New England Classical Journal

CLASSICAL COMPUTING

DASHER:Foreign Language Authoring System

DASHER Foreign Language Authoring System. Basic package (Single Author): $150; Campus License (Multiple Authors and Networks): $400. CONDUIT Educational Software, University of Iowa, Oakdale Campus, Iowa City, IA 52242; phone (319) 335-4100 or (800) 365-9774.

The DASHER Authoring System was developed by James P. Pusack and Sue K. Otto and CONDUIT at the University of Iowa. The system has been programmed specifically for Macintosh; the literature accompanying the software makes no mention of the possibility of future editions for IBM compatibles or Apple IIe. DASHER requires a Macintosh with 512K available memory and System 6.0.7 or later (it is compatible with System 7.0); a hard drive is strongly recommended. A Latin Courier font, included in the program, must be installed onto the desktop using the Font/DA mover in the Macintosh Systems file.

DASHER is designed to allow foreign language teachers with only rudimentary computer literacy to create their own exercises in any of seven languages: English, French, German, Italian, Latin, Portuguese, and Spanish. These exercises may be written in various formats, among which are substitutions, multiple choice, scrambled sentences, transformations (e.g. changing a sentence from active to passive), fill in the blank, and translations. In creating these exercises, a teacher is able to group similar types of questions in 'chapters' within 'books'; the 'chapters' and 'books' may be named however the teacher desires. For each 'chapter' the teacher writes out the directions (e.g. 'Change tbe verb in each sentence to the pluperfect tense'), the questions, and the correct answers. When a student works on the exercises, the program compares the student's answer with the correct answer and indicates any errors with symbols: dashes for incorrect characters and arrows for unnecessary characters. The student is then able to correct the errors as indicated without changing any correct characters. There are some generic comments, such as 'Watch for accents'; otherwise there is no guidance to assist the student in arriving at the correct answer (e.g. 'Check case and number'). Since the program is intended for seven languages, such lack of guidance almost seems inevitable but could be a source of frustration for the student. Fortunately, the answer can be revealed to the student (how soon it is made available is determined by the teacher), and the student must tben type out that answer before proceeding to the next question.

CANE has received only the demonstration disk for this program; consequently, any review of the program is quite limited. The sample Latin book, designed by Judith Lynn Sebesta, does provide a variety of formats for drilling Latin grammar: sentence completion with relative pronouns, changing adjectives from the positive to the comparative degree, questions and answers employing eo and place constructions with the accusative, cued sentence construction with place constructions, multiple choice with present active and passive infinitives, transforming verbs from a given tense into the pluperfect, and creating verb forms for completing sentences. It appears from the accompanying literature that DASHER does not come with any other pre-written exercises and that the program is intended to give free rein to individual teachers to design exercises as they wish. The demonstration disk also provides the opportunity to create 'books' with other types of exercises, complete with model questions and answers. The directions for creating these 'books' are clear and easy to follaw. A major advantage of DASHER is the ease of writing exercises according to one's own textbook and pedagogical needs. Other advantages, although not available on the demo disk, are mentioned in the literature: alternate correct answers (e.g. gender in perfect passive forms), how soon in a question the student has access to the correct answer, repetition of questions incorrectly answered, type of responses to correct and incorrect answers (including the teacher's own spoken comments), grading students' work, and even adding graphics to accompany the exercises. The program comes with a 250 page spiral-bound manual to assist the teacher.

It would appear from the demonstration disk and the literature that DASHER offers the teacher a very large degree of flexibility to customize exercises, and thus this program could very well be a godsend for those teachers who are frequently frustrated by the lack of meaningful exercises found in their textbooks. A further benefit is that the program, unlike other programs designed to accompany specific texts, would not become outdated as a result of any possible textbook revisions. In addition, since DASHER supports seven languages, it is advisable that other language teachers preview the program as to compatibility with their needs. Having a single program to serve the needs of all the languages in a school would certainly be another godsend in light of budgetary constraints placed upon many of the schools in the region.