Upper division foreign language courses have been reintegrating translation into the curriculum. Several recent projects have used Appropedia as a platform for translation exercises. (See Language education-based translation.) This page documents some of the benefits of using Appropedia as a platform for translation in language courses.

Benefits[edit | edit source]

A wealth of good source material[edit | edit source]

One benefit comes from the nature of the source material. Traditionally, course-based translation has tended to use critically regarded literary content for source material. Advantages have been that such content is culturally relevant and noteworthy. But there are disadvantages as well. Often the material is somewhat dated, the original language may not reflect current usage and the works are often too long to translate in their entirety. Also, well-known content often has existing translations, which has two implications. First, some students might use those translations, gaining a potentially unfair advantage. Second, if the work has already been translated, students will not feel that their effort is of any real value.

Appropedia's content focuses on the topics of environmental sustainability and global poverty, and sharing ideas via open licensing. These are topics of enduring global concern (witness the UN's Millennium Development Goals), and each culture has its own rich perspective on these topics. In past translation projects, instructors have begun by engaging their students in discussions of environmentalism, economics and licensing of intellectual property, and explored the cultural differences relating to these topics. Engaging in today's issues highlights the contrasts between culture more effectively than discussing older works.

In addition, there are numerous articles that need to be translated, and the articles are generally of a size that matches well to translation by one or a small number of students. Students are able to select an article that appeals to them.

The translations are valued[edit | edit source]

Another benefit comes from students knowing that their work can make a difference. Appropedia's articles are about practical ways of improving lives and sustaining the earth. There is a growing demand for these ideas. Appropedia's software automatically maintains a count of the number of times each article has been accessed. That number is shown at the bottom of each page. (If you're viewing this text at Appropedia, you can see the count for this page at the very bottom of the page.) Students can see which articles are viewed most frequently and use this information to guide their choices. Students typically develop a strong sense of ownership of their translations, which they can check up on and maintain well beyond the end of a course. In this sense, these translation opportunities are a gift that keeps on giving, providing an enduring "carrot" that will help students remain engaged in the language they are learning.

The platform is well-suited to course-based work[edit | edit source]

There are several aspects of the Appropedia site that make it a great platform for coursework.

  • Appropedia's software has built-in edit tracking capability, which makes it easy for an instructor to see who wrote which words. Simply click on the "history" tab at the top of any article and you can see a time-ordered list of all the edit sessions for the article. It shows who made the changes and when they were made, and also provides the ability to view the specific changes that were made during that edit session. If you are viewing this text at Appropedia, you can view the edit history of this page by clicking the history tab at the top of this article.
  • Every article has a "talk page" associated with it, where readers and co-editors (and instructors, if they wish) can leave comments and carry on conversations about the structure and content of the article. If you are viewing this text at Appropedia, you can view the discussion ("talk") page for this article by clicking on the "discussion" tab at the top of this article.
  • As an online resource, Appropedia can easily be used in a laboratory setting, or in independent homework situations, or a mix of both.

Resources are available to support you[edit | edit source]

  • Repeat Dr ter Horst's readiness to be a reference.
  • Some instructors that have used Appropedia as a platform for course-work have uploaded their course outlines here. (Check with Dr ter Horst.) (Provide media links to pdf or powerpoints.)
  • Appropedia volunteers are eager to partner with you and your class to answer any technical or procedural questions.
  • A growing community-managed "technical phrase language translations" helps students with specialized terminology
Retrieved from "https://www.appropedia.org/w/index.php?title=Appropedia:Service_learning/Languages&oldid=694726"

Discussion[View | Edit]

  1. Need to check with Nell about uploading a course outline
  2. Need to establish a list of volunteers that are ready to act as partners
  3. Need to create some targeted "how to" content
    1. How to register and create a user page(useful for anyone... does Lonny have this already)
    2. How to help your students choose articles?
      1. Appropedia should begin a wishlist of articles that readers would like to have translated
    3. Begin the "technical phrase dictionary"


Du nouveau - Écoles et Traduxio[edit source]

This is a French copy of what I posted few weeks ago on Ekopedia. I will add a sumarize below


Bon il faudrait mettre cette page à jour considérant les avancements avec Appropedia. Et aussi le fait que je voudrait faciliter l'apport-l'aide des écoles de langues qui demandent de toute manière à leurs élèves de traduire des textes... Alors pourquoi pas les nôtres... Cela sera plus valorisant pour les étudiants.

Le petit nouveau aussi c'est Traduxio... Je mets ici en copie notre récente discussion.

http://web.archive.org/web/20191118141427/http://traduxio.hypertopic.org//

From: Olivier Chaput <olivier...ospilots.nl> 

   Subject: "Ach, why not"
  
   Funny, the subject was added randomly... But yeah... Why not... Is actually the question.

   My name is Olivier Chaput and I came across your project thanks to Philippe Lacour.
   I am one the admin of Ekopedia.org and member of Appropedia.org.

   These two evolving encyclopedia could, I believe benefit from your work.

   So I am here just poking to get some attention and maybe initiate a collaboration.

   In any case I wish you the best. Good luck with your project cause it is a great one.

Leur réponse

bonjour

J'ai rencontré Olivier au Hub de Bruxelles hier : cet espace de butinage social dont je vous ai parlé.

Ses projets me paraissent interessants et il me semble que Traduxio pourrait envisager une collaboration avec ekopedia ou appropedia. Il ne s'agit pas de contenu culturel ou académique (point de départ de notre réflexion), mais c'est une excellente occasion de dépasser les limites initiales de Traduxio pour répondre aux besoins de la communauté des ONG (et affiliés, disons du tiers secteur).

Olivier, comme je te l'ai dit, notre projet en est au stade de sortie du protoype: nous avons donc besoins de testeurs, et ne pouvons pour l'instant prétendre fournir un service parfait (ni même presque parfait), de l'ordre du clé en main. Des initiatives comme les votres sont sûrement déjà très exigeantes, en terme de temps, et il faut que ce point soit clair: essayer Traduxio en ce moment sera plus pour vous un facteur de ralentissement que de gain de productivité, dans la production de contenu multilingue. Notre but est toutefois de vous faire gagner du temps, à moyen terme, disons à partir de l'automne prochain. Si nous nous engageons pour collaborer, il faut que nous soyons conscients de ces contraintes.

Voici pour le cadre. Il me semble que si nous en convenons, nous pouvons passer à la question des principes généraux: les objectifs respectifs sur lesquels nous pouvons trouver une intersection (pour nous: tester l'outil "en situation réelle"; pour vous?). Ensuite viendrait la phase d'ajustement des modalités: là commence l'aventure proprement dite, mais j'ai pleine confiance que nous puissions surmonter les difficultés qui ne manqueront pas de survenir.

Bien cordialement philippe

Les suites[edit source]

Mettre les Appropediens sur le coup et aussi avoir qq volontaires pour encadrer l'expérience... Je pense que cela pourrait être pas mal sympa. Votre avis?


Traduxio[edit source]

http://web.archive.org/web/20191118141427/http://traduxio.hypertopic.org///index/about Traduxio in a nutshell : 

   * free
   * open source
   * web based
   * collaborative
   * focus on cultural (non commercial, non repetitive) texts.
   * developed with innovative technology (new Translation Memory device)

Traduxio is acomputer assisted tool and a online workbench intended to promote translation through and on the Web.

Designed by the non-profit organization Zanchin, and developed with the technical support of the Tech-Cico laboratory of the University of Technology of Troyes (France), Traduxio employs the most innovative solutions to foster cultural exchange and the preservation of the world’s linguistic diversity.

This new collaborative software, directly inspired by Web 2.0 spirit, has the vocation to become a major asset for current efforts to foster cultural exchange and the preservation of the world’s linguistic diversity.

In the long run, the tool should also encourage the diversification of language learning and a reappraisal of translation activities, especially in the field of research-making.

Its potential has already been recognized and Traduxio is being currently supported by the Unesco and the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie.

To understand how Traduxio actually works and what it can do, check the tutorial. Traduxio, applying original solutions to translation 

   * Whereas traditional Translation Memory device are limited to two languages (source/target), Traduxio enables the comparison of different
versions of the same text. A translated text is actually not considered an independent segment, but a version of the initial text in another language.
   * Traduxio offers a better management of the translation context, thanks to a contextualized classification of the source (i.e. classification of
the text according to the history, genre, author, etc.).

Traduxio to whom ?

As a mechanism of general interest, grounded on a logic of collaboration and mutualization (gradual feeding of the database), Traduxio is easy to use and available to a very broad audience: 

   * It can be used by translators, researchers, teachers, students, and all those who use language and need translation for broadening the impact of
their work and activities.
   * Likewise, NGOs, international organizations, research institutions, think tanks, schools, stage performers reviewing translations for a theatre
play, and all those who may come across a need for translation are Traduxio’s potential users.

Translating with Traduxio: Legal and Practical aspects 

   * Traduxio as a workbench

Traduxio is not designed to perform any publishing or editorial functions, but rather to work as a digital workbench and network connecting users/translators worldwide. Translations carried out using Traduxio are thus not intended to be published or printed by the web-service itself – although authors may personally chose to do so. 

   * Traduxio as a “commons”

All content provided by users are integrated to the Translation Memory, which is the foundation and the real differential of the tool. Following the logic of mutualization on which it is based, Traduxio’s ultimate goal is to become a “commons” (like Creative Commons or Wikimedia Commons) on a non-profit basis. 

   * Protecting translators’ work while promoting the ‘common good’

The non-commercial and ‘communitarian’ dimension of the tool do not imply that the resulting translations will belong to the public domain. On the contrary, each translator will be given the possibility to tag its creation with a legal license of his choice (e.g. Creative Commons license). The range of rights’ attribution goes from the public domain to full copyright (in which case, a ‘fair use device’ shall be used for quotations from the database). Users will be however encouraged to choose at least an attribution license.

Attribution of authority over translations is indeed important since the re-utilization of “memory matching” depends on the identification of the author of a given semantic creation. Frequent users could thus benefit from a form of public and non-financial recognition (a system of “points”), which eventually might turn into a sort of professional reputation.

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