mobile-learning resource for "The Book in Middle French"

Author: Charlie Mansfield

© Mr Charlie Mansfield, University of Plymouth

Format:

• 17 x 2k pages of HTML
• 14 JPEG images at approx 208 pixels width

Access to materials

• Go to "The Book in Middle French"
• or download winzipped files (Winzipped, 539 Kb)
• To cite this study pack: Mansfield, C. (2014) Le Livre - The Medieval Book, Plymouth

Introduction

This development project was to design an introductory set of electronic exercises for Year 2 undergraduates approaching medieval literature for the first time. The aim of the study pack is to introduce the five key components of the study of books and French writing in the late medieval period (ca. 1400- ca. 1450). These are:

1. Codicology
2. paleography by transcription
3. lexicometry
4. modern re-translation and finally
5. contextualisation of the place of the book in medieval society using literary analysis and close-reading of the miniatures

The main technological aim of the project was to experiment with and design web-based self-study materials that would perform on the new smart-phones and PDAs now being used by students at the University of Edinburgh. It is part of an initiative called 'life-wide learning' that aims to deliver materials for study on the move.

The Project

The work to develop a teaching and learning resource for use in the module: Literature and Culture in Medieval Europe (LCME) at The University of Edinburgh was completed by Charlie Mansfield between January 2005 and December 2005. LCME is a second-year undergraduate module offered within French although the students are drawn from a range of Modern Language degree programmes, including French, Italian, Spanish and German. In Scottish Higher Education terminology it is a 20-credit course at SCQF Level 8 (an explanation of The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework is given in Appendix A). Contact time is 2 hours per week for 22 weeks.

Aims

Essentially, emerging technologies such as XML along with a range of freely-available software packages for text analysis now offer the medievalist a valuable set of tools for palaeography, codicology and lexicometry. The aim of introducing these technologies to undergraduates is to provide training in the use of the type of software that they may go on to use in further scholarly work whilst also providing the learner with a conceptual space for visualising and rehearsing the medieval text whilst acquiring Middle French vocabulary.

The reusable learning objects provide a phenomenological approach to the material existence of the book as it appeared in the early 1400s in France . The aim of the objects is to communicate the state of book- and script technologies at that time. With the advent of printing in France in 1455 our period of study from around 1400 to 1450 is a useful and exciting time. It represents the state-of-the-art of the relationship between the book and the written text just before the sweeping changes of an emerging technology, printing. Lessons can be drawn from the time to re-apply today as we experience new technologies in text-handling, communications and text-processing. More specifically, the learning materials aim to pose questions to stimulate creativity, to help learners to critically approach assumptions that we hold almost unwittingly and thus may be stifling our own thinking and development today, for example:

• Could the written letters of our alphabet have evolved differently if printing had not intervened?
• What other artefacts, besides the written alphabet and the book, do we use daily from the 1400s?
• Is our written and printed language a medieval tool or a modern one?
• Could the book be another shape?

To summarise this is an extract from the course's 'Learning Outcomes':

'To equip students with an ability to read with confidence literary forms and codes from a distant period and compare cultural artefacts from different kinds of societies. To relate cultural production to the background society and traditions from which they have sprung.'

At the heart of the materials is a package of web-pages in which I use HTML, JavaScript and Dynamic HTML (DHTML) to present the learner with a series of interactive exercises for use on the mobile smart-phone or PDA. This approach builds on e-learning materials and pedagogy that I first published in Bowerman, Mansfield & Sewell (1997) and later extended for a JISC-funded project with Bristol and Kingston Universities (2001).

The set of materials which totals 31 re-usable learning objects is attached to this Case Study report for use by others interested in working with mobile learning as an additional channel for self-study.

Achievements and lessons learned

One of the major difficulties was designing web-pages and images that display well on the narrow screen of the Sony-Ericsson P900- and older, P800 series of mobile smart-phones, as well as on PDA and XDA screens. Finally a solution did evolve by using the TABLE width settings and slightly reducing the font sizes in the page.

A very exciting and useful by-product of this page-width reduction is that the web-pages were ready without further modification to be loaded into our VLE, which is WebCT here at Edinburgh. I anticipate that they will load just as easily into BlackBoard, and would be interested to hear from colleagues in French if they re-use my materials in this or other environments.

Evaluative data

Status of the Case in terms of formal or informal evaluation. If evaluated, by whom? If just informally evaluated, this needs to be stated objectively. This section presents an evaluation from the point of view of the learner/teacher/end-user.

Not evaluated this academic year.

Future plans

Now that we have software for converting MP4 films into a format suitable for display on smart-phones and PDAs, we would like to add short filed resources to the materials. I am also developing similar resources for students to use off-campus in French Language Literature for Canadian Studies.

References

Laidlaw, J. & Mansfield, C. (2005). 'Designing a Digital Version of British Library Harley MS 4431', Louvain-la-Neuve, UCL.
http://hdl.handle.net/1842/771

Mansfield, C. (2000). 'What is the virtual - the writings of Pierre Lévy' in The Web Journal of French Media Studies Volume 3, Number 1, October 2000, ISSN 1460-6550.
http://wjfms.ncl.ac.uk

Baetens, J. & Mansfield, C. (1999). 'L'intégration des outils télématiques stimulant l'éducation interculturelle et la recherche sur les arts au sein d'un groupe d'universités européennes' in Marquet, P. (ed) Internet-Based Teaching and Learning (IN-TELE-98) Frankfurt.

Mansfield C., McNeill T. (1997) 'The Design & Integration of Web-Based Resources in the Modern Languages Curriculum' i n ed. Keith Cameron Multimedia CALL: Theory and Practice Exeter, Elm Bank Publications, pp. 119-125 ISBN 0950259594

Mansfield C., McNeill T. (1997) 'Baudelaire for Net Surfers: French Studies and the Internet' in French Studies Bulletin Number 63, Summer 1997, pp.10-12. ISSN 0262-2750. University of Hull.
http://hdl.handle.net/1842/699

Bowerman C., Mansfield C., Sewell K. (1997) Using JavaScript to simulate formative assessment questioning in web-based open learning materials in The European Journal of Open & Distance Learning Norway. ISSN 1027-5207
http://hdl.handle.net/1842/701

Mansfield C., McNeill A., Stobart S. (1996) Knowledge Pathways (Les Chemins du Savoir), in Proceedings of the 5th European Distance Education Network Conference Ed. Judy Frankl, Beryl O'Reilly, EDEN England. pp.178-179 ISBN 0749273615

Mansfield C. (1996) Designing Outcome-driven Independent Learning Materials for the Worldwide Web in Online Educa Berlin - International Conference on Technology Supported Learning eds. Jaeger, Marks & Stahl, ICEF GmbH, Bonn, pp.133-136. ISBN 3925144099

Mansfield C. (1995) The POETICA Project, Computers & Texts, The CTI Newsletter Oxford , December 1995, Number 10, pp. 6-7. ISSN 0963-1763 Shelfmark Main Library Store 1 (SERIALS) Per.41 Com. Direct Link to Article in Edinburgh Research Archive online
http://hdl.handle.net/1842/700

Appendices

Download: Appendix A: The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (Word doc, 66Kb)

Related links

The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework
www.scqf.org.uk

Communiqué: web-based study materials for the teaching and learning of French language, literature, area and cultural studies
http://eserve.org.uk/tmc/

Charles Mansfield, French, Plymouth University, profile page 
http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/staff/cmansfield

Downloads

livre.zip