Author Archives: [email protected]

About [email protected]

I retired as a professor at Brigham Young University (BYU) in 2016 where I was Associate Professor of French and Instructional Pyschology & Technology. I arrived there in 1992 after my retirement as a Lieutenant Colonel from a 20-year career in the US Air Force. Most of that time was spent on the faculty at the US Air Force Academy (USAFA), during what I call my first career. For over forty years I have been creating interactive video applications for supporting language. The lab at the Language Learning Center at USAFA engaged in ground-breaking efforts conducted within a mentored learning setting. The lab’s work involved the development of technologies and instructional design strategies for the use of video in the language acquisition process as well as with architectures that support online learning and facilitate learning about learning. I have a BA in Political Science from BYU, an MBA from the University of Missouri, and a PhD in Foreign Language Education and Computer Science from The Ohio State University. At the Air Force Academy I was a key member of the team that designed what was then the largest interactive videodisc-based learning center on a college campus. When I retired from BYU I directed the ARCLITE Lab, which was involved in the creation of online learning materials for language learning as well as video and interactive technologies for learning.

WordPress: From the Cloud to Raspberry Pi

I didn’t call it a blog, but I started my first Web site on a NeXT Cube on Thanksgiving Day, 1995. The computer was on loan from the US Air Force Academy, and when a new BYU colleague told me … Continue reading

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LLMs for Writing Movie Scripts

As a simple test of various Large Language Models, here is a simple prompt that I submitted to three different systems. Note the intentional lack of details, which was a test to assess each model’s ability to come up with … Continue reading

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Google’s Bard on Language Acquisition and Large Language Models

Prompt Based on your understanding of the ideas and theories of Stephen Krashen write a short presentation that Krashen might give on the possibilities offered by large language models. Bard’s Response Good morning. My name is Stephen Krashen, and I … Continue reading

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Language Acquisition and Large Language Models

I have been wondering what language teachers and researchers are saying about the possibilities for using large language models for language acquisition. I found one reference to Krashen and ChatGPT: A glance at Stephen Krashen’s Twitter timeline revealed nothing, so … Continue reading

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Resilience in the Gospel

Sacrament Meeting,Sharon 4th Ward, Orem, Utah26 June 2022 I am so very grateful for Annie! A former missionary in France commented in a note to me recently that he remembered very well attending Gospel Doctrine lessons that she taught in … Continue reading

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Cancel Culture is a Detriment to Society

I have had it with “cancel culture!” It is not that it has gone too far, it is that it should never have existed in the first place. Consider Wikipedia’s explanation: “Cancel culture (or call-out culture) is a modern form … Continue reading

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Status for COVID-19 Measures

Leaders around the world are taking additional steps to combat the COVID pandemic. Our friends in Europe began a couple of weeks ago, now the state of Utah is getting into the action. Luckily, the measures taken here by Governor … Continue reading

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Reflections on my Experience with the History of Computing

During a recent discussion with my grandson, Kenneth regarding his upcoming course on Linux, I got to thinking about how my involvment with computers has followed the history of computing. That prompted to me to Google some of the details, … Continue reading

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Former BYU Professor Misuses Previous Association

A letter from Frank W. Fox addressed to “Arizona Mormons” is being circulated on social media and around the country. It has been picked up by various news outlets in the West such as the Salt Lake Tribune as well … Continue reading

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COVID-19 Around the World

Click on the link below to interact with a chart from an interesting site. It is possible to look at what is going on with COVID-19 around the world with various lock-down strategies. Mouse over the country names to see … Continue reading

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